Some work better than others. But the first criteria, the framework, I used to judge the worthiness of the story in this collection is if it is truly noir. The definition I use is: That said, reading these short stories is still an excellent way to sample rising and established Canadian authors. Their styles are as diverse as their origins and subject matter.
I encourage you to seek out their longer works if you find their offering here to be of interest. The King of Charles Street West is ordinary woman who gathers the courage to face her year-old demons. It is also a loving reminiscence of the Toronto that was. Walking the Dog by Peter Robinson of the Inspector Banks series is an excellent story about how lives can intersect in unexpected ways and, sometime, justice is done as well.
In lurid language he tells the tale of requiting love even though the object of his desire is dead.
Toronto Noir
Things do not end well. It starts with a simple tale of a cheating wife, her cop husband, and the bar owner lover. Clean, strong writing builds the suspense sentence by sentence, layer by layer as we being to see where this might lead. Told as diary excerpts from a teen Hollywood starlet, it is a humorous satire of the self-involved celebrity and their publicity machine. The diary is published in a local paper after her disappearance. As we read it, we see her develop a relationship with and become infatuated with a secret admirer.
Eventually he tells her his name: As good as some of these stories are, they are not noir style. I would still encourage you to read them to discover writers new to you. Midnight Shift by Raywat Deonandan is a well-written ghost story told by a dying man from Guyana where he was a pandit of Kali.
A pair of doctors find him in an unoccupied room. He is driven to tell them his story before Yama Death comes to claim him that night. An ad exec takes pity on a stranded young woman at Union Station. Tables turn and soon it is the executive who may need rescuing. Sic Transit Gloria at the Transit Loop by Sean Dixon tells the rambling tale of a struggling bass-playing musician dealing with a complication from having an affair with an un married woman.
See a Problem?
Lab Rats by Ibi Kaslik is a disturbing story of a former ad man who quit his job to go to grad school. He now finds himself impoverished and signs up for an experiment at CAMH, for the money. The effects are unexpected, both for him and his girlfriend. The grief of a miscarriage drives Beth and Paul to take a trip to Ecuador with unexpected consequences in Wanted Children by Heather Birrell. Tom by Andrew Pyper is a mediation on the relationship between a peeper and the one on whom he peeps. A Taste of Honey by Kim Moritsugu. This is an excellent, tightly written story with strong thread of dry humour.
About the Authors In the back of the book are summary descriptions of the authors, noting the awards for which they were nominated and won , and the title of their most popular works. Of course, you could just look them up in Wikipedia. Dec 02, Zaneta. This is my very first Akashic Noir book, and I absolutely loved it! There was a lot of diversity, many different points of views from heroes to villains , and even within the short story format, no character was two-dimensional.
Wish there was a warning for the extremely explicit content; I didn't think that's what 'noir' would encompass.
Review: Toronto Noir · The Walrus
The writing for those particular stories was so good, though, that it only disturbed me in a very enlightening way. Every author did an amazing job here. I pl This is my very first Akashic Noir book, and I absolutely loved it! I plan to read more Akashic Noir books! Aug 12, M rated it liked it.
Very hit or miss, which is to be expected for an anthology. Also most of the stories were not really noir. I just really liked seeing all the references to my city. Jul 15, Tiffani rated it it was ok Shelves: Sometimes a place - a country, a city or a neighborhood - inexplicably captures my attention and imagination.
I want to read about it, watch movies that are set there, talk to people who have been there, all in preparation of perhaps one day visiting the place myself. For the past year or so the city of Toronto has been the place that captured by attention and imagination. I also love mysteries. When I saw Toronto Noir at a book festival last April it felt like a sign.
Here was a book that c Sometimes a place - a country, a city or a neighborhood - inexplicably captures my attention and imagination. Here was a book that combined two things that I happened to be interested in. Plus I had been aware of this series from Akashic Books for a while but had never gotten around to reading any of them, so I decided that Toronto Noir would be my entry into the series. For those unfamiliar with the Akashic Noir series, each book is a collection of noir short stories set in a particular city or section of a city.
