Cruel Poetry

by Vicki Hendricks

“I loved this book. It’s a private ticket into a secret world of desire and sex and the raw edge between them . . . I read it with the fever of the addicted.”—Michael Connelly

“I never miss a book by Vicki Hendricks. No one on the current scene is writing super-charged, erotic, real noir novels like these.”—George P. Pelecanos

Renata is young, beautiful, and has sex for money and kicks. Few are immune to her intoxicating allure—even her pet Burmese python, Pepe, seems captive to her charm. Richard is one of her clients, a poetry professor with a wife and two sons, whose erotic fascination with Rennie is threatening his home and job.

Meanwhile, Julie, a shy wannabe novelist, spies on Rennie from her room next door in between bouts of frustrated writing. Both would do anything to save Rennie from her dangerous occupation and become her one true love.

Set in Miami’s gaudy vacationland and the haunting atmosphere of the Everglades, Cruel Poetry is a gripping story of fatal attraction that captures the Florida behind the postcards. As the lives of Richard and Julie unravel amidst drugs and murder, Hendricks amps the adrenaline jolts and sweeps us to a bittersweet climax.

Vicki Hendricks lives in Hollywood, Florida, where she teaches English and creative writing. A fan of dangerous sports, she has completed 550 skydives, learned to dog sled in Finland, and has been birding in the jungles of Costa Rica.

Genres: Noir, Crime, Mystery, Prostitution, Lesbian, Drinking, Action

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As mentioned in another review, CRUEL POETRY is a good blend of erotica and noir and it's closer to 4 stars (for me) than 3 stars. It's basically a three-character story, taking place in a residential hotel in Miami Beach. Each of the main characters live in pursuit of an ideal that only exists in the poetry of the obsessed. For me, it worked better as a character piece than a noir novel. The noir elements seemed a little bit forced, probably in effort to make it more marketable as a crime novel, but that's just my guess. It also runs a bit too long, as though finding its way in the last third, leading to an abrupt ending. Still, it's a decent dip into sex and squalor. If it sounds like your kind of thing, then you'd probably like it. Read it, along with LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL, by Charles Bukowski.

This is the third book by Hendricks that I've read, the first being MIAMI PURITY (5 stars), then VOLUNTARY MADNESS (3 stars).

[Mariano Hortal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/policiacas-...

Se acerca el invierno, como diría uno que casi todos conocemos, y cómo no realizar una buena selección de novelas policíacas para esta época. Si el otoño ayudaba y estaba en consonancia con este género, no digamos lo que puede ser el invierno, al menos por el clima, aunque tengamos la alegría típica de las fiestas navideñas.

Es buen momento para acordarnos de autores poco comunes, quizá no hablemos de obras maestras, pero no todo tiene que ser excelso, hay que dejar cancha a otro tipo de novelas que enriquecen nuestras lecturas y consiguen que ganemos en capacidad lectora. Pasemos pues a estas recomendaciones:

Empiezo con el “Poesía Cruel” de Vicki Hendricks, es reseñable, en primer lugar, la forma, novedosa, de editar este libro; el editor de Es Pop Ediciones lanzó a través del portal Verkami un proyecto de “crowdfunding” para conseguir la financiación necesaria; consiste en ofrecer la edición a los lectores que quieran sufragarla y, al mismo tiempo, ofrecer recompensas de distinto valor según lo que aportes que compensen esta compra, aquí tenéis la web para echar un vistazo a las posibilidades que se ofrecían. De esta manera, aseguras que no tengas pérdidas en el caso de poder lanzarlo y, además, consigues adivinar cuál es el público potencial y seguro que está siguiendo esa colección en particular. En este caso (no siempre se consigue) las aportaciones sobrepasaron con creces lo necesario y así tenemos el libro en cuestión. En cuanto al contenido tenemos un “hardboiled” muy negro, con una protagonista femenina, la carismática prostituta Renata (“Algunos hombres solo quieren tu coño, otros quieren tu alma también. Yo solo vendo el coño… y es caro”), que es la verdadera alma de la novela caracterizada por escenas subiditas de tono casi en cualquier página que pases y un lenguaje a la altura de las circunstancias; para conformar un trama sencilla de seguir, ligeramente previsible, donde no importa tanto lo que ocurra como lo que cada personaje aporta a ella. En conclusión, erotismo a raudales (ríete tú de “50 sombras…”) y bajos fondos de amoralidad latente, razonable novela policíaca cargada de pasiones irrefrenables que solo pueden desencadenar desgracias.

