BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

San Francisco Noir edited by Peter Maravelis

San Francisco NoirAnd since I was reviewing that latest Delhi Noir (see below post for Brooklyn Noir) for a San Francisco paper, I figured I ought to check out the local entry to the series, too. I’m all about procrastinating!

So the Fog City version, compared to the original, is a bit more uneven than not. But that’s not to say that the collection doesn’t have plenty to entertainingly scare you. The stories by women, I’ll say with a bit of pride, prove most successful. Reading Kate Braverman’s “The Neutral Zone,” you can’t help but think who needs enemies when you’ve got such longtime friends as Clarissa and Zoë?  In Michelle Tea’s “Larry’s Place,” again, enemies are harmless compared to the ex-lover who trashes the protagonist-prostitute’s already shabby abode so she takes up residence in her dead landlord’s upstairs spread instead, stinking body and all. Eee-yew.

Speaking of bodies, the final story, “Confessions of a Sex Maniac” by David Henry Sterry, is quite a rollercoaster ride as a young man who can never get enough hurtles towards his own demise. I suppose we should all have such indescribable adventures before we kick the bucket, huh?

Readers: Adult

Published: 2005

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