I may as well give up pretending that this blog exists for any real
writing purpose at the moment, so in the spirit of year end here's a
list, lists are the easiest posts of all.
In 2013 I've
read 122 books, not quite half of what I read last year but priorities
change, so my Top 10 Reads of 2013 accounts for just under ten percent
of the total. Noir has taken precedence over everything in my reading as
well as my viewing but this list isn't all blacker than black. I promise.
10. Fierce Bitches by Jedidiah Ayres (2013)
Jedidiah Ayres' prose is sparse and his tale is bleak as fuck, mirroring
the carefully constructed locale and the unforgiving sun baked desert
that surrounds it. This appears to be his first novella but its written
with the skill and voice of a much more experienced man to the point
that I wouldn't be surprised if this was Jim Thompson still writing
after faking his death back in '77. Most impressive is his use of the
second person narration, a device that can horribly backfire in the
wrong hands but in this case was so perfectly done that I hardly noticed
it until the chapter was over.
9. London Under by Peter Ackroyd (2011)
Example chapter titles include Holy Water, Forgotten Streams, Buried
Secrets and The Heart of Darkness and every page contains at least one
moment of wonder to those uneducated yet enthusiastic readers (which is
exactly the target audience for this work) like myself. For a chapter or
two I thought it was going to take me weeks to read due the sheer
quantity of google and wiki searches I was performing to acquire further
knowledge of a proffered fact whilst reading before readjusting my
mindset to just let the author entertain me with his seemingly endless
supply of poetic historical tales.
8. The Pirates! In an Adventure With The Romantics by Gideon Defoe (2012)
If you were to take a poll of people reading you might find a lot of
votes for great use of ham in a nautical setting, there may even be
several readers who enjoy the excellent names created for the motley
crew of pirates but guaranteed that majority will tell you that the best
bit about reading a book about The Pirates! is all the running through
that happens. Just ask Jeffrey Keeten about the time he ran a man
through for daring not to wear a fencing cup in school colours if you
are unsure of the unique pleasures a good running through can provide.
7. Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson (1964)
This tale of small town America is littered with pimps, whores, crooked
lawmen, private detectives, women no better than they ought to be,
incestuous men, wife beaters, murderers, corrupt politicians, vindictive
women, peeping toms, mentally challenged cuckolds, religious zealots
and plenty of sex. Of course on top of that there's Sheriff Nick Corey, a
noir protagonist the likes of which you may never have seen.
6. Eight Million Ways To Die by Lawrence Block (1982)
The fifth Matt Scudder takes a further dark turn in to a city plagued by
demons and lawlessness, taking a pessimistic cue from the classic
movie/TV show The Naked City this is the story of a dead call girl, of
2000 murders per year, of a private investigator, of an alcoholic on a
path of self-destruction. During his investigation Scudder comes in to
contact with all kinds of filth and degenerates, he makes acquaintances
with a good cop, a good pimp, five hookers and a black albino informant.
There's violence and paranoia, sobriety and alcohol related blackouts,
it's a rocky ride and I shan't spoil it for you. Soon to be a Liam Neeson movie it could easily have been directed by Harmony Korine.
5. Bit of a Blur: The Autobiography by Alex James (2007)
From the opening lines I was impressed with his ability to write,
weaving together a series of interesting and entertaining anecdotes with
an infectious enthusiasm, granted if you can't have enthusiasm for your
subject when you're writing about yourself you may as well give up
writing altogether, but James is erudite and witty and incredibly frank
about his occasionally abhorrent behaviour. I was enamoured from the
start and James (and obviously a great editor) didn't let me down,
becoming, by quite some margin, my favourite autobiography/biography
that I've ever picked up.
4. The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno (2006)
A deep melancholy permeates the pages of The Boy Detective Fails, a
magical little book that asks questions about growing up and growing
old, the death of innocence and imagination, loss and grief via the
story of an adult boy detective. People reference something called
Encyclopedia Brown plus the usual suspects of The Hardy Boys and Nancy
Drew, popular characters from an American childhood that seemed too
Other to me as a young man in small town England. I preferred the much
more English series, The Mystery Kids, myself. But anyway take those
kids who had magical crime busting adventures and crush their spirit and
enthusiasm and send them out to solve the mystery of death and you've
got the essence of The Boy Detective Fails. And in his straight-faced magical realist style of writing he crafted
something of a Lemony Snicket for adults, something smart and haunting,
laced with real pain and sorrow and wit and heart and situational
humour. It's a truly surprising piece of work that deserves to be lauded
and paid homage to with countless imitators who just don't have the
skill to get past the original surface gimmick and imbue their novel
with actual life.
3. Wake In Fright by Kenneth Cook (1961)
You know, from the opening paragraphs, that this book is going to stay
with you as only the most powerful books do. Cook captures the essence
of the vast emptiness of the desert, the punishing effect of constant
heat from sun up to sun down and the isolation of man in a place he
doesn't belong, and wraps it up in a tight little novel that suffocates
the reader. I felt almost claustrophobic whilst reading, the pressure
and closeness of the heat described transferring itself to me on my nice
air conditioned bus.
2. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins (1972)
It's all fly on the way stuff with dialogue feeling so authentic you
have to retune your brain to the sounds of criminal class Boston, the
kind of stuff Elmore Leonard is widely praised for but better. When not
in conversation TFOEC is narrated with the kind of matter of fact
attention to detail you might find in a Martin Beck or 87th Precinct
novel for example, it's dry in itself but the subject matter isn't. The
action might largely appear to be happening in between these chapters of
conversation but the combination of dialogue and narration create a
portrait of the life of these people, their criminal actions, the
lifestyle choice, that will certainly serve as an anthropological study
and an entertaining crime read for future generations.
1. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (1978)
Crumley writes this stuff better than just about anyone I've experienced to date,
the way he took hold of the genre, seemingly educated himself on
Chandler, Hammett, Willeford, Thompson et al and crafted this
masterpiece is a remarkable thing to have witnessed, it is a true shame
that he isn't more widely known and respected. Having said that it is
only through the praise lavished on his work from the fourth generation
of hard-boiled and noir writers who claim to be in his debt that I
stumbled across this work. People like George Pelecanos and Dennis
Lehane have described this book as one of the best pieces of fiction written in the past fifty years. Very high praise indeed and in my experience fully justified.
How about you guys, any favourites from amongst these? How about your favourite discovery of the year? Tweet me, comment, send me a letter, whatever.
