The Big Book of Noir
Penzler Pick, December 1999: It took the French, with their word for "dark," to give an identity to an important mystery sub-genre. Something more than hard-boiled,noir--whether in film, book, or television--must also speak to a sense of existential nihilism, where betrayal is how romance best expresses itself and fear is only another name for foreplay. But while we all now know whatnoiris, when it was starting to coalesce as a coherent style back in the 1940s and early 1950s, it was more spontaneous, less self-conscious. It was wholly representative of a world then at war, not just with visible enemies, but with unseen ones as well.Editors Gorman, Server, and Greenberg have brought together a fine galaxy of contributors (among them, William F. Nolan, James Sallis, Mike Ripley, Bill Pronzini, Gary Lovisi, Max Allan Collins, and many more) to cover the waterfront in all areas ofnoirartistry. Even Stephen King weighs in with a tribute to Jim Thompson, wonderfully titled "Warning! Warning! Hitchhikers May Be Escaped Lunatics!" (Thompson fans will get the joke.) Charles Willeford, Chester Himes, Patricia Highsmith, Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Orson Welles, John D. MacDonald, Leigh Brackett, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Gunn, Joe Friday, Lew Archer, and Lawrence Block--they're all here, and more, of course. It's 386 pages deep innoirreferences, lore, and opinions. But of special interest to book collectors are the chapters on the old publishers and imprints: Lion Books, Gold Medal, and others. There are conversations too, among them a rare chat with cult favorite Peter Rabe (who died in 1990), an interview with the always lively and urbane Donald E. Westlake, and a talk with Abraham Polonsky (screenplay writer, director, and blacklistee). Even kid stuff is not exempt from the bleak world ofnoir. Ron Goulart explores comic booknoir, and, as a well-respected expert in the field of comics and cartoon strips, leads us back to such forgotten figures as "Steel Sterling," "Madam Satan," and "Johnny Dynamite."If you've ever enjoyed a book by James Ellroy, Jim Thompson, or Richard Stark, or any movie with Veronica Lake or Lizabeth Scott, this book is not to be missed.--Otto Penzler