El siguiente va a ser “El caso N’Gustro” del francés Jean Patrick Manchette, ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que RBA publicó la impresionante “Nada”, de hecho fue casi al principio y ahora hay más de 200 números; no ha gozado de mucha continuidad, pero por fin podemos ver una nueva novela suya, en este caso la primera que hizo individualmente y una de las novelas que dio inicio al neo-polar francés; Manchette asumió que el intento revolucionario de 1968 había fracasado y dio un giro radical que se confirmó con “Nada”: la necesidad de subvertir el orden capitalista estaba clara y centró los ataques en la izquierda incapaz, desactivada institucionalmente y al servicio del estado, telón de fondo de brutalidad y con la policía como brazo armado para ejecutarla con violencia. Todos estos temas están presentes en la novela que comenté primeramente, de incomparable sentido social y lucha anticapitalista con sentido autocrítico; la figura de Henri Butron, ultraviolento personaje (“siempre ha habido en mí una violencia que da pavor”) es la encarnación de esta lucha y la víctima del control estatal en un relato que juega con la no linealidad temporal (alternando entre el pasado y el presente) además de jugar con un humor muy negro y con la ironía de cada momento. Un estupendo relato, muy muy hardboiled, doloroso y reivindicativo.

La última recomendación, a pesar de lo atípico, es “La hija del tiempo” de Josephine Tey, y la llamo atípica por dos motivos principales que hay que entender antes de afrontar su lectura: el primero de ellos es que se trata de una novela detectivesca pura y dura, más en la línea de Agatha Christie y el “Detection club” que en la de los Thompson, Chandler y compañía; la segunda consideración está relacionada con la trama histórica, es tremendamente exhaustiva en su exposición de la Inglaterra del siglo XV y se convierte, prácticamente, en un conglomerado de tramas palaciegas de la época. No en vano, casi al principio del libro, en una conversación entre un convaleciente Grant y Marta, se establece la base de la novela: “-Sí, ya me figuro. Pero, ¿qué quieres averiguar sobre Ricardo III si no hay ningún misterio que investigar? -Quiero saber qué le ocurrió. Es el misterio más profundo con el que me he topado últimamente. ¿Qué le hizo cambiar casi de la noche a la mañana? Hasta el momento de la muerte de su hermano parecía una persona ejemplar y sentía devoción por Eduardo”. No podemos obviar el hecho según el cuál Grant estará postrado en cama durante toda la narración y se dedicará a desentrañar los misterios más recónditos de los personajes relacionados con Ricardo (sí, es el de “Mi reino por un caballo”) para, llegado el caso, demostrar o no su inocencia. A pesar de la falta de acción y de la, a priori, profusión de datos históricos, se lee con facilidad, muy fluidamente, y no resulta tan anacrónica como podría pensarse al principio; me quedo quizá con esta conclusión que el detective saca: “-No pienso volver a creerme nada de lo que lea en un libro de historia mientras viva.” Esto alienta mi necesidad de tener espíritu crítico cuando lees cualquier texto, espíritu que, últimamente brilla demasiado por su ausencia.

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every summer for the last few years, I've read a Vicki Hendricks novel. I put off reading CRUEL POETRY because I knew that after I finished it, there wouldn't be any more for awhile because I'd read all the others.

Cruel Poetry is probably her most accomplished novel -- instead of the usual first person narrative, she alternates POV between the three main characters, and the narrative holds strong to the end. There is plenty of sex and "off-the-grid" characters, and there's still plenty of suspense and "noir" elements. Unfortunately, some parts of the novel seemed very similar to her previous work, and I called some of the major plot points early on, but I think that was because so familiar with her work. This might be a good place for new readers to START, and then move backwards into her earlier work.

