The Best American Noir of the Century

The Dark Side of Life, 8 Oct 2011

By 

M. Dowden (London, UK) –

  

  

  

  

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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