Liquor, a novel by Poopy Z Brite
I love all of Poppy Z. Brites books! She is a writer from New Orleans whose first books were about gay vampires and such, lots of goth. Then she started writing novels about the restaurant biz in New Orleans and she is so totally dead on about it.
The novel, LIquor is about two line cooks from the Ninth Ward, who became friends in solid fourth grade and when they hit puberty or somewhere around there, became lovers. During the course of the story, they progress from being two talented line cooks, to becoming the owners of a very popular new restaurant in New Orleans.
I have to tell you; this book hooked me in in many ways.
There was the whole thing about the restaurant biz in New Orleans; there were many characters in the book that while not totally lifted from true life, where very close to the people that I knew and worked with over the years. And I knew guys like the two main characters; as line cooks, you knew that if you hired one of them, you also hired the other one. They were local boys and they showed up to work together and always got along, watching each other's back. At the end of the day, they went home together. They didn't seem to be "gay" in the way that most people were gay at the time; they were just two guys that had a very close relationship... they were lovers, just kind of quiet about it. I knew line cook couples like this; they didn't go out to the gay bars much, you would hardly pick them up on your "gaydar", but the signs were unmistakable if you looked closely. They would never deny their relationship if they were asked directly about it, but otherwise... But if you did anything to hurt of of them, the other was there to defend to the end. It was sweet and beautiful.
In the course of the story, the kitchen talk and life was true, and I felt a bit of nostalgia for that and there were a lot of parts that as I was reading, I felt this rather intense feeling of grief and yearning for the New Orleans I once lived in.
Then there were all the parts where the characters are moving about New Orleans, (pre-Katrina) and doing the normal things that I miss so much like going out to eat and getting Sno-Balls and stopping in at neighborhood bars for a drink and the gossip.
Oh, lots of hooks! The restaurant biz, two lovers opening a business together, (as Bill and I did) and the Big Easy. I started reading the second book, "Prime" and I had to put it down for a while; it was getting to be too much emotionally.
Fortunately, I got a call a few days ago from two of my friends, John and Liz, who are still in New Orleans and it was just the tonic for my uneasy yearning.
I told some of my story to Liz and she said that if she had been away as I had, she might be feeling the same way, but as she has been in New Orleans since October after Katrina, she thought that I would be as ready to leave as they are now.
The city is just too dangerous: way too much violent crime for the 265,000 people who live there now, (out of 550,000 that used to be there). 60% of the water that is pumped into the water system with it's 100 year old pipes is leaking out; cost to repair is in the billions and time to finish the job is perhaps twenty years. The levees and pumps and such that have been patched don't even come close to protecting the city from even a glancing blow from a wet Cat 2 storm. There are not enough doctors or hospitals beds. The politicians are perhaps more corrupt than ever. Just last week one of the guys that everyone thought was the cleanest resigned in disgrace. The national press, (the NYTimes and Time Magazine, look at last weeks cover!) have been scathing in their reports and no wonder. There are still enormous parts of the city that are almost totally empty and barren.
And just one little turn of a storm in the Gulf could wipe away most of what's been rebuilt and possibly most of what's left. Why could this have happened? Mostly because we have interfered with the delta lands; cutting channels across the wetlands for ships and oil drilling which resulted in the wearing away of the delta and the marshlands and barrier islands that used ot absorb most of the power of the big storms. Most of this barrier will soon be gone; in maybe ten years, the Gulf of Mexico will be just a few miles away from the French Quarter and that will be the end.
Even after the call from my two friends, I still feel a yearning for New Orleans, but I know that it's a phantom feeling; the city that I loved and lived in and remember so fondly no longer exists. And the parts of it that are still there are greatly endangered.
And this all made me miss Bill again, even after all these years. I guess it's not so much that I miss him now, (it's been along time and although I can replay so much of our lives together, it's replay...) it's that I miss what we had together and I want some more of something like that again.
Perhaps that's a good thing.
durlx 08/19/2007
The novel, LIquor is about two line cooks from the Ninth Ward, who became friends in solid fourth grade and when they hit puberty or somewhere around there, became lovers. During the course of the story, they progress from being two talented line cooks, to becoming the owners of a very popular new restaurant in New Orleans.
I have to tell you; this book hooked me in in many ways.
There was the whole thing about the restaurant biz in New Orleans; there were many characters in the book that while not totally lifted from true life, where very close to the people that I knew and worked with over the years. And I knew guys like the two main characters; as line cooks, you knew that if you hired one of them, you also hired the other one. They were local boys and they showed up to work together and always got along, watching each other's back. At the end of the day, they went home together. They didn't seem to be "gay" in the way that most people were gay at the time; they were just two guys that had a very close relationship... they were lovers, just kind of quiet about it. I knew line cook couples like this; they didn't go out to the gay bars much, you would hardly pick them up on your "gaydar", but the signs were unmistakable if you looked closely. They would never deny their relationship if they were asked directly about it, but otherwise... But if you did anything to hurt of of them, the other was there to defend to the end. It was sweet and beautiful.
In the course of the story, the kitchen talk and life was true, and I felt a bit of nostalgia for that and there were a lot of parts that as I was reading, I felt this rather intense feeling of grief and yearning for the New Orleans I once lived in.
Then there were all the parts where the characters are moving about New Orleans, (pre-Katrina) and doing the normal things that I miss so much like going out to eat and getting Sno-Balls and stopping in at neighborhood bars for a drink and the gossip.
Oh, lots of hooks! The restaurant biz, two lovers opening a business together, (as Bill and I did) and the Big Easy. I started reading the second book, "Prime" and I had to put it down for a while; it was getting to be too much emotionally.
Fortunately, I got a call a few days ago from two of my friends, John and Liz, who are still in New Orleans and it was just the tonic for my uneasy yearning.
I told some of my story to Liz and she said that if she had been away as I had, she might be feeling the same way, but as she has been in New Orleans since October after Katrina, she thought that I would be as ready to leave as they are now.
The city is just too dangerous: way too much violent crime for the 265,000 people who live there now, (out of 550,000 that used to be there). 60% of the water that is pumped into the water system with it's 100 year old pipes is leaking out; cost to repair is in the billions and time to finish the job is perhaps twenty years. The levees and pumps and such that have been patched don't even come close to protecting the city from even a glancing blow from a wet Cat 2 storm. There are not enough doctors or hospitals beds. The politicians are perhaps more corrupt than ever. Just last week one of the guys that everyone thought was the cleanest resigned in disgrace. The national press, (the NYTimes and Time Magazine, look at last weeks cover!) have been scathing in their reports and no wonder. There are still enormous parts of the city that are almost totally empty and barren.
And just one little turn of a storm in the Gulf could wipe away most of what's been rebuilt and possibly most of what's left. Why could this have happened? Mostly because we have interfered with the delta lands; cutting channels across the wetlands for ships and oil drilling which resulted in the wearing away of the delta and the marshlands and barrier islands that used ot absorb most of the power of the big storms. Most of this barrier will soon be gone; in maybe ten years, the Gulf of Mexico will be just a few miles away from the French Quarter and that will be the end.
Even after the call from my two friends, I still feel a yearning for New Orleans, but I know that it's a phantom feeling; the city that I loved and lived in and remember so fondly no longer exists. And the parts of it that are still there are greatly endangered.
And this all made me miss Bill again, even after all these years. I guess it's not so much that I miss him now, (it's been along time and although I can replay so much of our lives together, it's replay...) it's that I miss what we had together and I want some more of something like that again.
Perhaps that's a good thing.
durlx 08/19/2007
posted by durlx at 8/19/2007 04:01:00 AM
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