I'd recommend this one to fans of James Cain and his ilk. Hendricks is an acquired taste, and I don't think she's everyone's cup of tea by any stretch of the imagination, but if you like your crime fiction dark and violent, she's well worth a try.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vicki Hendricks has been dubbed the high priestess of neo-noir. This novel is a modern take on classic noir themes. Just as classic noir characters hurtle downward in a never-ending spiral of despair and destruction, Hendricks strips her characters of all normalcy and balance and tilts them into a world of sexual obsession and into new cages that replace old ones. But, this is not the classic fifties pulp which hints at and tantalizes the reader. It is filled to the brim with sex, booze, and casual murder and it focuses on the sex quite explicitly. Strangely enough, the blood and gore which you would think would be at the eye of this hurricane are simply casually tossed out as if to show where these characters have fallen in their twisted depravity. Willeford may have peopled the Florida coast with crime and bizarre persons, but Hendricks adds in a boa constrictor and ten foot alligators as well as gun-wielding call girls and sex-crazed English professors.

[irenegrc · Rating 2 out of 5]

El libro está entretenido y la trama esta bien, pero los personajes son demasiado planos. No sé si está mal escrito o es la traducción, pero no llegas a conectar con ninguno ni con la trama en ningún momento. Es una novela erótica y negra con mucho potencial, pero se queda a medias. Aunque yo iba con muchas expectativas

[Lorespar Sparling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I demand a sequel. Do Jules and Renata keep their promises to each other? And what happens to Pepito the snake? I want answers, as I invested four days of reading into this amazing noir masterpiece. Luckily this is my first Vicky novel, and I can find more.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a fatal attraction in Miami dips into drugs and murder. Renata loves sex for money and kicks but she draws complications.

[Laura C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vicki's writing draws me in from the first page and I can't wait to see what happens next all through the story.

[Ally Yang · Rating 2 out of 5]

【taaze 訂135 -得88】

[Connie Haag · Rating 5 out of 5]

This intensely explicit story burns the way mesmerized moths burn. In obsessive sex matters, it seems to say, survival is a shaky goal. Survive what? The shocking messiness of intimacy. Hendrick’s CRUEL POETRY crowds you; it does not give you room to catch your breath, or gain one car’s length distance. Everything is on collision course here, though not always in a hurry: flesh moves over flesh in a Miami Beach flophouse, sickly evidence seeps into the reader, and the prose has an awkwardly numbing sense of rhythm. Noir does not comfort nor cover, and Hendricks applies this principle 100 percent, as things are 100 percent cotton. This is not about interchangeable porn with a yawn factor, but about eerie Erotic Noir: Hendricks does not need perverse undertones to introduce a true neo-vamp, an independent, modern seductress who insists on her freedom to keep everybody on arm’s length – except her pet python.

Renata (Rennie) in this demanding central role is a perfectly crafted character – a young woman who goes too far in her emotions and reactions without even knowing it. Too physical, too urgently immediate, too carefree, too radiantly alive, too overpowering hot for the timid, restrained people who cannot help but become obsessed with her. Rennie quickly convinces you that she really believes her life would be hollow if she did not share her every iota of being with the world. She has a hot affair with life itself, and a natural appetite for sex that does neither hint Mae West, nor the overused, Lolita-esque child-women shtick. Rennie is simply a catalyst, a crazy hot number who makes people feel alive, a source both of delight and death.

Hendricks writes as sober and aching as any fallen angel, stuck between heaven and earth, would probably dream. With straightforward boldness and clear cut images she makes you crawl out of your igloo of self-control, and invites you to a lava skinny-dip in a very clever, almost leisurely way.

Rennie’s next door neighbor in the shabby beachside hotel is Julie (Jules), an unhappy not-quite writer who peeps through a hole in the wall to live on borrowed erotic and energy. With loneliness closing in on her, she is a vulnerable drifter, buried in a luckless life, who seeks Rennie’s nearness with an urgency like clinging vine. Along the way, another character who falls prey to Rennie’s magnetism is Richard, a poetry professor who desperately tries to be more than just a casual sex opportunity to her. His obsession holds him like a nauseating shock, and kicks him out of lethargy. The only character who seems to be able to keep the right distance to Rennie is her semi-serious SO Francisco, who deliberately shrugs off her being irresistible.

