I re-read this so often, because it's just the right length to sit and read in one sitting. Perhaps it works better for readers already familiar with the two main characters who have been the focus of the more recent work of Poppy Z Brite, as this little book tells the back story of how the two friends became lovers and life-partners. It's one of the most beautifully written same-sex romances telling the story of two young guys falling in love with each other and with cooking as they train to become chefs.

Sure, the fact that I already love the two characters, Rickey and G-man, adds a hell of a lot to my enjoyment of the work, but I'm sure anyone not already familiar with them would enjoy it just as much, and probably just end up checking out the other novels they are featured in. ( )

I read this at a point when I was reading anything by PZB that I could get my hands on. I remember liking it quite a bit at the time, and have been wanting to re-read it since then but haven't gotten the chance. I Didn't enjoy this book as much as Brite's horror fiction, but it still had the same gritty edge, and an interesting enough story line. I liked this book a lot more than any of the latter books in this series, as I don't really think the latter books have the same edge that I grew to love from Brite. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2006/03/28-value-of-x-poppy-z-brite.html ( )

The most frequent comment I've read of the novel is that it's a "coming of age tale of two young boys". The phrase makes me laugh a little, mostly because I feel the characters of the book, John Rickey and Gary "G-Man" Stubbs, would hate hearing it as much as I believe the author, Mrs. Brite, might.
The story introduces us to John, Gary, and their families, and sets the stage for life as adults, as friends and lovers, as well as their introduction to the culinary world.
I read this after finishing Poppy's follow up novel, Liquor, so I was already aquainted with both G-Man and Rickey, and it probably helped me to enjoy this novel a little more since I was already familiar with the plot and was concentrating more on the characters themselves.

Taken by itself, the novel comes across to me as a little bit light, but I think that it lays some very important groundwork for the boy's relationship and aspirations that will pay off for readers in later novels, like Liquor, which follows the two through the opening of their first restaurant, and the forthcoming The Big D. For me this works, as if each entry is another glimpse of a much larger whole that will be filled in as time goes by. ( )