Chicago Noir

by Neal Pollack (Editor)

"The population of Chicago Noir is as diverse as any crowd at the lakefront fireworks show...As representative of Chicago as Oprah, MJ and a Gold Coast hot dog."
--Chicago Sun-Times

" Chicago Noir asks us to consider whether Chicago is, specifically, a noir city and, more significantly, how noir plays out in the current landscape...Its stories push us to think about how noir might still be relevant beyond a bad-ass sort of nostalgia."
--American Book Review

"Chicago shouts noir from the top of the Sears Tower to the nether regions of Wacker Drive, from the crime-ridden West Side to the moneyed taint of the North...Perhaps most impressive about Pollack's collection is the wide variety of writers selected to contribute."
--Newcity

"The stories that editor Pollack has chosen to represent his former hometown vary wildly in voices, approaches and style...New interpretations, juxtaposed with classic structures, bring together the different faces of North and South, old and new."
--TimeOut Chicago

"Marshaling the talents of eighteen award winning and acclaimed writers, most of whom have professional and/or personal ties to Chicago, Pollack . . . pays homage to the city that epitomizes the noir genre . . . Demonstrating crisp, riveting pacing, dialog redolent with sardonic despair, and dark, nihilistic atmosphere, nearly all the entries are stellar examples of noir at its best."
--ForeWord

"The latest urban noir anthology provides the audience with eighteen delightful tales that pay homage to the ethnic neighborhoods and to the sports teams."
--Midwest Book Review

" Chicago Noir is a highly readable story collection which offers numerous fresh, inventive takes on the well-worn noir genre . . . A very enjoyable effort overall."
--Pete Lit

" Chicago Noir is a legitimate heir to the noble literary tradition of the greatest city in America. Nelson Algren and James Farrell would be proud."
--Stephen Elliott, author of Happy Baby

"If ever a city was made to be the home of noir, it’s Chicago. These writers go straight to Chicago’s noir heart."
--Aleksandar Hemon, author of Nowhere Man

Brand new stories Neal Pollack, Achy Obejas, Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski, Adam Langer, Joe Meno, Peter Orner, Kevin Guilfoile, Bayo Ojikutu, Jeffery Renard Allen, Luciano Guerriero, Claire Zulkey, Andrew Ervin, M.K. Meyers, Todd Dills, C.J. Sullivan, Daniel Buckman, Amy Sayre-Roberts, and Jim Arndorfer.

The city of Chicago has spent much time and money over the last decade marketing itself as a tourist-friendly place for the whole family. It's got a shiny new Millennium Park, a spaceship in the middle of Soldier Field, and thousands of identical faux-brick condo buildings that seem to spring from the ground overnight. Chicago's rough-and-tumble tough-guy reputation has been replaced by a postcard with a lake view.

But that city's not gone. The hard-bitten streets once represented by James Farrell and Nelson Algren may have shifted locales, and they may be populated by different ethnicities, but Chicago is still a place where people struggle to survive and where, for many, crime is the only means for their survival. The stories in Chicago Noir reclaim that territory.

Chicago Noir is populated by hired killers and jazz men, drunks and dreamers, corrupt cops and ticket scalpers and junkies. It's the Chicago that the Department of Tourism doesn't want you to see, a place where hard cases face their sad fates, and pay for their sins in blood. These are stories about blocks that visitors are afraid to walk. They tell of a Chicago beyond Oprah, Michael Jordan, and deep-dish pizza. This isn't someone's dream of Chicago. It's not even a nightmare. It's just the real city, unfiltered. Chicago Noir .

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Noir, Crime, Anthologies

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Neal Pollack’s first book, The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, was published in 2000, becoming an (almost) instant cult classic. His debut novel, Never Mind the Pollacks, hit shelves in 2003, and was shamelessly promoted by his band, The Neal Pollack Invasion. In 2007, he published Alternadad, a best-selling memoir. In 2010, Pollack became a certified yoga teacher and published Stretch, a nonfiction account of his adventures in American yoga culture. He has contributed to The New York Times, Wired, Slate, Yoga Journal, and Vanity Fair, among many other publications. Thomas & Mercer published his historical noir novel Jewball in March 2012, and debuted his "yoga detective" novel, Downward-Facing Death, in serialized fiction form in September, 2012. His latest book, a time-traveling romantic comedy called Repeat, will be published in March 2015. He and his wife, the painter Regina Allen, live with their son in Austin, Texas.

