[Location] Noir by Akashic Books

Cafe Society
1

Anyone familiar with this series of anthologies?

I saw Twin Cities Noir on the shelf at my local public library, and just had to see whether it was the “correct” Twin Cities. (Answer: yes. Answer part two: Minneapolis/St. Paul).

I haven’t finished the book, but I’ve read the first several stories. The authors are all from the Twin Cities area, and each contributed a short story set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the Twin Cnities.

The first story was a little disconcerting, given that it is the story of a Puerto Rican teenage boy, and his neighbor–a beautiful Hmong law student. Obviously set in modern times, the mentions of the Hmong community felt realistic but un"Noir"ish. Until I reached the conclusion–which was as "noir"ish as I could wish.

The Hmong law student lied to and manipulated her neighbor in order to get her brother to kill her uncle so that she would get his money.

The next story was much more what I was expecting–set in the past (1934) and involving a “hoocher” who goes looking for the answer to who killed a prominent man, and finds out the answer is more complicated than he expected. On the other hand, the author provides a situationally appropriate but still annoying amount of not very polite terms for both Irish and Jewish people. (Not quite hate speech–at least I didn’t recognize them as hate speech terms, but not precisely socially acceptable language today. IMHO, YMMV. Had a similar problem recently listening to a Nero Wolfe/Rex Stout book on audiotape–and that was written when the language and attitudes were more acceptable than it is now.)

The next story features a look at life behind behind the scenes at the Inpound Lot where cars are towed during one of Minneapolis’s Snow Emergencies. I lived in the Twin Cities Area during the 80’s (mostly) and so am aware of the existance of Snow Emergency Policies similar to those described in the story, even if I don’t know any details.

But mostly, I was just curious as to whether anyone else had seen one of the anthologies in the series, and what they thought about it.

2

I’ve been reading good things about this series in the Los Angeles Times Book review in the past few months, and I’m going to be adding these to my summer reading list. My fear is that I might get caught up in the series too much and want to add them all to my library. They have quite an extensive list so far:
http://www.akashicbooks.com/noirseries.htm

Already published:
[ul][li]Bronx Noir[/li][li]Wall Street Noir[/li][li]Los Angeles Noir[/li][li]New Orleans Noir[/li][li]Miami Noir[/li][li]London Noir[/li][li]Twin Cities Noir[/li][li]Baltimore Noir[/li][li]Manhattan Noir[/li][li]Dublin Noir[/li][li]DC Noir[/li][li]San Francisco Noir[/li][li]Chicago Noir[/li][li]Brooklyn Noir[/li][li]Brooklyn Noir 2[/ul][/li]Forthcoming:
[ul][li]Havana Noir[/li][li]Detroit Noir[/li][li]Queens Noir[/li][li]Brooklyn Noir 3[/li][li]DC Noir 2: The Classics[/li][li]Delhi Noir (India)[/li][li]Istanbul Noir (Turkey)[/li][li]Lagos Noir (Nigeria)[/li][li]Las Vegas Noir[/li][li]Paris Noir (France)[/li][li]Rome Noir (Italy)[/li][li]San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics[/li][li]Toronto Noir (Canada)[/li][/ul]

My plan will be to start with LA noir (of course) and then try the others.