Why Read Noir? Wait, What’s Noir Again?
Origins of Noir Literature
One day — in a tiny dust-filled bookstore — I stumbled across a used book written by a guy named Jim Thompson.
It was an odd looking book; thin, well-thumbed, and the cover depicted a sneering, ragged-faced man. In the image, the man pressed his hand toward the photographer, as if to discourage the documentation of the moment.
The title of the book, of course, was Savage Night — let me tell you, it is one hell of a read.
I bring up Savage Night because it represents an excellent example of noir fiction, a kind of masterpiece of the genre. In the book, a ‘protagonist’ named Charlie ‘Little’ Bigger goes east after an important meeting with ‘The Man.’
Little Bigger’s charge?
To track down a hit. To kill somebody. Or, wait, maybe not…
Maybe Little Bigger isn’t what he seems. And maybe this whole world — along with its cast of characters — represents something else, something more sinister and gripping. Savage Night, at its core, points to another truth.
Thompson’s book points to the fact that, at times, we are subject to some force that seems all-pervasive, greater and more powerful than ourselves.
David Geffner, in an article for Humanities, did a wonderful job of describing Thompson’s evolution and aesthetics as a writer.
“His characters begin alienated and severed, much like the lost souls dispossessed during the Great Depression, and often spiral off into a kind of psychosis patterned on society at large.” — David Geffner
Two facts about Jim Thompson stand out relating to noir literature:
First: Thompson lived through the Great Depression and he knew what it was to be down on his luck, to feel dispossessed, broke, at the mercy of some larger system.
Second: Thompson led, for a time, the Oklahoma Federal Writers’ Project for the Works Progress Administration (part of the New Deal). This was, at its core, a documentary program intent on recording true stories.
So, Jim Thompson ‘knew the score,’ as they say. It’s not surprising that many of his books feature dispossessed and psychotic characters — people who have… well, problems.
Thompson’s books, then, are narratives cultivated from his experience. And it’s thought that the ‘50s and ‘60s were, for Thompson and many other writers, the Golden Age of noir literature.
These writers either grew up or lived through harsh economic collapse. And their response, as artists, was noir literature. People like James Cain, Thompson, David Goodis and others crafted narratives that were distinct from the hardboiled crime fiction of detective novels (though the genres are closely related).
The key distinctions of noir literature:
First: The protagonist is usually a transgressor, a perpetrator, or a common person somehow victimized.
Second: The protagonist faces some element of corruption. This could be political, legal, personal, etc.
Third: The protagonist is often self-destructive.
The narrative result is an inevitable, disastrous situation — some kind of tragic ending for both the protagonist and the supporting cast.
Noir Right This Minute
I’d been writing noir fiction for a few years before I came across Thompson’s books. I just didn’t know what the hell I should call the stories I wrote… Savage Night, and so many other books I’ve read since, helped me establish my identity as a writer.
But this was fifty or sixty years after Thompson did his best work.
I wanted to know, why have I and others chosen to write noir fiction?
Here is what I think: Noir fiction arose from a certain economic and systemic pressure. It’s a pressure that — like it or not — began to reassert itself during our recent ‘housing’ and economic crisis.
Noir fiction arose from a certain economic and systemic pressure.
When I wrote my first noir stories (around about 2008), I was living in a two bedroom apartment with my best friend, his wife and their two kids (a dog and a cat, too). I had a job at a decent, high-volume restaurant, but hours were scarce and spread amongst a large brigade of servers (this was a change from previous years when it seemed I could pick up shifts for extra money whenever I needed). The economic crisis placed a certain pressure on me… along with so many others. I think my narratives reflect this pressure, a pressure that still exists, though I’ve managed to get a bachelor’s degree and enroll in graduate school (thanks, student loans and federal grants!).
There’s kind of a new age of noir happening right now. Maybe it’s a Golden Age — who knows? But whatever the case, I have to believe that recent and ongoing economic strife will influence literature for decades.
For the best in noir literature and crime fiction, check out books published by Number Thirteen Press (my publisher), One Eye Press, All Due Respect Books, or 280Steps. These publishers combine a DIY mentality with a hard-edged taste in great stories.
But more than that, these publishers are willing to publish stories about the underbelly of society, stories about transgressors and the dispossessed and the forgotten.
My new book, a short novel called Redbone, tells the story of a car dealership lot attendant — and war veteran — who comes unhinged after the death of his closest friend. In short, it’s a story about loss at the hands of corruption and one man’s attempt to win back his power of self-determination.
Calvin G. Redbone wants control. But to get it, he’s forced (or, perhaps coerced) to do some terrible things. Redbone is a book about transgression. And in that way, it’s noir fiction — straight-shooting, flat-out noir. And, yes, it’s a response to pressure; a story that, in some small way, reveals a truth about the systemic and economic pressures of this world.
And if you doubt these pressures and their influence on literature, I can only let the great Jim Thompson respond in his brilliant prose. In Savage Night, Little Bigger says:
“I cursed The Man to myself, calling him every kind of son-of-a-bitch I could think of… You’ve head of The Man. Everyone has.”
Yep, you’ve heard of The Man, and so have I.
The question is — what the hell are we going to say to him?
Long live noir!
About Redbone
(From Number Thirteen Press)
You can only take so much from a man before he has nothing left to lose…
Calvin G. Redbone, veteran, is a simple man with a simple routine. He lives in a travel trailer, details cars, takes practice swings with his Louisville Slugger. His weekdays are always the same: nothing more complicated than deciding whether to doctor his morning coffee with a splash of bourbon.
Until his world begins to change. Until his best friend winds up dead. Until Calvin realizes that nothing is as simple as it appears on the surface. Maybe not even Calvin G. Redbone himself.
As he begins to unravel the truth about his friend’s life and death, the question becomes: what’s Calvin going to do about it?
Written in sharp-edged prose, Redbone is a captivating murder ballad-noir.
