The Show That Smells

Famed Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) stirs up sanguinary trouble as the “Dracula of Dressmaking” in McCormack's phantasmagorical novella, the latest entry in Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery series. The action takes place inside a mirror maze at a carnival, where vampiric Elsa crows about her new perfume, Shocking! (the base note is blood), goads a desperate woman into selling her soul and commits dreadful wordplays (“ 'Haute couture?' Schiaparelli says. 'Haute horreur !' ”). Thank goodness for Coco Chanel, godmother of the little black dress and the cardigan jacket, not to mention part-time vampire-hunter, whose eponymous perfume works better than garlic on nasty old Elsa. But can the Vogue vampire really be vanquished? Throw the Carter family into the mix (Schiaparelli accuses them of “carter-wauling”), an undead Lon Chaney (The Man of a Thousand Faces ) and preparations for two Satanic gay marriages, and you've got a recipe for a book that'll have you shaking your head in an odd but energizing combination of admiration and annoyance. This is a one-of-a-kind glimpse into a clever and devious mind. (July)