Reviews

[BookOfCinz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have never visited or been to Chicago but I have read a lot of books that were set there. I cannot say Chicago is on my top list of place to visit but I was intrigued enough to pick up this Noir. This collection turned out to be a bit underwhelming for me. I felt a lot of the stories didn't give me a good feel of Chicago. Regardless, there were a few stand out stories that I loved, see below:
1. Goodnight Chicago and Amen by Luciano Guerriero
2. Destiny Returns by Achy Obejas
3. The Great Billik by Claire Zulkey
4. Alex Pinto Hears the Bell by C.J. Sullivan
5. Death Mouth by Amy Sayre-Roberts

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really cobbled together. A lot of the stories have absolutely no relevance to Chicago, thus making the title pretty irrelevant. To fully enjoy this book without becoming frustrated, please do the following:

1) Go to your local bookstore.
2) Find this book in the Mystery section.
3) Get a coffee (if said bookstore serves coffee).
4) Sit down with this book and your (hopefully black, bitter) coffee.
5) Flip to the story "Zero Zero Day" by Kevin Guilfoile.
6) Read the story.
7) Put the book back on the shelf and leave.

To be fair, there are probably 2-3 other stories in here that were pretty well done and that I quite enjoyed. This does not, however, make the book worth buying.

[Neal Litherland · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection cannot be judged on the basis of any one story... but I stopped after I found the 5th story in a row predictable and lacking. While the attempt to get the feeling and language of the city was laudable, it felt jarring, with the stories being told in a rambling, ghetto street vibe that evoked less atmospher that annoyance. Nothing in the collection got my pulse running or made me want to keep reading, and while many of the stories might have been rough, none of them that I managed to get through felt hard boiled.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories in this anthology were better than others. The contributions from Kevin Guilfoile and Joe Meno are probably the best of the lot.

My main disappointment with this book was that very few of the stories did a good job of evoking Chicago. A writer has to do more than merely mention streets from a city map, I think.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished out the year with this, yet another volume of supposed noir placed in a city, and this month, at this moment, it's Chicago. Which, yeah, you'd imagine is a pretty noir city, in the old school sense. And could be interesting in a new noir sense. So potential is offered. But the reviews online, briefly perused, didn't engender hope. Oh, Chicago Noir, you punch drunk, no-hoper, Cubs-fan of a city, better stagger on over here...

I don't know Chicago from squat. What do I know of the city of Chicago? It was overrun with giant Grasshoppers in THE BEGINNING OF THE END...my sense of the city is defined by KOLCHAK, THE NIGHT STALKER location shooting ....Carl Sandburg, "City of Big Shoulders", "hog butcher to the world"....uh, was where a young Jean Shepherd would travel to, to sin as a teenager...gangsters, right?.....uhh, comedy from there, Second City, Del Close.... Ken Nordine is Chicago, doing FACES IN THE WINDOW live on late night television in the 1950's, reading stories in static... Marvin, the creepy beatnik, kills his wife and introduces bad movies late at night as well...Nelson Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm, that has an amazing opening description of all the cretins of Chicago's underworld waiting in line at the police station to be released from prison...okay, yeah, CHICAGO NOIR, I can see that...

There are some stumblers here: "The Gospel Of Moral Ends" by Bayo Ojikutu runs its black preacher sermon inserts gimmick into the ground, and so spends a lot of time getting down an authentic story of corruption in the neighborhood gospel churches in south Chicago. Neat idea, overwritten. "The Near Remote" by Jeffrey Renard Allen is written so poorly as to be incomprehensible, with a "falling down a cliff" slow motion wooziness. I didn't get it, or think it was very good. Lack of focus really cuts some things down here, like Todd Dills' strange tale of identity theft and drug addiction called "Arcadia". Claire Zulkey's "The Great Billik" promises a lot, setting up a plot about an immigrant gypsy fortune teller moving into the neighborhood in Chicago, 1905, and becoming the focus of interest of the local spinster lady. Sounds good, but it's a failed use of potential, with almost no period detail or even an attempt to replicate an authentic voice for the time. Disappointing with its lack of focus. The family-supported anger junkies of "Maximillian" by Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski also sound promising, but also fails with lack of focus and the in media res ending. Sketch a character and end during a crazy moment of violence seem to be the strategy in a lot of these stories, which is not a bad strategy as these types of stories go, but feels soft when the trick doesn't work.

