Fiction as Noir as Night
It's #66
Tips fedora in shadowy lighting … Welcome, friends, new and old, to this week’s recommendations: noir fiction. (cue silhouette of stocking-clad leg and saxophone lick)
OK, lest my regular readers reasonably assume this book recommendation newsletter is simply a slapdash, spur-of-the-moment ramble interspersed with excessive alliteration and silly jokes, I’m pleased to report that for this week’s theme I actually did some Research. By which I mean, I Googled “noir” and this is what it said:
“A subgenre of crime fiction in which right and wrong are not clearly defined, while the protagonists are seriously and often tragically flawed.”
Though I rather prefer this more plain-spoken explanation:
“One definition of noir is where a not-so-good man or woman tries to touch something good - and fails.”
In any event, I think this week’s books fall within these definitions while also conveying that heavily draped sense of place and time that apparently is not part of the Official Noir Definition but certainly is part of the appeal, at least for me.
The last few months have brought a bunch of noir into my reading scope, for possibly the first time, and while I don’t think it will be my favorite genre, I can confirm that each of these were deeply atmospheric reads - not fun or light, but engaging, thought-provoking, and evocative. If you’re a noir fan, leave your recommendations in the comments and let me know what I’ve missed!
If you prefer your fiction to be happy and your lambs to be plentiful, you can check out past editions like my Fun Mystery recommendations or a Few Delightful Reads.
Rural Southern Noir:
I know, I may be the actual last carbon life form to read Razorblade Tears, but if you missed it as well, I definitely recommend this one.
Power summary: Two fathers - one Black, one white, with nothing in common but a violent, incarcerated past - team up to investigate and avenge the murders of their gay sons.
This book is not only a superbly paced thriller with terrific dialogue and believable, well-scoped antihero characters, and it’s not only a well-realized reflection of modern rural life that never resorts to tired cliches, it also manages to do these things while reflecting on the important topics of sexuality, race, policing, violence, and family. Brutal, violent, grim, but somehow still tender. Definitely worth reading
Horror Noir:
My Heart is a Chainsaw received a lot of praise, and in my quest to read more Native authors, I was excited to check it out. And … whew. I just … okay, so ... huh.
Power summary: When violence visits her rapidly gentrifying rural Idaho lake town, horror-film obsessed teen Jade believes she alone can predict and prevent what’s coming.
This is like nothing I’ve read in a long time. If you love horror and slasher films (from “Nightmare on Elm Street” to “Saw” to “Jaws”) you will love this book, as both a paean to and installment in the horror/slasher genre. It’s heartbreaking, it’s wildly imaginative, it’s amongst the bloodiest and most violent books I’ve ever read, and like Razorblade Tears it does all this while also tackling larger important themes like colonialism and the violent past and the trauma of a young girl. It’s either something you will gobble up or you will absolutely recoil at, and both are fair responses!
Lamb rating: Zero lambs. ABSOLUTELY NEGATIVE LAMBIES.
1970’s Mexican Noir:
From the author of Mexican Gothic (which I did not read, for why?), Velvet Was the Night has all the smoky, lonely, dangerous and sultry vibes that I associate with noir, in the best ways. (I mean, look at that cover - how stylish!)
Power summary: Young secretary Maite avoids the revolutionary Mexico City youth around her in favor of security and her beloved romance comics. But when her next-door neighbor goes missing, she’s drawn into a world of gangsters, violence, radicals, and hitmen.
A blend of both crime novels and historical fiction, this is anti-hero reluctance at its best, as well as an interesting portrayal of young adults in their messy early twenties, made all the more compelling by the life-and-death, systematic stakes around them. A good one.
Post-war LA Noir:
Is one even an Angeleno if they’ve never read Walter Mosley or Raymond Chandler? Well, at least now I’ve tackled Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress, the first book in the Easy Rawlins series (published back in 1990. Hey, we get to books when we get to them!)
Power summary: In 1948 Los Angeles, Black WWII veteran Easy Rawlins is just trying to survive and pay his mortgage when he gets drawn into a world of corrupt politicians, dangerous women and deadly stakes.
Easy feels like a quintessential noir character, just trying to thrive in his own patch of the world, clear in his moral code but with a healthy ambivalence toward traditional definitions of right and wrong in a world that’s built to protect white men (like a forefather to Harlem Shuffle, or vice versa?) This book is a lot more plainly, sparely written than the others, in a way that heightens the conflicts in Easy’s world and showcases the colorful characters.
Book confession:
This week, I was part of a conference featuring two important authors speaking about the perilous state of democracy - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum and professor Barbara Walter.
Confession: my personal anxiety can’t quite stomach reading these books, but I’m all in on acting on them, now more than ever. And my very smart friends (like Jeff Berman of What I Just Read and Recommend) say they are amongst the most important books they’ve read. So assuming you have the adult moral fortitude that I lack, you’ll probably want to read them too - How Civil Wars Start (And How to Stop Them) and Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.
Hey, Stranger. New In Town?
If so, you may want to know a few things:
Every week features a different book or theme, so if this week wasn’t your jam, check out the archive!
All links go to Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores, and I can’t think of a more noble way to shop. You can see most of my past recos here. (Also, these are affiliate links, which means that if you bought a book via any link, I would receive a very small bounty, which I would donate to Defy Ventures. I say “would” because this has never actually happened, but it COULD and I do like to be FTC compliant.)
What in the Sam Hill are all these lambs doing in this newsletter? Let me explain.
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