Soul Kitchen: A Novel
by Poppy Z. Brite
List Price:
Our Price: $7.93
You Save: $6.07 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.92 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Poppy Z. BriteEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07-25
ISBN: 0307237656
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Reviews of Soul Kitchen: A Novel
Book Review: Hungry for a good book?
Summary: 4 Stars
Some people classify Poppy Z. Brite's recent novels as mysteries, but that's not exactly right. Though her "Liquor" books (Soul Kitchen is the third installment) contain crimes, the stories aren't driven by a need to solve crimes or bring perpetrators to justice. The wrongdoings prevalent in these books are of the type that seems to be part and parcel of doing business and living in the Crescent City. Grift, money laundering, blackmail, political influence-for-sale, protection, gambling and the like.
In Soul Kitchen, protagonists Ricky and G-man are riding the wave of accomplishment generated by their liquor-themed restaurant. Liquor is one of New Orleans' success stories in a city where eating establishments tend to erupt like flames and flicker out just as quickly. The life-long friends are, perhaps, resting on their laurels and soon learn how fast a restaurant's reputation can be dulled or tarnished. A simple chain of events imperils their prestige.
Ricky wrenches his back wrestling with a fifty-pound bag of oysters, an injury that informs the rest of the novel. Since he and G-man have no health insurance, he relies on the medical advice of a regular customer and business associate who finds it to his advantage to get Ricky hooked on Vicodin. Pain, lack of sleep and his increasing dependence upon the drugs interferes with his relationship with G-man and leads him to badger Tanker, the restaurant's desert specialist, into quitting. Pride keeps teh men from seeking reconciliation, even after Ricky and G-man discover that no one else knows how to recreate some of their signature deserts.
Ricky becomes an absentee partner when he agrees to another consulting job, this time helping set up a "destination" restaurant at a casino on Lake Pontchartrain. He and G-man hire Milford Goodman, fresh out of a lengthy stint in prison after being wrongly convicted for the murder of his previous (white female) restaurant partner, to fill in the gaps at Liquor. No one else wants anything to do with Milford, and Ricky and G-man take some heat for hiring him.
Milford was a highly esteemed chef before his incarceration, so Ricky enlists his help in coming up with the theme for the casino restaurant. They decide on Soul Kitchen, which will serve ethnic home-style cooking from around the world. Ricky isn't particularly fond of his business partners in this endeavor, but he and Ricky are trying to save up enough money to buy out their original Liquor financier, Lenny, who still owns twenty-five percent of the restaurant. Ricky's side job leads to an explosive, unexpected confrontation and, in the aftermath, it's unlikely that Ricky will be eager to hire himself out as a consultant any time soon.
The power and strength of this series of books comes from the long-term relationship between Ricky and G-man. Their faithfulness and loyalty is occasionally tested, almost to the breaking point, but readers believe in them and in their future together. They don't spend a lot of time analyzing their relationship, nor do they devote much energy defending it to people who are less than supportive of their lifestyle. They just do like most other people: continue to stay together and support each other day after day after day.
Brite knows the New Orleans tradition and the restaurant business. Her husband is a chef and she frequently posts on her blog about some of the exotic meals she has in that city. She knows that, outside of work, chefs rarely cook gourmet meals for themselves or for their loved ones. She knows how a kitchen works, and the ways in which it can go badly wrong. She understands the pompous self-importance of some of the industry's auteurs. And she also understands chronic pain and the allure of certain drugs to hold it at bay.
Since Katrina, Brite has become one of New Orleans' strongest advocates, writing at length about the city's recover on her blog and penning opinion pieces for the local newspaper and for national publications. Soul Kitchen was completed the night before the storm struck the city. The next installment, Dead Shrimp Blues, will reportedly deal, in part, with the hurricane and its aftermath.
Summary of Soul Kitchen: A Novel
If you can't stand the heat...Get the hell out of New Orleans!Liquor has become one of the hottest restaurants in town, thanks in part to chefs Rickey and G-man?s wildly creative, booze-laced food. At the tail end of a busy Mardi Gras, Milford Goodman walks into their kitchen?he?s spent the last ten years in Angola Prison for murdering his boss, a wealthy New Orleans restaurateur, but has recently been exonerated on new evidence and released. Rickey remembers him as an ingenious chef and hires him on the spot.
When a pill-pushing doctor and a Carnival scion talk Rickey into consulting at the restaurant they?re opening in one of the city?s ?floating casinos,? Rickey recommends Milford for the head chef position and stays on to supervise. But soon Rickey finds himself medicating a kitchen injury with the doctor?s wares, and G-man grows tired of holding down the fort at Liquor alone. As the new restaurant moves toward its opening, Rickey learns that Milford?s past is inextricably linked with one of the project?s backers, a man whose intentions begin to seem more and more sinister.
Full of the flavor of one of America?s greatest cities, Soul Kitchen is a sharp commentary on race relations in pre-Katrina New Orleans and a fast ride through the dark side of haute cuisine.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.70
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Tableby Sara Roahen
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.30
Price in other shops:
The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleansby David Lummis
River House Publishing; Published: 2010; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.95
Lost Soulsby Poppy Z. Brite
Dell; Published: 1993-09-10; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Letters from New Orleansby Rob Walker
Garrett County Press; Published: 2005-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.68
Price in other shops:
Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleansby Dan Baum
Spiegel & Grau; Published: 2010-02-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.83
Price in other shops:
Antediluvian Talesby Poppy Z. Brite
Subterranean Press; Published: 2007-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $30.00
The Devil You Knowby Poppy Z. Brite
Gauntlet Press; Published: 2005-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Second Line: Two Short Novels of Love and Cooking in New Orleansby Poppy Z. Brite
Small Beer Press; Published: 2009-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.23
Price in other shops:
Prime: A Novelby Poppy Z. Brite
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2005-03-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Liquor: A Novelby Poppy Z. Brite
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2004-03-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.62
Price in other shops: