LONG ISLAND NOIR
KAYLIE JONES (ed.)
Akashic Books
$19.95 trade paper, available now
Rating: 4.75* of five
The Publisher Says: Stories covering Long Island's extremes, from the comfortable rich to the horribly poor, and all the darkness between.
Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the geographical area of the book. KAYLIE JONES, JULES FEIFFER, REED FARREL COLEMAN, SHEILA KOHLER, and others reveal how Long Island has always been a playground for the rich and famous—and while it used to be that only a select few could afford it, now everyone wants a piece of the pie.
The McMansions pop up like mushrooms, limiting resources and destroying an already taxed environment. It feels a little like Rome in its last days—a kind of collective amnesia and blindness to the outside world has taken over. Everyone knows this, but no one wants to do anything about it, because big money is being spent—and made. And as the rich grow richer, the poor grow poorer and more disenfranchised; and greed only breeds more greed and violence.
These stories cover the range of Long Island's extremes, from the comfortably rich, to the horribly poor—people pushed to desperate acts in order to protect what they already have, or to try to take what they don't from those who do.
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.
My Review: This series of anthologies is always welcome. It's a darn good series, well edited and clever in its conception and execution. Original stories by an array of people from, or who live(d) on, Long Island, all very talented writers though not always of thriller fiction; that did not work perfectly in this anthology's case but hey, it got a lot of great stuff in front of us.
I'm using the Bryce Method of giving a short assessment of the individual stories so you'll be able to assess the whole as well as the parts.
Home Invasion starts us off with a bitter, angry generational bang. The silences within families are probably scarier than anything that a stranger could dream up. 4 stars
The Shiny Car in the Night is probably the best piece in the collection. It's a slightly less domestic, yest still family centered, tale of men whose losses are no less horribly disfiguring for being self-inflicted; a son whose father can't find a way to escape the funhouse-mirror lined labyrinth of rage and regret against his brother, ends up...ending up. 5 stars
Anjali's America is an immigrant woman doctor's story of how narrowly she escaped the horror of being a woman locked in a joyless prison of motherhood and victimhood and subservience to the men who couldn't understand anything she's ever thought. Nor would they try...she exists to serve. Nightmarish, intense, and vivid. 4 stars
A Starr Burns Bright is a grifter's wet dream of The Big Strike, if he can just pull it off. He needs the strike for sure, but he's not the sharpest tool in the shed...the secrets he now knows aren't the best way to stay healthy and alive for a long time. Hijinks, as hey must, ensue...4 stars
Mastermind really made me sit up and take notice, it's by Reed Farrel Coleman and it's got the biggest heart and the scariest fall. When someone knows he's not top-drawer material for his particular corner of the world, and he keeps working his ass off to Make It anyway, it's poignant and it's admirable in a weird way even when he's not a nice guy. But the world knocks the best over, imagine how bad it is when they're not close to the best...5 stars
Contents of House was a bitter pill indeed, bad sex and smashed-up love and revenge all stewed in a heart that simply isn't up to the task of coldness and instead succumbs to shame. 4 stars
Snow Job is hilariously wicked. It's short, but twisty, and it's got the sheer narrative drive of an entire novel...the pace does not let up, the stuff that happens is terrible but you just can't help laughing...schadenfreude, thy name is me, when people who deserve it get come-uppances...and, by the time it's done, I wanted to start over again. 5 stars
The other pieces, eg "Semiconscious," "Blood Drive," "Jabo's," and "Terror," were three or more star decent efforts but didn't rise to the heights the others did. A few, eg "Seven Eleven" and "Boob Noir" by Jules Feiffer, just weren't up to the standard set by the superior works. Still, there are seventeen stories in here, so a few not-to-my-liking ones are more than likely going to sneak in. It's definitely a very good way to spend your Sunday afternoon at the beach! Labor Day has lots of hours in it. Spend some here.
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