Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane
New York,
NY: Akashic Books, 2009
List of
short stories:
“Exit Interview” by Lynne Heitman
“Animal Rescue” by Dennis Lehane
“The Place Where He Belongs” by Jim Fusilli
“Dark Waters” by Patricia Powell
“Femme Sole” by Dana Cameron
“The Dark Island” by Brendan DuBois
“The Reward” by Stewart O’Nan
“The Cross-Eyed Bear” by John Dufresne
“The Oriental Hair Poets” by Don Lee
“The Collar” by Itabari Njeri
“Turn Speed” by Russ Aborn
Boston Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Dennis Lehane, Mary
Cotton, and Jamie Clarke
New York,
NY: Akashic Books, 2012
List of
short stories:
“The Marriage Privilege” by Chuck Hogan
“Night-Side” by Joyce Carol Oates
“Home Sweet Home” by Hannah Tinti
“Surrogate” by Robert B. Parker
“Mushrooms” by Dennis Lehane
“Lucky Penny” by Linda Barnes
“Blanche Cleans Up” [excerpt] by Barbara Neely
“The Balance of the Day” by George V. Higgins
“Bait” [excerpt] by Kenneth Abel
“Townies” by Andre Dubus
“Driving the Heart” by Jason Brown
“The 5:22” by George Harrar
“Infinite Jest” [excerpt] by David Foster Wallace
“At Night” by David Ryan
I write briefly here
about two publications by Akashic Books, Boston
Noir and Boston Noir 2, mostly
because I want to introduce noir fans to Akashic Books and its noir series. I
think that fans of noir literature across the country and around the world will
be able to find a short story collection at Akashic Books that takes place in a
locale they know well.
Akashic
Books has published a long list of books that collect noir short stories
mostly, but not always, according to geographic location. For more information
about their books and forthcoming titles, click here.
What I love about
these two books, these two short story collections, is that I can recognize the
locales. Each story is set in a Boston neighborhood or a city or town just
outside Boston. And the presentation fits the subject: Each book comes with a
map on a two-page spread that shows each neighborhood or town where a short
story in the collection takes place, and each location is marked with the drop-out
white form of a dead body.
The presentation
isn’t the only detail to love about these books. The writing, of course, is the
main draw.
I want to try other
books in Akashic Books’ noir series, and I have already started Providence Noir. The noir series is such
a wonderful idea: Anytime I want a quick noir fix (and who doesn’t?), I can
pick up a short story in one of these collections.
◊ Boston Noir: All the stories in this collection are superb. It’s hard,
however, not to have favorites. I especially enjoyed “Femme Sole” because it’s
colonial noir set in the North End, and “The Dark Island” because it takes place
when film noir was at its peak, right after World War II. Of the two short
story collections, Boston Noir is the
one that I enjoyed the most and can recommend without reservation. And if
you’re from Massachusetts, you’ll enjoy it all the more.
◊ Boston Noir 2: According to the “Introduction: They Look Like You and Me,”
the parameters for story selection were slightly different for each Boston Noir book:
. . . Whereas Boston Noir comprised brand-new pieces
commissioned for the anthology, our charge here [in Boston Noir 2] was to scour the body of Boston literature for
previously published short stories and novel excerpts that best illuminate the
dark corners of the Hub. (pages 13–16)
I didn’t enjoy Boston Noir 2 as much as the first. I
couldn’t finish “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace after starting it on
two different occasions. The run-on sentences didn’t draw me in. They were too
distracting and made the story too hard to follow. And the main characters
seemed unlikable. If the story was meant to be from their drug-addled point of
view, the story was a success. But it didn’t help me to like the characters or
to understand the story.
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