Chicago Noir
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"If ever a city was made to be the home of noir, it's Chicago. These writers go straight to Chicago's noir heart" (Aleksandar Hemon, National Book Award finalist and New York Times–bestselling author of The Lazarus Project).
Chicago's rough-and-tumble tough-guy reputation may have been replaced in recent years by the image of a tourist- and family-friendly town—but that original city isn't gone. The hard-bitten streets once represented by James Farrell and Nelson Algren may have shifted locales, and they may be populated by different ethnicities, but Chicago is still a place where people struggle to survive and where, for many, crime is the only means for their survival. The stories in Chicago Noir reclaim that territory, in tales of hired killers and jazz men, drunks and dreamers, corrupt cops and ticket scalpers and junkies, of a place where hard cases face their sad fates, and pay for their sins in blood.
Brand new stories by Neal Pollack, Achy Obejas, Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski, Adam Langer, Joe Meno, Peter Orner, Kevin Guilfoile, Bayo Ojikutu, Jeffery Renard Allen, Luciano Guerriero, Claire Zulkey, Andrew Ervin, M.K. Meyers, Todd Dills, C.J. Sullivan, Daniel Buckman, Amy Sayre-Roberts, and Jim Arndorfer.
"Chicago Noir is a legitimate heir to the noble literary tradition of the greatest city in America." —Stephen Elliott, author of Happy Baby
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While not up to the standard set by Brooklyn Noir, the inaugural volume in Akashic's city-themed noir series, the Chicago entry offers 18 all-original stories that illustrate Chicago's great ethnic diversity, pay homage to its sports teams (particularly the Cubs) and invoke its cultural past from jazz to Prohibition. Unfortunately, most of the selections lack the kind of visceral punch the best noir stories carry. One wishes, too, that the editor had been able to add some familiar names associated with Chicago crime fiction (e.g., Max Allan Collins, Sara Paretsky, Barbara D'Amato) to what is largely a roster of lesser knowns. The standout is perhaps Kevin Guilfoile's cleverly imagined and brilliantly executed tale, "Zero Zero Day," about a man obsessed with monitoring police calls. Also notable are C.J. Sullivan's "Alex Pinto Hears the Bell," about an aging boxer given one last shot at capturing some ring glory; Pollack's "Marty's Drink or Die Club," where traditions are upheld at all cost; and Achy Obejas's "Destiny Returns," which describes the strange odyssey of a Cuban refugee who achieves cult status as a drag queen in her new home.
