![]() ![]() (Must they even be short stories? Couldn't we have a series of noir novels, each set in a different city?) Perhaps Lehane should've written all the stories in the collection. Any meaning but grey.") and maintains the existential balance between energy and stagnation in his animal lover's revenge story. ![]() He gets off a few good lines ("The street signs and window panes rattled, and Bob thought how winter lost any meaning the day you last rode a sled. An exception might be the story written by Lehane himself. ![]() Some part of them understands the futility of this chase even as another part clings to the need for it." This promising characterization of noir is immediately deflated by the first story offered and is consistently left limp, mangled, dazed, and confused throughout the collection. The best part of the collection is Dennis Lehane's introduction, where he characterizes noir thus: "No art form that I know of rages against the machine more violently than noir.Noir rages without much hope, certainly without romanticism or wish fulfillment." And: "The heroes and heroines of noir are usually chasing something they couldn't hold even if they caught up to it. The series is such a great idea - noir stories set in various beloved cities - but the publisher really should have been much more patient in soliciting and selecting submissions! The stories chosen here beg the question: What is noir? Apparently it's any story that has at least one character who's mean, as that seems to be the only characteristic common to all the stories in this collection. A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, he splits his time between the Boston area and Florida. Boston Noir launches in November 2009 just as Shutter Island, the film based on Lehane’s best-selling 2003 novel of the same title, hits the big screen.ĭennis Lehane is the author of The New York Times bestseller Mystic River (also an Academy Award–winning major motion picture) Prayers for Rain Gone, Baby, Gone (also a major motion picture) Sacred Darkness, Take My Hand A Drink Before the War, which won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel and, most recently, The Given Day. In 2003, Lehane’s novel Mystic River was adapted into film and quickly garnered six Academy Award nominations (with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins each winning Academy Awards). Lehane’s own contribution-the longest story in the volume-is set in his beloved home neighborhood of Dorchester and showcases his phenomenal ability to grip the heart, soul, and throat of the reader. In keeping with the Akashic Noir series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city-the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor, and all stops in between. Here, he extends his literary prowess to that of master curator. Brand-new stories by: Dennis Lehane, Stewart O'Nan, Patricia Powell, John Dufresne, Lynne Heitman, Don Lee, Russ Aborn, Itabari Njeri, Jim Fusilli, Brendan DuBois, and Dana Cameron.ĭennis Lehane ( Mystic River, The Given Day) has proven himself to be a master of both crime fiction and literary fiction. ![]()
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