Exquisite Corpse

My new favourite author is Poppy Z Brite. I have read only 2 of her books and I can't wait to get a hold of more. The first would be Exquisite Corpse. I had known about the game beforehand and when my friend had loaned me this during a boring class, I thought it might have something to do with it. It did in some sort of fucked up poetic way. But before I explain that; Exquisite Corpse by PZB is about a murderer from London, Andrew Compton, who fakes his own death to get out of jail free. He flees to Louisiana where he meets Jay Byrne, a man whose murders are even more gruesome than his own. In each other they find company in flesh both living, freshly murdered (you know, when body is still pliable and that pungent smell of blood and shit is still wafting through the air?), and even bodies that have been sitting in the freezer for a few days. Together, they poetically, and almost sacrilegiously, consume the flesh and blood of the beautiful youth infesting the streets of the French Quarter. Brite makes you the voyeur to her killing game. She draws you in with the first act of violence that implants a small tremor at the base of your spine that spreads throughout your body until the last act where you will choose either to read on to the conclusion, or set it down because its descriptions get to be too much. Either way, it’s a novel of violence to a pornographic extent that will forever be ingrained in your mind no matter if you want it there or not. However, there are a few underlying themes involving AIDS, drugs, and war. (I’ll see if I can post the monologue WHIV for all which was absolutely hilarious and sad.)
So the title Exquisite Corpse should be clear to you now, right?
Well, Exquisite Corpse is also the title of a surrealist literary game played by a large group of people who take turns passing a piece of paper with the product being a sentence written by several individuals. The first sentence that gave this name went like this: "Le cadavre / exquis / boira / le vin / nouveau" (The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine). The exquisite corpse (Andrew Compton) will drink the young wine (blood of youth). It’s just a little something to think about.

Soon, mes Amis, I will sing the praises for another one of her books entitled Lost Souls. Until Then!