<DIV>"<I>Last of the Red Hot Poppas</I> will make you laugh and it will make you think rather more deeply than will make you comfortable, and in these wildly disjointed times that means this novel is not only a richly enjoyable read but an essential one." ? Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning <I>A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain</I><BR><BR>?Right-wing flag enthusiasts, big oil power brokers, luckless inheritors of environmental degradation, professional gamblers, sexual profligates, ACLU lawyers, and political hit men?<I>Last of the Red Hot Poppas</I> has all of these and more. Jason Berry, quintessential Louisiana insider and witty chronicler of what passes for morality in the halls of power, has concocted a tantalizing mix of comic misdemeanors and serious criminal activity.” ? Valerie Martin, author of <I>Property</I><BR><BR>"Both wildly entertaining and deadly serious, <I>Last of the Red Hot Poppas</I> is a fabulous read ? nobody understands Louisiana politics (and its larger-than-life characters) better than Jason Berry. I couldn't put this one down." ? Lee Smith, author of <I>On Agate Hill</I> and <I>The Last Girls</I><BR><BR><I>Last of the Red Hot Poppas</I> is part ribald whodunit, part social satire, and part ?spiritual comedy,” as Berry calls it. It's a chaotic romp through the many levels of ?Looziana,” but above all, it is a novel about the struggle to maintain one's integrity in a mad world of politics and power.</DIV>