There are glimmers of an unworldly terror and claustrophobic victimization in this book, and aloofness appears to be the magic word out. An abundance of hidden references and metaphors matches the plot and subplot maneuvers, and drags you deeper into thought. When nightlife and passion turn into crime, witnessed by voyeur Julie, the consequences teach the characters some of the uglier facts of
life. This book is a mental shake-up and a dark symphony you should not miss.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unless you're really really into lurid, pulpy tales of desperate people, there's little reason to spend the few hours it takes to read this book. About 90% of it takes place in Miami's South Beach, at a squalid long-term motel and the various nearby bars and restaurants. Julie is a some kind of unspecified failure 20something who's desperate to prove she's someone by becoming a writer -- without seeming to have considered that she can't actually write.

Fortunately, her next door neighbor Rennie is a spectacularly charismatic prostitute, who isn't fully selfish, but definitely lacks any hint of a care for consequences. Eavesdropping on Rennie's antics proves to be far more fodder for her laptop than anything from her imagination -- but it also leads Julie to become entangled with her. Meanwhile, a professor of poetry (and client) is obsessed with Rennie to the extent that he risks destroying his family. And then there's Rennie's business partner/boy toy, Francisco, who does some minor drug business when he's not in bed with her.

I suppose some readers might be drawn to Rennie as an embodiment of #yolo, but she's such a fantasy figure that I found it hard to see her as anything more than cartoony. Julie and Richard are the kind of pathetic drips that always crop up in these kinds of stories, neither is remotely interesting. The biggest problem is that even though there's plenty of explicit sex, and a good deal of blood, the story kind of loses momentum two-thirds of the way through, right when it should be picking up steam.

It ultimately kind of stumbles across the finish line in a series of misunderstandings and pratfalls that are more laugh-out-loud ridiculous than deadly serious. To wit, this is a book whose climax (no pun intended) includes someone hiding in a kind of S&M restraint box getting stabbed to death by a Japanese sword. And did I mention there's an albino boa constrictor?

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book couldn't possibly win with me.

First, I bought it because I had read Hendrick's wonderful Fur People and loved it. Fur People is a poignant, clear-eyed look at the heartbreaking life of a mentally ill animal hoarder. Cruel Poetry, on the other hand, is a weirdly hazy look at the pathetic life of an ignorant, hyper-sexual prostitute, who also happens to be a psychopath. Not nearly as interesting, or believable.

The next point against it is actually more serious in my opinion. The author cannot keep the facts straight about her own character. The protagonist in the story, $50 hooker Renata, has one finger that has been cut off. This is possibly the most interesting thing about her. However, at the beginning of the book, it is her middle (or "bird-giving") finger.

"She looks at him and holds up the bird finger on her left hand, a half finger, cut off at the second knuckle."

Later it is, inexplicably, "the missing half of her index finger."

Yet further on, the cut-off finger changes back, "The phone rings. She puts up the half bird finger."

If the author can't be bothered to keep track of the characters' physical traits, why am I bothering to read them?

Finally, and this is not the writer's fault, but I mention it for those considering purchase, the audio book portion of the book is just awful. Nearly every character is read in a distinct but relentless twangy, nasal New Jersey accent, although the story is set in south Florida. From Renata ("Don't cawl me, Rich-ah-d!") to neighbor Julie, and extending even to the P.I. Garcia (Here's my cah-d.")

[Lawrence FitzGerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tart noir...I liked it.

I was hooked on the characters by page seven and had no trouble turning the pages all the way to the end.

The story starts out with three characters in a seedy South Beach hotel: two that take life as it comes and one that's a little up tight. Already there's a dynamic and you're wondering how it's all going to turn out. Long before the murder on page 28.

Okay, if the murder is the inciting incident then the previous 28 pages were the setup. "I give a book 50 pages...." How many reviews have I read that? Way to many.

"You were hooked on the sex, you perv."

Yeah, there's plenty of sex, the book opens with a sex scene. But it's integral to the characters and the plot. Honestly, I don't find written sex scenes that compelling. If you want porn, there are better places to get it. I keep telling you, it was the characters.

And now that I'm thinking about it, the only things that exist prior to the inciting incident are the setting, the characters and the atmosphere. I think back on those books that hooked me early and it was always through the characters.

How did she do it?

She sketches each of the characters in turn so we kind of know how they roll. The first two have been making love. The third has been listening through the wall and the first two know she's been listening. This sets up enough dynamic to carry the reader forward.

