Boston Noir

Gotta say, I really enjoyed all but two of these stories (and of those two, one was just kind of there, the other was okay, but not to the level of the others).

Are all the stories truly noir? Well, noir covers a wide swath, yet I still think the genre was stretched a touch with some of the entries. But were they entertaining? Yes, yes they were. So, for that, I'll allow the latitude.

Good collection, definitely worth the read.

Akashic Books has been publishing a series of original short story collections featuring specific cities or, in a few cases, states or even countries, for a number of years now, all of which are examples of noir fiction - that is, somewhat seedy, usually at least a bit criminal and always quite dark. I pick up these books as I find them, because they’re always well-curated and entertaining to read. "Boston Noir" features stories by Brendan DuBois, Stewart O’Nan, Itabari Njeri, Dana Cameron and Dennis Lehane, among others; the authors chosen for these books are generally people with ties to the city or region under consideration, which makes them that much more interesting. Different people will like different stories in these show more collections, but the quality of the writing is uniformly good and sometimes great. As it happens, I was born just outside Boston (although I didn’t live there beyond the age of 3 or so), which made this particular collection especially fun for me. Definitely worth picking up - I mean the whole series - if you run across them; recommended! show less

A collection of eleven short stories set in Boston's neighborhoods display a good grasp not only of noir style storytelling, but also of Boston's fast vanishing uniqueness. The local toughs aka knuckleheads; our colloquialisms 'wicked pissah' and the neighborhood family feel all almost lost to progress thru gentrification.

Edited by native resident Dennis Lehane, who also contributes a story, the stories seem reminiscent of an earlier time, capturing local Boston in all her glory. My favorites include Lehane's 'Animal Rescue'; Patricia Powell's 'Dark Waters'; Dana Cameron's 'Femme Sole'; Brendan Dubois' ' The Dark Island'; John Dufresne's Cross Eyed Bear' and Russ Aborn's 'Turn Speed'. Which will yours be? Read and be pleasurably show more entertained! show less

"Boston Noir" is, by my count, the thirty-fourth book in a series of darkish short story collections set in major cities around the world. Each of the featured cities has distinct enough a personality to set a unique tone for its particular volume, even, at times becoming as much a character in the stories as the chief protagonists themselves.

This particular volume is home to eleven short stories, some of which have been written by authors already well known to genre readers and others by lesser known writers. Dennis Lehane contributes both the book's introduction and a story entitled "Animal Rescue" about a seemingly simple man with an unexpected hard edge to him. Other contributors include: Stewart O'Nan, Lynne Heitman, Jim Fusilli, show more Patricia Powell and John Dufresne.

The stories have a tough, sometimes depressing, tone to them but they are kept lighter than they otherwise would have been by the bits of ironic humor that sneak into them when least expected. Even readers unfamiliar with the term "noir," will be tempted to explore the collection after reading Lehane's definition of what it takes to be a "noir hero" - "In Shakespeare, tragic heroes fall from mountaintops; in noir, they fall from curbs. Tragic heroes die in a blaze of their own ill-advised conflation. Noir heroes die clutching fences or crumpled in trunks or, in the case of poor Eddie Coyle, they simply doze off drunkenly in a car and take one in the back of the head before they have a chance to wake up again. No wise words, no music swelling on the soundtrack."

These are stories about white collar people who finally reach their breaking point; people who see an opportunity to stick it to the system and grab the chance to do so; people eager to profit from the deaths of others; hard people that suffer because of soft hearts; inept criminals who somehow manage to bluff their way through; and the worst kind of sex predator - something for everyone.

Stories collected from so many different writers will, of course, vary in quality, and those gathered in "Boston Noir" are no exception to that rule. What is rather unusual, unfortunately, is that the quality of these stories range all the way from very effective to almost incomprehensible, meaning that most readers are likely to consider "Boston Noir" to be, at best, an average collection of short stories.

Rated at: 3.0 show less

Meh. Boston Noir is focused primarily on a particular kind of Boston, a sort of Hollywood vision of the good old days when regular guys (Irish, drunk, not real bright) ran the seedier side of things, or, slightly more realistically, a Boston where those same kinds of people believe the Hollywood version of the city really existed and want to make it real again. The stories are depressingly similar - not badly written, just not different enough from each other to be memorable. It's a quick read, though, and not un-entertaining; it's just not as mind-blowingly good as you probably want it to be, given the names in the table of contents.

A collection of "noir" stories, set in Boston, by several different authors. One of a series of Noir collections.

I found the stories quick and easy to read, and usually enjoyable. I didn't love any of them. The book makes good bedtime reading, or perhaps waiting room reading.

The range of what they consider noir is a bit broader than mine, but that's all right. Something for everyone in here, I think. In my opinion, the opening story, "Exit Interview," is the best. YMMV.