Customer Reviews

San Francisco Noir (Akashic Noir)

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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To anyone who has ever traveled to San Francisco-even once-it becomes abundantly clear that this city is unlike any other on earth despite how many comparisons are made. It appears caught within its own time warp, neither here nor there, neither now nor coming, cosmopolitan and upscale, yet strangely beatnik still. Its mystery is that it has a reputable personality that's nearly indescribable-and mythical. Born into the gold rush and immense and violent corruption in the 1800s, burned to the ground by earthquake in 1906, and in modern years home to a large and proud population of gays, San Francisco remains enchanting and unforgettable, from its must-see fog to its legendary minute by minute weather.

It is easy to see then why Akashic Books, in a seemingly single-handed effort to corner the market on noir anthologies has begun a series of books set in and around various U.S. cities. San Francisco, after two Brooklyn Noir books and a Chicago Noir anthology, may seem like an unlikely place for modern day gun molls, double dealings gone hideously wrong, hidden atrocities, and otherwise down and out denizens hard on their luck who walk the thin but blurred line between anti-hero and flat-out villain. And yet, here they are spread out over fifteen stories that take place all over San Francisco, from The Haight to Bernal Heights to the Mission and the Castro.

While not all of the stories are good in San Francisco Noir, in particular Sin Sorracco's wandering Double Espresso, Kate Braverman's tepid The Neutral Zone, and Alvin Lu's rather heavy-handed Le Rouge et Le Noir, many hit the target with unwavering talent. It is as if Sorracco, Braverman and Lu did not get the memo on what this collection was truly about and decided to wander off-literally speaking.

David Corbett's It Can Happen displays the author's talent to write like a boxer fights, weaving and bobbing with words, entrancing the reader in a steadily building climax that only fails by the obviousness of the story's last paragraph. And speaking of boxing, Robert Mailer Anderson's Briley Boy is unapologetic in its violence and dark characters, excellently written from beginning to stunning and profound end. Jim Nisbet's Weight Less Than Shadow is the type of story that you'd just as soon find in the The New Yorker or Rolling Stone, and is so well-written the reader may feel compelled to devour Nisbett's witty tongue in cheek narrative twice in a row.

Peter Plate's Genesis to Revelation is a confection of sorts, but seems to lose it by the last sentence, and Barry Gifford's After Hours at La Chinita plays well in theory as it begins with a promising start and gets entangled by its own cleverness in the end, while Jon Longhi's Fixed seemed like a punishment. It is singularly Alejandro Murguia's The Other Barrio that stands out as the anthology's most dedicated work, with a tough-talking protagonist, hard language ("I want you to be my puta."), a femme fatale, an evil and ominous villain, a few thugs, and more than one unfortunate death. Murguia has written this story as if it were a movie, and it plays like that as one reads through it, right up until its predictable but necessary noir ending.

Editor Peter Maravelis has done well in assembling what appears to be writers who are in love with the city of San Francisco. No matter the quality of the work, the emotion and knowledge of the city shines through each tale and makes this book something to consider and recommend. Just be careful of the conversation you have with the trigger-happy moll from the South of Market. It could be your last.

I agree with the succinct comments of the previous reviewers. So far I've read the great Akashic-published Noir anthologies set in New Orleans, Washington D.C. (the best two so far, I think), Los Angeles, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Dublin, and they are all four- and five-star collections. I was going to give this one three stars as the other reviewers did but then I really had to be honest with myself and Amazon readers. From the lackluster introduction and apparent lack of editorial guidance and selection, there are three or four mediocre stories in this book -- the rest are just plain bad, and as another reviewer said, most of the authors "just don't get it" about noir. San Francisco deserves better than this with its rich heritage a fertile ground. The first story, set in the post-WWII bay area, and "It Can Happen", at least have decent noir elements such as plot. Others don't seem to have a plot and don't go amywhere at all. See for yourself. As I said, the rest of the series I have read so far is great, as is the series concept by Tim McCloughlin, and I plan to continue reading my way through the rest of it, including the other foreign-based titles on my list. It's a darn shame this book didn't turn out better. As I noted in my "New Orleans Noir" review, why didn't they ask Julie Smith to contribute to this, as one of her good mystery series is set there, and she was an ace new reporter for the daily Chronicle before returning to New Orleans (where she achieved greater literary fame) and edited N.O. Noir. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

Good, bad, and ugly. Connection to noir and the City's diverse neighborhoods sometimes tenuous. Provides talent capsules of local literaries, some to pursue, others to avoid. "Deception of the Thrush" by Will Christopher Baer... Dark, riveting, twisted; fast and fluid, seamless episodic shifts, dangling plot. "Fixed" by Jon Longhi... Hilarious, rips PC illusions off the City's celebrated drug culture; charts mindset/path of serial substance abusers. "Larry's Place" by Michelle Tea... Laugh out loud depressing, richly descriptive without the froth; progressive vice; letdown ending. "It Can Happen" by David Corbett. Smooth story line comes crashing down, not one likeable character -- that's its charm. "Confessions of a Sex Maniac" by David Henry Sterry. Has its moments, but tries too hard to be funny; no fan of gonzo. "Le Rouge et le Noir" by Alvin Lu. Noir?? Final impression -- so what. "Double Expresso" by Sin Soracco. Angry/resentful undercurrent; inane dialog; plodding. "The Neutral Zone" by Kate Braverman. Pretentious/overwrought/unreadable; only story I couldn't finish.