Antediluvian Tales

Rickey and G-Man #included

by Poppy Z. Brite

The work of almost every New Orleans writer has been irrevocably split into two periods: pre-Katrina and post-Katrina. As Poppy Z. Brite writes in the foreword to this new mini-collection, "After the events of 2005, I couldn't see pairing stories I'd written before the flood with those I'd written after; for better or worse, my life, my outlook, and, necessarily, my work has changed forever ... These are literally antediluvian tales, stories written before August 29, 2005... Whatever else they may be, the stories in this little collection now seem almost impossibly innocent to me."

Antediluvian Tales contains five stories of the Stubbs family, the New Orleans clan whose adventures Brite has chronicled in her popular Liquor novels and other works. Two more stories revisit the author's fictitious alter ego Dr. Brite, the coroner of New Orleans. Completing the book is "The Last Good Day of My Life," a nonfiction look at the changes the past two years have wrought on Brite, filtered through a reminiscence about a day she spent knocking around Cairns, Australia.

Any reader who loves New Orleans will treasure these antediluvian tales for the city that exists in them: a city that will never again exist in its pre-Katrina form, but which cannot be killed by hurricanes, floods, or governmental neglect as long as its artists continue to chronicle and cherish it.

Table of Contents:

Drink Up, Dreamers, You're Running Dry: A Foreword
The Feast of St. Rosalie
Four Flies and a Swatter
Henry Goes Shopping
The Working Slob's Prayer (Being A Night in the History of the Peychaud Grill)
Crown of Thorns
Wound Man and Horned Melon Go to Hell
The Devil of Delery Street
The Last Good Day of My Life (A True Story)
Appendix: Alternate Order of Stories

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Horror, Collections, Fantasy, Queer, Short Story Collection

116 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2007

About the author

Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite, now going by Billy Martin) is an American author born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Born a biological female, Brite has written and talked much about his gender dysphoria/gender identity issues. He self-identifies almost completely as a homosexual male rather than female, and as of 2011 has started taking testosterone injections. His male name is Billy Martin.

He lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Athens, Georgia prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. He loves UNC basketball and is a sometime season ticket holder for the NBA, but he saves his greatest affection for his hometown football team, the New Orleans Saints.

Brite and husband Chris DeBarr, a chef, run a de facto cat rescue and have, at any given time, between fifteen and twenty cats. Photos of the various felines are available on the "Cats" page of Brite's website. They have been known to have a few dogs and perhaps a snake as well in the menagerie. They are no longer together.

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brite at first opted to stay at home, but he eventually abandoned New Orleans and his cats and relocated 80 miles away to his mother's home in Mississippi. He used his blog to update his fans regarding the situation, including the unknown status of his house and many of his pets, and in October 2005 became one of the first 70,000 New Orleanians to begin repopulating the city.

In the following months, Brite has been an outspoken and sometimes harsh critic of those who are leaving New Orleans for good. He was quoted in the New York Times and elsewhere as saying, in reference to those considering leaving, "If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life."

Reviews

[Trin · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Short stories, most of which are vaguely related to Brite's Rickey and G-Man tales (my favorite of his work), along with a semi-self-insert coroner character and a couple pieces about the trauma of Katrina. The fiction pieces all feel like bits of a larger canon, because they are, but the best of them, like "Four Flies and a Swatter," still have a wicked sense of humor and distinct sense of place, even if it's all iykyk.

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, these short stories and a memoir reflect the attitudes and settings of that time. The short stories are interesting and easy reading. They reflect ordinary people doing ordinary things.
Unusual for a story collection, I enjoyed all of these.

[Jae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been in love with Brite's writing since high school when I read Lost Souls and have continued to adore her writing. The Liquor series is a series I recommend to so many people, including classmates when they're trying to pull of homosexual characters who are not overtly homosexual. Getting to see more about the Stubbs family (and PACO!!!!) thrilled me. I also was delighted to see the restaurant nitpickers that confuse everyone on whether or not they're food critics. It was very nicely slid in there! This little book is fantastic and wonderful, and I think everyone (even casual fiction readers not familiar with Brite's work) would enjoy these tales.

[David Schwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of vignettes about people living in New Orleans. These are a wonderful set of quick stories. The author is able to get the reader quickly connect with a stories characters. The author makes it clear that New Orleans of all American cities has the greatest potential for a Gothic story.