"All Happy Families", by Andrew Ervin seemed to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but I found its stream of consciousness narration charting all the thoughts cascading through a bank robber's head as he rides into Chicago (money, violence, the break up with and subsequent suicide of his girlfriend, anxiety, the Cubs, Abraham Lincoln, etc, all rattle around) backwards on the subway kinda trippy and kinda cool. No real ending. "Monkey Head", in which a small-time local drug dealer gets his beat-down delivered right in front of the whole block is a bit better, evoking a hot summer night in the city as well as random violence and destruction. That's by M.K. Meyers. "Pure Products" by Daniel Buckman is well-written but again unfocused, with the only noir content in it's "failed writer and wife with aborted child" scenario occurring during samples from the failed writer's fiction (unless the bleak outlook of the writer and unhappy wife also fill your genre definition). The editor's "Marty's Drink Or Die Club" has a good set-up, with a dead man at a bar leading to an underground brotherhood of barflies who drink to the dying tradition of the Chicago watering holes and slowly commit suicide. That makes it sound better than it is. Because it's all set-up and no pay-off, cute idea that goes nowhere.

Moving into the solid bedrock, we have the book's opener, Luciano Guerriero's "Goodnight Chicago and Amen", in which a pug-ugly enforcer who took a dive for the boss gets out and is given a new job. It even features a femdom take on the femme fatale classic character. A great mood-setting lead. "Destiny Returns" by Achy Obejas also has a great feel, tracking the dramatic history of a Cuban drag-queen whose fabulous career starts in the big-shouldered city. A fun read. Keeping with these themes, Amy Sayre-Roberts' "Death Mouth" is a surprisingly bloodthirsty and dark tale of relationships and revenge in the gay communities of Chicago Heights. "Bobby Kagan Knows Everything" by Adam Langer does an excellent job, through detail and voice, of evoking 1970's Chicago - I could believe in this place - as a Mom gets involved with the wrong guy, a thief is raiding the neighborhood and all the stupid details of life get in the way of a kid solving mysteries. Very well done. The Bears/Packers rivalry is the only glue holding together the relationship of father and son in "The Oldest Rivalry" by Jim Arndorfer, but will it also bind their secret involving an accidental death? Very compelling, even if the end is a little on the nose.

There is some exceptional work here as well, despite most reviews. "Dear Mr. Kleczka" by Peter Orner is interesting, as a famous Chicago murderer composes a familiar letter, much later in life. I'm not sure there couldn't be a smidge more detail, but the decision to touch on Chicago history was a nice choice. Kevin Guilfoile's "Zero Zero Day" seemed to be a reader favorite, and it is entertaining, as a police-scanner fan gets ready to mark a momentous occasion in crime broadcasting even as events work against him. The emotional honesty in "Alex Pinto Hears The Bell" by C.J. Sullivan is also noteworthy. An aging boxer and all-around tough guy is taken unawares by how petty and venal the neighborhood gangs are nowadays. This may follow the above-noted formula (sketch character, end at height of violence) but does so in a very effective way. I was moved by this one. Finally, by the time I'd hit the second page of "Like A Rocket With A Beat" by Joe Meno I was smiling from ear-to-ear. This tale of bruiser who makes mob collections and his beatnik driver is just a hell of a fun read, capturing a time, tone and storytelling voice perfectly. If stories in the NOIR anthology series aren't amazing modern takes on a city and crime, they should be solid, enjoyable low-life crime tales like this.

So, a pretty even book. 1/3 middlin', 1/3 solid, 1/3 pretty damn good read. Not bad. A second stab is warranted.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I looked up "noir" on Merrium-Webster's web site: "crime fiction featuring cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings". My definition of "noir" is even narrower; it's tough for anyone not named "Bogart" to conform to it.

"Chicago Noir" definitely uses the broader definition of the word, which does not comform to my personal bias. However, what it DOES appear to do, even to this occasionally opinionated outsider, is BE Chicago, at least what I imagine the underside of it might be like. That is definitely a positive that I got out of this book, reading 2 or 3 stories at a time when I complete a novel before starting another.

Like most short story collections, I liked some of works between the covers, am ambivalent towards others, and occasionally wonder why the author WANTED to sign their name to a few of them. In particular, so many authors use collections like this as an opportunity to experiment with the concept of a story. I hate to discourage folks from trying something new - that's where growth and progress come from - BUT so many of the finished products leave me disappointed. Why can't you include an intro, some development, a climax & a conclusion - preferably in that order??

I have 4 other books in the noir series in my to-be-read pile, and I hope that I enjoy them more than I did this collection. (Sorry folks, especially the authors - I hate to sound negative; I hope I at least handled it professionally and courteously.)

