After I finished reading Exquisite Corpse, I was struck by the thought that one could, with the benefit of hindsight, make the argument that it is a transitional work in the sense that it represents a bridge between Poppy's earlier writing in horror to her current desire to write realistically about "real life" in New Orleans, as she does in her latest novel Liquor. In other words, EC is a transitional novel in that it contains both the fantastic elements of her earlier work (in this case, sophisticated serial killers) and the realistic concerns of her present day work (in this case, the horrible reality of the AIDS epidemic). Really, the only thing that keeps EC from being a totally realistic novel is her rather romanticized portrayal of the two serial killers. I say romanticized because most serial killers are mindnumbingly prosaic as human beings, and the only thing that makes them "interesting" is the fact that they have managed to kill a lot of people before being caught. I read biographies of both Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, and I found myself depressed by the absolute banality of their lives. They, or most real life serial killers, aren't exactly the real life counterparts of Poppy's Andrew Compton or Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter.
The horror in Exquisite Corpse is not derived from supernatural sources like with Poppy's earlier novels, such as the vampires as in Lost Souls, or a haunted house in Drawing Blood. Rather, the horror in EC is derived from the sources we find in real life such as violence and disease. EC reminded me of the Depeche Mode song "Fly on the Windshield":
Death is everywhere
There are flies on the windshield, for a start
Reminding us,
We could be torn apart,
Tonight
Indeed, the spectre of death pervades the whole storyline of EC. Poppy presents a portrait of New Orleans in EC where the possibility of a painful death either from a violent psychopath or from a debilitating disease is never far away from you. More specifically, the horror in EC comes from the idea of people not only dealing with the horrible reality of knowing they would soon die in the most horribly painful fashion imaginable, but also from the horrible reality of knowing that they only had a finite time left to left-very little or even no more time to spend with friends and family, to accomplish all the goals you wanted to accomplish in life, just time to sit around regretting everything you would miss out on.
It is this horrible reality of death that made it a hard novel for me to read on an emotional level. I know that some people had a problem with the gore, and I'm squeamish myself, but the gore isn't what I found the most disturbing about EC. I should mention too that the gore isn't gratuitous. Poppy isn't a hack and she uses it for a purpose. The two serial killers perversely take pride in their 'work', looking at their killing as a craft just as much as anybody else has a sense of pride in what they do. It probably sounds artsy, but Poppy really does present murder and the dead body in an aesthetic light, as other people have said. Indeed, this isn't totally dramatic license on Poppy's part-there's that famous story about how Jeffrey Dahmer (who the serial killers are obviously in part based upon) had planned to construct an altar made out of his victims' skulls and bones in an artistic piece de resistance of his serial killer activities. I should mention also that it is obvious that Poppy based one of the plot turns on what happened to one of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims. When I realized Poppy was doing this I was very uncomfortable and even horrified because I wondered if it was morally okay to use this true life episode as a plot/thematic vehicle in the book since it involved the vicious murder of a real human being. However, I realized as the scene went on that Poppy was using this real life murder to very justifiably criticize some real life idiots who really dropped the ball. Poppy also uses this scene to illustrate the corruption and racism that plagues some institutions in New Orleans. Poppy makes the serial killer subgenre her own, to explore her own interests. In other words, she is decidedly not a poor man's Thomas Harris.
EC's storyline is told by shifting between the four characters. Poppy shifts from the first person narrative of serial killer Andrew Compton , to the narratives of other three main characters told in the third person. In fact, when I realized that the narrative of EC was divided pretty equally between four main characters, I worried that maybe the narrative would be spread too thin because at 240 pages EC is a relatively short novel. However, Poppy was able to successfully explore these four characters and their storylines within the novels 240 pages. Considering that Poppy is an American, she also demonstrated considerable courage in writing as an Englishman, and placing the first part of her novel in London. However, Poppy brings this off admirably, even cleverly using British spelling when writing in his voice (i.e., "colour"). Poppy is undoubtedly a very gifted prose stylist. Check this passage out where Compton talks about his victims: "I gave them good food, strong tea, a warm place in my bed, what few pleasures my body could provide. In return, all I asked was their lives." Not bad, huh?
EC is a very good novel. My only real "criticism" is that because Poppy is so successful in depicting the horrible reality of death, I'm not sure that it is a novel I'll want to read again any time soon just because it is too emotionally painful to read. Nonetheless, EC is a very interesting and exciting read, and I would recommend it highly.
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Pleasantly Horrified...
I wasn't sure what to expect when I first saw this book pop up on Pinterest, but oh my gosh, what a ride. Andrew Compton and Jay Byrne are by far some of the most frightening people I've ever had the pleasure to read about. And it's not their actions, or the things they do that dictated most of the discomfort and unease I felt towards them, but the simple passion in which they commit these murders. For them, it's not about the act of killing itself that attracts them, but their individual ability to savor and connect with their victims, to draw in their spirits and their essence in every way imaginable. Andrew and Jay together was like an absolute nightmare for me. I was audibly shouting at my book, begging the book lord to please let them die or something before they had a chance to get together (or better yet, “punish” them for their actions). Unfortunately, no one heard me. But even with these two men brought together in a way that almost feels as though it should belong in a rom-com, I was more frightened by the type of connection they would build together than their combined body count.When it came to the gore, I wasn't exactly eating a hearty meal or whistling while I read as if the content was as carefree and easy-going as the morning paper. Most of the time, I was wincing at the vivid descriptions of pain and torture, hiding my eyes behind my fingers as the various characters interacted with each other (more bad then good), and generally not trying to cry from frustration as one thing lead to another…With all that being said, I enjoyed my read of Exquisite Corpse and highly recommend it for anyone unafraid of seeing the other side. There's not just one side to this story, there's multiple, and getting to read and explore them alongside these characters was both a perilous journey and an exhilarating adventure all at once.
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Reviewed in Mexico on March 15, 2021
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Reviewed in Mexico on March 15, 2021
El libro, exquisito.
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StrigoiViu
Good for sickos but NOT the general public
Reviewed in Canada on April 13, 2020