In picking up Toronto Noir I was looking for something that gave me a taste of what the city is like in the form of a crime related story. As to the Toronto part of the book, underneath the title of each story is the name of the neighborhood in Toronto where the story is set. Having never been to Toronto the name of the neighborhood meant little to me but I looked forward to learning about the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, for many of the stories other than being set in Toronto there didn't seem to be much of a connection to the city or the identified neighborhood. There was no sense of what the neighborhood looked like or what it was like to live there.
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For example, was it an old neighborhood, a new suburb, a gentrified neighborhood, or a place where starving artists lived? Was it an area populated by young, moneyed professionals, aspiring artists, starving students, or an ethnic enclave? Were the streets lined with local cafes and little shops or Starbucks and skyscrapers? This was not true of all the stories of course but overall I finished this book with not much of a sense of what Toronto was like before reading this book.
As for the noir part of the book, halfway through the book I decided to look up the definition of noir to make sure it meant what I thought it meant because the stories didn't exactly seem very noir to me. There are multiple stories involving cheating spouses, stalkers and peeping Toms, necrophilia, but there are no real mysteries. To the extent a crime occurs the reader is told early on who did it and why, so the rest of the story is mostly description of how the character committed the crime and did or did not get away with it.
Overall, I was disappointed with Toronto Noir. It will probably be awhile before I pick up another book in this series, but will pick up another one. I am still very interested in going to Toronto. Hopefully I'll make it there this spring or summer and then I finally find out what Toronto is really like. May 03, Jeff Swystun rated it really liked it. It conceals the dark vices found in any city of size.
From time to time, these vices bubble to the surface creating headlines in the Sun and Star that shock the populace and Canada. More often, much more often, these stories are buried. In this collection, some of those stories are told and told eloquently. I lived in Toronto from to and have visited extensively before and after. It has never felt big. It never felt overtly scary. Trouble can find you anywhere. What puls Toronto hides.
What pulsed through Toronto for me was possibility but possibility can be good or bad. I loved the depictions of the Big Smoke's various neighbourhoods. They were all artful and accurate even if a few of the stories fell short. The notables for me included 'The King of Charles Street' that showcases revenge of a familial nature. The main character has waitressed only in strip bars and why so is laid out with masterful psychology I admit to visiting For Your Eyes Only on one or two occasions.
I look forward to exploring other cities in this noir series. Dec 29, Alison Hardtmann rated it liked it Shelves: For the uninitiated, Akashic Books is a small publisher who has found a niche in producing a series of short story collections, each set in a different city or location and featuring writers who live or have some connection to that area.
The stories are all noirish in tone, although that depends largely on what each guest editor interprets as noir.
Toronto Noir (Canada)
The quality of these collections is generally uneven, depending largely on the available writer population. Despite all that, or maybe because of it, For the uninitiated, Akashic Books is a small publisher who has found a niche in producing a series of short story collections, each set in a different city or location and featuring writers who live or have some connection to that area. Despite all that, or maybe because of it, I like the series.
I usually finish a book with new authors to look into and a few to now avoid. This book, which was edited by Janine Armin, was a good addition to the Akashic Noir collection. There were solid stories from well known authors Peter Robinson and Andrew Pyper as well as from less prominent writers like Gail Bowen and Michael Redhill. There were a few lackluster entries, including one I could not finish hint: And maybe not even then. Some of the stories used the Toronto setting as integral to the plot, others just referenced place names. Last night's launch, part of This Is Not A Reading Series, featured some of the authors sharing stories of the 'noirest' things that have ever happened to them.
The stories, like Sean Dixon's story of chasing down a man stealing bags of meat from a Dominion, and Andrew Pyper's story about shoplifting a copy of the New Yorker , are funny and dark and perfect and true, and exactly how I like to think of Toronto. As Moore and Armin write in the introduction to Toronto Noir , "It is in our emergency rooms and carrying home our groceries that we are Torontonians. I don't think any of these stories are perfect, but as a whole, they go a long way in creating a Toronto that can exist in fiction and, yes, in the imagination.
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