[Redeyedndogtired]

The sweetest thing about this collection of short stories (so far) is that is arranged geographically. In Chicago, the debate over where- exactly- a neighborhood begins or ends is engaged with a vehemence.

Honestly, the first several stories did not impress me- most leaning on the "we don't need a beginning, middle or end- just a dunk in the violent present" which reads as "schtick" for me when it comes to "hard-boiled" or "noir".

However, the most recent story I read involved a lot of shit I love: drag queens (Diarra, you're getting a heads up), historical plot points, a love story, an inscrutable plot point and it all takes place in Pilsen (or around Pilsen) the neighborhood I'm set to move into- a win for the collection, the schtick and the neighborhood.

[Glenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading nearly 30 books in the Akashic Noir series, this one was a disappointment. I was expecting more than "Generic town, somewhat noir." I'm not going to stop reading the series, I'm just glad this wasn't my introduction to it.

[Jill Frederickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection felt very uneven to me, the pieces that I liked I liked a lot and the ones I didn't I was annoyed with. I did love knowing so many of the settings as it made them easy to envision.

[Don Rogevski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few stories seemed like filler and were ready to gloss over. Other were captivating. Sometimes I would forget the book was Chicago specific and would realize that when it makes mention of people and places from there

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Noir vignettes set in different areas of my sweet home Chicago. Liked some of the stories...others, not so much.

[Steev · Rating 4 out of 5]

As hit and miss as you'd expect from an anthology, but the hits hit pretty hard. Standouts include "Dear Mr. Kleczka" by Peter Orner, which made me miss my bus stop, "Zero Zero Day" by Kevin Guilfoile, "Alex Pinto Hears the Bell" by C.J. Sullivan, and "Bobby Kagan Knows Everything" by Adam Langer.
Also, it's really smartly put together and the last story, "The Oldest Rivalry" by Jim Orndorfer really floored me in the way it wrapped up everything that came before.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was clearly put together too quickly. A couple of the stories aren't very good and one makes pretty much no sense (and I definitely give authors the benefit of the doubt on such matters). That said, there's at least one four star story in there, it's gritty, and it's Chicago. I'd love to see somebody try this again.

[Brendan]

Rating: 3 1/2

I'm a bit surprised by the aggressively negative reviews from other Goodreaders. While I don't consider this a great collection, it's a far cry from terrible.

The criticism regarding a lack of Chicago-specificity in some of the stories is a fair one. But that doesn't make them bad stories. I appreciate the variety of characters, crimes, and eras.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The editor and authors seem to be working to a different definition of Noir than me (and most other reviewers, it seems). 'Chicago Crime' might have been more accurate, but even more accurate would be 'Mostly poor crime-type stories, sometimes only tangentially linked to Chicago'. One or to half-decent stories, but nothing memorable or that I wanted to be longer than it was.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe it's nostalgia, but I truly liked most of the stories. Though most were set on the South Side (I grew up on the West Side... the BEST side. Sorry I couldn't resist) the authors have the patter down, the denizens dead on and the city dark, dirty and cheap. That's noir, baby!

[Matthew McClintock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having moved from Chicago after 15+ years residence I was surprised to find the nostalgia so strong, particularly the way I missed the gritty side of things. The stories I've sampled in this collection provide the voices and attitudes I'd forgotten were so characteristic.

[Joanna]

Yeah, not for me I guess.

[Amy Gilchrist Thorne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the idea of the book. But when I bought it, I forgot that I'm not always fond of reading noir. So, there were some stories I didn't like so much, but I did enjoy several.

[Brad keil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this in an airport because I finished my other books way too fast. It has some really great short stories about my favorite city.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A varied mix, and does a nice job of capturing the underside of my former home.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pile of crap.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this a chance.
I read the first four stories
Then I gave it up.

[Dwayne Ackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I miss the Windy City!

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine book, I just can never give short story collections a very high rating since there's nothing to get attached to.

[Denali · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the Boston collection had maybe one or two weak stories, this one had about 3 or 4 stories that were good and maybe only 2 that were very good. I'm a little disappointed.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of stories read well, but most of these read like literary Writers (all of them with a capital "W") trying to write genre.

[Tuxlie]

Bombastic Neal Pollack collect's riveting noir stories from Chicago's hottest young writers.

**

[Steve Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories - nice and dark!

[Ann Tonks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read Venice Noir and finding some great stories in the collection, after the first half a dozen in this group, I hadn't connected so I just stopped.