New Orleans Noir : The Classics (Akashic Noir) (Akashic Noir Series) - Softcover

Julie Smith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 161775384X ISBN 13: 9781617753848

Publisher: Akashic Books, 2016

Synopsis

PART OF AKASHIC'S ACCLAIMED NOIR SERIES

The sequel to New Orleans Noir (2007, also available), one of the Noir series' top sellers, now in its fourth printing.

New Orleans' tremendous literary tradition shines bright in this outstanding collection of stories from some of the best writers in American history. Julie Smith has masterfully curated this volume with stories published as early as 1843 and as recently as 2012.

Classic reprints from: James Lee Burke, Armand Lanusse, Grace King, Kate Chopin, O. Henry, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Shirley Ann Grau, John William Corrington, Tom Dent, Ellen Gilchrist, Valerie Martin, O'Neil De Noux, John Biguenet, Poppy Z. Brite, Nevada Barr, Ace Atkins and Maurice Carlos Ruffin.

From the introduction by Julie Smith:

A glittering constellation of writers have passed through New Orleans - including Mark Twain, Sherwood Anderson, O. Henry, even Walt Whitman, to name some of the not-so-usual suspects. Then there are the ones whose sojourns here are better known, the ones on whom we pride ourselves: Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ellen Gilchrist, James Lee Burke.

It was an anthologer's feast - just about everybody who came to New Orleans wrote about it. But there were surprises...

If you're from New Orleans, the neighbourhood theme resonates like Tibetan temple bells. And yet, surely every city has similar 'hoods, similar behaviour patterns, similar travails - and has had them forever. 'Indeed,' wrote Voltaire, 'history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.'

About this title

About the Author

Julie Smith is an Edgar Award-winning author of two detective series set in New Orleans. A former reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the San Francisco Chronicle, she lives in the Faubourg Marigny section of New Orleans, which is much funkier than it sounds.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

New Orleans Noir

The Classics

By Julie Smith

Akashic Books

Copyright © 2016 Akashic Books
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-61775-384-8

Contents

Introduction, 11, 
PART I: THE AWAKENING, 
Armand Lanusse A Marriage of Conscience St. Louis Cathedral 1843, 19, 
Grace King The Little Convent Girl The River 1893, 25, 
Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour Bayou St. John 1894, 35, 
O. Henry Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking French Quarter 1899, 39, 
PART II: SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, 
Eudora Welty The Purple Hat Upper Quarter 1941, 61, 
Tennessee Williams Desire and the Black Masseur Tremé 1948, 70, 
Shirley Ann Grau Miss Yellow Eyes Pigeon Town 1955, 80, 
John William Corrington Pleadings Uptown 1976, 116, 
Tom Dent Ritual Murder Courthouse 1978, 159, 
PART III: THE THANATOS SYNDROME, 
Ellen Gilchrist Rich Garden District 1978, 177, 
Valerie Martin Spats New Orleans East 1988, 201, 
O'Neil De Noux The Man with Moon Hands Tchoupitoulas and Jackson 1993, 212, 
John Biguenet Rose Gentilly 1999, 221, 
Poppy Z. Brite Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz Basin Street 1995, 224, 
Nevada Barr GDMFSOB Versailles Boulevard 2006, 251, 
James Lee Burke Jesus Out to Sea Ninth Ward 2006, 258, 
Ace Atkins Last Fair Deal Gone Down Warehouse District 2010, 269, 
Maurice Carlos Ruffin Pie Man Central City 2012, 293, 
Acknowledgments, 310, 
About the Contributors, 312, 
Permissions, 316, 

INTRODUCTION

The Many Ways It Can All Go Away

Just after Hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans was at its most noir moment (and so were we all), I was invited by Akashic Books to put together a volume of original stories for the first New Orleans Noir. It perfectly suited all our moods down here, which might account for the extremely high quality of the stories the authors produced. The collection has remained so popular that, almost ten years later, we're coming back for The Classics, reprinted stories by some of the finest writers who ever walked the rough-and-tumble streets of the City that Care Forgot — a pretty funny sobriquet when you consider what they wrote.

Listen to a character herein: "He had it made. Then it all went away ... it always goes away. If you know anything, you know that." So wrote John William Corrington in "Pleadings," one of the stories collected herein. It's one of my favorite quotes about the noir tradition. Maybe it doesn't apply to everyone in a noir tale, or even always to the protagonist, but you can bet it perfectly describes someone's fate.

With one exception, each of these stories reflects that scenario in some way or other — in every case there's a terrible loss, sometimes an unbearable loss. Much like in our lives. Most of us, I hope, will deal with our losses in less murderous, self-destructive, and downright horrific ways, but stories like this, even as they make us wince, let us identify with others who've been there.

Sometimes you can practically feel the author's own losses, his or her own desires for revenge or oblivion. And what a magnificent array of authors to choose from! It was a thrill to stroll through two centuries of stories written in a city as rich as delta dirt in literary tradition.

A glittering constellation of writers has passed through New Orleans — including Mark Twain, Sherwood Anderson, O. Henry, and even Walt Whitman, to name some of the not-so-usual suspects. Then there are the ones whose sojourns here are better known, the ones on who

Edition details

• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 161775384X
• ISBN 13: 9781617753848
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300