Rather well done, I must say. Maybe I should up it to 4 stars....

[Rebecca Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, what to say....I wavered between a 3 and a 4 for this one. At first, the book was better than I expected, but in the end it disappointed me. Renata is an extremely attractive and engaging character; Jules is impossibly naive and ridiculous. This is a story about a shifting and changing web of relationships that go on a downward spiral. I can't say much without giving away significant plot points, but in terms of crimes in the book, things go from bad to worse to "we gotta get outta here NOW!" We'll see if others are convinced by the ending. For me, it was totally unexpected and not in a particularly good way. It might have been satisfying for other reasons (I AM a romantic, in truth) but--huh?--let me know if you believe it.

One thing of note about the book is that it seemed to be about 50% graphic sex scenes. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

The scenes aren't gratuitous, given the cast of characters, but still, that may either draw you to the book or make you stay away.

And also: Just once I would like to read a contemporary book where the teacher/professor who makes a complete ass of himself ISN'T an English professor. Or perhaps this makes us all seem sorta dangerous and mysterious in an attractive way? Richard's stupidity and self-deception reminded me of a couple of David Lodge's novels.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, my fourth Vicki Hendricks novel, more than I did. Unfortunately it's a bit brainless. Some good characterisation of the main players though.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grabbed Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks immediately after finishing her Miami Purity. If you've read Vicki Hendricks before, you know what you have in store for you--compelling characters, Noir situations, crime, and sex. Cruel Poetry has it all. Jules is working on her novel in a rented hotel room on South Miami Beach. Her neighbor Renatta is a mysterious prostitute with a pet snake. Francisco is her lover and business partner. Richard is a college professor that teaches poetry at the university, and he has a fatal attraction with Renatta. When Jules and Renatta run afoul of a local crime syndicate, what ensues is a blood-soaked lover's quadrangle where the stakes increase with each page. Hendricks once again proves she is a Noir master. The mistakes add up slowly but inevitably taking the characters you grow to love to a very bad place. Highly recommended.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seemed like I waited for years for this book to come out. Maybe that contributed to my disappointment. I just wasn't feeling this one - I didn't connect with the characters or even enjoy the ride much. I never really understood what Julie found so facinating about Renata. I think Hendricks usually does a better job of establishing the downward spiral of her main character - but in this one, I just felt like Julie was already lost when the book started.

Is it possible that I had a problem connecting because the catalyst for Julie's demise in this one was a woman? Could be, though I like to think I'm above that kind of thing.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cruel poetry is the perfect blend of noir and erotica, told through the alternating POV of three main characters. Rennie is a hardened semi prostitute, Julie a struggling writer (and next door neighbour), and Richard - a college professor, poet and John. Somehow they get involved in a murder which ultimately culminates in a violent and unpredictable ending. I enjoyed the multi dimensional aspects to each character and their mannerisms with each affecting the outcome. A great read with some lighter moments to offset the violence and sex - 4 stars.

[Dasein Seescribe Junto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si el neo-noir es ahora fucsia pues será neo-noir, pero vamos, que nada de duros detectives con vidas atormentadas, llenas de secretos y tramas con intrigas inescrutables.
Esto es una tragedia bajo el brillante sol de Miami Beach, que tanto deslumbra cuando tienes resaca. Una novela que se lee de un tirón, como si la protagonista de Girls la hubiese escrito. Una protagonista de Girls que se ve atrapada en una trama interesante y no se pone a hacer drama sobre su aburrida vida, claro.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great character. Kind of (but not really) reminds me of someone (I was going to name Aileen W... but decided not to) who really doesn't like her johns, yet doesn't get out of the business. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cruel Poetry is contemporary noir fiction... full of sex and death, but it never seems to be sleazy or obsessively violent!

[Lisa Katcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was something clunky about the writing to me. I know it was Vicki's first book, and I will try bother since she came so highly recommended by my "Noir Friends".

[Melanie Neale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love everything Vicki has ever written.

[Marta Vila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro muy fresco y se lee fácil. En mi opinión pega un bajoncillo en la segunda mitad para recuperar el ritmo al final. Me gustaría verla adaptada al cine por los hermanos Wachowski:)