Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "labels"

When I set my Private Investigator Frank Johnson series title, The Blue Cheer, in the alpine wilds of West Virginia, John Lescroart called my novel in his cover blurb an “Appalachian noir.” Later on, I heard the critics use the label in their articles on Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, both the excellent film and book.

The same label, I suppose, could now be applied to my new standalone novel, Lake Charles, offering its similar noirish flavor. Lake Charles is set amid the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee during the 1970s...

For the rest, go here to my guest post on James Thompson's weblog JIMLAND:

http://tiny.cc/r8z2d

I've heard it called red neck noir, country noir, state noir, hillbilly noir, Southern noir, Southern gothic, grit lit, and the wonderful writer Fred Willard mentioned in a recent Rara-avis (a hardboiled/noir yahoo group) post it's also "cracker noir." That's a new one on me.

To tell you the honest truth, I'm not sure I know what "red neck noir" really is. Even by applying the pornography standard, I don't believe I'd know such a book if I read it. The term red neck is usually spoken or written with a less than complimentary meaning in mind. A slur, if you will.

I guess, then, red neck noir just another stereotype label used to tag fiction books. Respected writers such as Daniel Woodrell, William Gay, Breece D'J Pancake, and others have produced fiction identified as country noir. Perhaps Lake Charles, my new title, falls in the same category. The book reviewers seem to think so. All I know is it's great to be mentioned by them in the same sentence with those aforementioned (I love that fancy word) authors.

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Nice addition to anyone’s summer beach reading schedule."
Florida Times-Union