The Best American Noir of the Century

Posted by Notcot on May 6, 2012 in Noir |
The Best American Noir of the Century

In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “noir is the most scrutinised offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It’s the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.” Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction. James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of writing — 1910-2010 — to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,” and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Patricia Highsmith and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing in the last decade.In his introduction to the The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “noir is the most scrutinised offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It’s the long drop off the short pier and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.” Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction. James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, series editor of the annual The Best American Mystery Stories, mined one hundred years of writing — 1910-2010 — to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,” and its post-war heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Patricia Highsmith and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing in the last decade.

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2 Comments

M. Dowden
at 12:21 pm

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Dark Side of Life, 8 Oct 2011
By 
M. Dowden (London, UK) –
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James Ellroy and Otto Penzler have collected 35 short tales here from a vast collection of what has been written in nearly a century. The first tale here is from 1923, and the last from 2007. Penzler in the Foreword, and Ellroy in the Introduction try to explain the quintessence of noir in fiction. We have such tales here as Spurs by Tod Robbins, the basis of the film Freaks [1932] [DVD], Gun Crazy by MacKinlay Kantor which was the basis of the film of the same name, and Out There in The Darkness by Ed Gorman, which was the basis for the film, The Poker Club.

We also have here the first published tale of James M Cain, Patricia Highsmith’s favourite of all her tales, and many more, including James Ellroy himself, Mickey Spillane, Evan Hunter, Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich, Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, and Jeffery Deaver, along with many others.

What you will find here are tales of desperation from the dark side of life, with misfits and those in difficult situations. One of the tales also falls into the horror genre, and all these are pretty dark. There are stories that you will know and have read before, and others that you haven’t ever read, or indeed may not even have heard of the authors. Some of these are darkly humorous, albeit in a macabre way. Admittedly some of the tales are much better than others, and there are some not here that I personally would have liked to have seen, but then we can’t have everything.

If you like your crime dark and bleak, then this is a book that will go well in your collection. Although be warned. I overloaded on this, reading it from cover to cover, but this is probably a book that is best enjoyed if you just dip into it and not read it all in one go.

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Talking Monkey "Cono-sewer"
at 1:04 pm

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great collection, 27 Dec 2011
By 
Talking Monkey “Cono-sewer” (The Frozen North) –

Read this in a week! Every story is a gem! Found some really good edgy stuff here. If you like stories with more than a hint of darkness, you’ll love this colelction.

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