Review: The Best American Noir of the Century

The Best American Noir of the Century by James Ellroy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not The Noir I’m Looking For

I've lost count of the number of times I've read recently that Film Noir is a product of its era (1930's-40's) and that anything after that time period is simply "in the style of Film Noir". I'm not sure why this is the case... it's never been explained in any of these countless articles. But why would films like Body Heat and The Grifters, for example, NOT be Film Noir? I assume it can't simply be because they were not shot in black & white... hell, I'm not even sure all Film Noir was shot in black and white. But there you have it.

Whatever the case, this book makes a good case for that definition. Billed as Best American Noir of the Century, about a third of the way in it ditches the mean streets of the city to head out into the backwoods, becoming some kind of Appalachian noir (I'm painting in broad strokes here) and, with few exceptions, never looking back.

It's not that the stories are bad. Elroy and Penzler know their shit, and every author included here is an award winner. And the stories reflect the quality of these authors. They just don't fit my definition of noir... I'd have been much more comfortable reading these as part of The Best American Crime Stories of the Century, but I guess that title doesn't have quite the bang of Noir.

Whatever the case, it was a fine read. Just not really what I was expecting, or looking for.

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