[Roz Blahaha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters in each of the short stories are so well painted, and the atmosphere of New Orleans and its culture are so brilliant. I loved these short stories and plan to read more from this author. I feel like I got to pop in at various events in the Stubb family's past and future to witness brief, powerful moments.

My favorite though, was Wounded Man and Horned Melon Go To Hell, with the coroner of New Orleans and his lover. I am still picking apart the themes in it, but enjoyed it as just a good Halloween story too.

[Sampsels Book · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, confusing, and not good plots

This book consist of short stories written by : Poppy Z. Brite but in my opinion seems to have been a few eseys written by 3rd graders .

I am simply not impressed.

Stories are all over the place . I could not wait for each story to end.

This is a very small book and would never not read a complete book and then review ,but I began the last story with a few paragraphs in and set it down..

Book of the month club :

https://www.mybotm.com/ityny7p4wcl?sh...

[Raphaël Rousseau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty nice collections of new orleans stories from Poppy Z. Brite.
The epilogue was sad but the reality of Katrina Hurricane was sad, too,
after all. I hope there will be another Poppy Z. Brite's collection some day soon.
Thanks Poppy for this one, anyway.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pity this was the last thing he ever published.

[Joshua Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories had more to do with other Stubbs family members than Rickey and G-Man, but there were 2 delightful Dr. Brite stories that I enjoyed, one far more than the other.

The Feast of St. Rosalie was interesting, learning about this peculiar Kenner tradition and learning more about G-man's sister.

Four Flies and a Swatter was a good New Orleans story that I appreciated more as I thought about it afterward.

Henry goes shopping was ok. It's about G-man's brother in line to buy condoms behind a nun.

The Working Slob's Prayer was essentially a Ricky and G-Man story that focused more on a Chef they used to work with and his restaurant.

Crown of Thorns was my favorite of the Dr. Brite stories, very Halloween-y, very weird, and ties in nicely to my previous favorite Dr. Brite story about voodoo bringing back to life a dead chef.

Wound Man and Horned Melon Go To Hell was the other Dr. Brite story, and it was interesting as well, I just liked the other one better.

The Devil of Delery Street was about G-man's sister being haunted when he was a baby and it wasn't my favorite story.

The Last Good Day of My Life was a true life story by Billy Martin about his trip to Australia, the fallout of Hurricane Katrina, and how his life was changed forever. It was a melancholy read.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poppy Z. Brite's fourth (and, to date, final) short story collection is a slim volume of stories mostly taking place within the world of his "Liquor" series, along with a duo of melancholy "Dr. Brite" stories, of which these two are the first I've read and I greatly enjoyed. The stories are good on their own, eclectic and atmospheric snapshots of New Orleans, but with the addition of the Foreword and his nonfiction piece "The Last Good Day of My Life," the collection transforms into a sad, elegiac love letter to New Orleans pre-Katrina. Taken together, this whole collection packs a punch, and really makes you understand why and how Brite became so lost and distanced from his work after the hurricane. Short, but good.

[Gini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poppy writes in an evocative style that is very beautiful. Her short stories tend toward a mixture of slice of life and tone poem. This thin volume is a collection of her unpublished stories before the great watershed moment of her life: Hurricane Katrina. I know that Katrina impacted her life deeply and lastingly. I will be interested in reading her it affects her writing.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of this collection is the nonfiction piece t the end of the book. After keeping up with Brite's journal, it has all the more impact to me when reading it. Really, there are a lot of gems here, most notably coming from the "Liquor" series spinoffs.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is worth reading if only for the author's heartfelt paen to post-Katrina New Orleans. For me, her culinary novels are stronger than these short stories but the foreward and afterward made the book.

[Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories. I really love Poppy Z. Brite, and I definitely wasn't disappointed with this book. The non-fiction piece at the end was interesting, and "Crown of Thorns" presented some very interesting characters I hadn't seen yet. Overall worth a read.

[Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poppy Z. Brite is my favorite author, so no matter what she writes I love it!

[Josh]

I've never read any of Brite's short stories, but I'm a fan of her New Orleans series.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading if only for the non-fiction piece at the very end of the book. Some stories are uneven, but any glimpse into the world of Rickey and G-Man is worth the bumps that accompany it.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice short collection of short stories set in New Orleans and featuring the Stubbs family. The family also appears in an excellent series of novels by Brite about 2 gay chefs.