Post-9/11, Post-Katrina, Post-Gay Vampire Poppy

Today’s “Book World” in the Post was a little sparse, a condition to which I have sadly resigned myself. The most interesting bit was a short (part of a ho-hum roundup of recent mysteries) review of Poppy Z. Brite’s Soul Kitchen. Some time ago, in graduate school, a friend handed me a Poppy Z. Brite paperback. I read it in little fits in my kitchen (with the blinds drawn–it had one of those horror/fantasy covers that would make someone carrying a trashy romance around look sophisticated) as a respite from weighty literary theory texts and found it not to my taste. Even though the book wasn’t my thing, I got the strong sense that Poppy was interesting and, er, bright, an impression long since reinforced by posts at her blog. I have not read her series of New Orleans semi-mysteries, but I think that I will place the first in the queue.