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Book Review By Commess University Press and The e-commess newspaper for the Advancement of Steupse
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Trinidad Noir
Trinidad
Noir (Akashic Noir) (Paperback)
This is a collection of short stories from my beloved Trinidad. Not to read it would have been a crime and I was determined to love this book! As I eagerly flipped to the first story, I wondered how the authors would be able to thread literary noir into what I remembered of my homeland. How would they present the dark of Trinidad's society in light of its reputation for joie de vivre, laissez faire - not to mention the self-defeating laissez tombé that bites us on our collective boomsees so often? To be fair to the collection, I will take a look at each story and comment before treating the book in its entirety. __________________ Pot Luck Crime literature yes, with the tabanca stricken Trey, Tasha, the femme fatale and the variously supporting characters. This story was noir genre but lightly so. Even the shadows painted in the tale reflected the blazing Caribbean sunshine bouncing off the ocean, glittering in the forest and glancing off the Diego Martin traffic. I got high just reading the story, I tsk'd and hrumph'd and nodded. The tale flowed well, held interest but even the deadly end fell just short of true noir. It seemed hustled in and stretched to meet the end. Noir Scale 5 out of 10 The Rape Unexpected ending, yes. Noir? No, not close enough. This story of the crime of two women, Hemrajie and Feroza, was amusing right up to the end. Lightly written, the tale described everything well, making it an easy read. One woman's callous dismissals - and she a nurse. The other woman's interest in the ill-fated jogger, how she went about getting a better look, wanting to see and be seen but not be seen as unseemly. It worked well. The ending however, despite its ugliness seemed contrived for final effect and annoyingly abrupt. Noir Scale 4 out of 10 The Funeral Party Noir all the way through. I confess though, the writer lost me a bit with her overly heavy use of multisyllabic words and often obtuse metaphors. That tended to draw away from the tale while I untangled the thought process and arrived belatedly, where the writer wanted me to be. Meera Meera Johna Mansing was a messy treat of contradictions and fractured consciousness. Her 'gender-shifted' character lending further butterfly-noir confusion. The ending was pointedly Trini and point on. I chuckled wryly. Noir Scale 7 out of 10 Dougla I didn't get it. It was a short story that started nowhere and ended there. I felt the main character Kwae, was insufficiently developed, the story unhinged, light and definitely not noir despite the ingredients of jails, trials, murder and betrayals. In fact the ending lifted rather than darkened the whole story, made it trite - silly even (but not in a good way) - rather than a meaningful denouement. Noir Scale 1 out of 10 Nowherian Blues Good short story, strongly written by one of our skilled Trinidadian pens. Crisp metaphors and imagery - if a little too much of it. The ending was sad. But this was not so much noir as simply depressing. With this story as well, the ending, even though we could guess it was going that way, was nonetheless abrupt rather than suspenseful. Noir Scale 5 out of 10 Betrayal An attempt to explain the heinous kidnappings that plague Trinidad. Good story, dark - I felt no light or saving grace there at all. Greed, jealousy, pain, murder, betrayals - yes - all interwoven in a seamless cobweb of noir - no sex but we got enough of that in the other stories to tide us over. Would have loved this story to be longer to better develop Sabagal. Thinly veiled tongue-in-cheek swipes at the not-so-nouveau riche and how they may have come by their oh-so-unclean wealth. Well done. Noir Scale 7 out of 10 Bury Your Mother Half amusing, wholly disturbed and disturbing characters - road kill on humanity's highway. I was lost here and there as the conversations took place in the mind of the daughter. I had to retrace my steps then set off again and that tended to weaken the story. All the characters clung to their respective illnesses like a vagrant clutching moldy shreds of blankets. The spiraling main character exhausted the imagination. It made the story work but it made me work too. I won't whine too much though. Noir Scale 6 out of 10 Standing On Thin Skin Nice little story but not a shred of noir to it. This belongs in another genre altogether. Noir Scale 1 out of 10 Woman Is Boss Oui papa! Mad dances of brazen psyches! I was following the main character wondering "lawd what else is this woman into?" right up to the end when I realized she wasn't the puppeteer after all. What a ting! Good imagery, believable characters despite their varied illness. It all added up to a sick, nifty, little cirque de noir. Well done. Noir scale 8 out of 10 Prophet Lost me completely. Maybe I should re-read a third time? Noir Scale - I have no clue How To Make Photocopies In the Trinidad & Tobago National Archives I was able to get past the gratuitous obscenities safely enough. Loads of sex, lies and photocopy cartridges but tiring. I searched and found several nuggets of humour. Noir? Not nearly as easy to find. Mildly amusing, arrogant, bacchanalish, fleetingly dark short story better suited to another sort of collection. Noir Scale 2 out of 10 The Best Laid Plans If Honesto hadn't died I would have personally headed over to Jerningham Avenue and slid two hard calpets off the back of his head. I hurried through the story wanting to find out how it ended. It kept me engaged to the end. Gorme ah feel sorry for poor Andre. Well done. Noir Scale 7 out of 10 The Jaguar With its opening quote I expected more and I kept expecting more right to the end. I did not get that satisfaction and it was not even suspenseful, just deflating. I finished the story with a sense of anti-climax. Each exchange between the characters and in the recollections made me turn the page looking for a cataclysmic outcome and all I got was a puff of smoke. Grrr! I liked Dr. Traboulay though - I remember an old vagrant named Mr. Pascal who hung around the Botanical Gardens in a tattered suit lecturing tourists about the flora. However...Noir Scale 4 out of 10 Eric's Turn Eric is such a mess - violent, wimpy, macho, inept, misunderstood, crafty, woefully misplaced and tightly wrapped in insanity Eric. Noir ruled here - throw in some gratuitous sex to titillate and we would have had a clear best story. The story was bleak as we traipsed behind Eric (at a safe distance) to see what he was up to. I clued in a bit late so I 'felt' the ending. The attitude and banter of the Emergency (ha!) Response Team felt very Trini. Noir Scale 7 out of 10 Lucille Another story in the wrong collection. Well written, poetic even, with the writer's scholarly pen very evident, but not for this genre. I am not sure why the writer chose, in the final paragraph, to describe the untold part of Lucille story as a 'story noir' yet leave us with a story sans noir. Noir Scale 2 out of 10 Peacock Blue I was lost again but this time it was a deliberate ploy of the writer. I weaved in and out of Maureen's booze filled, depressed state. The tale boasted most of the required noir ingredients - recklessness, obsessions, brittle psyches, glittering insanity. It dragged me through a twilight zoned-out spiral. The mapipire in the pool - nice touch. I could almost hear the splintering skull crashing thud of Vikram's final swan dive and see the last spark of electric blue. Well done. Noir Scale 8 out of 10 Dark Knights It did not work well for me. The separate passages telling separate stories then trying to bridge them all - a good plan but it simply did not work well here. I would have preferred the writer to perhaps stay with the prostitutes and tell the tale there - it had the potential for strong noir flavor but what with Carl and Sheldon and Marlon and, and, and...too many people crowding the stage, making too many seques, making a steupsy end. Noir Scale 2 out of 10 Gita Pinky Manachandi Well, well, well, talk about saving the best for last! It worked - all of it. The funeral parlour setting at the beginning was a bit obvious and I admit, I groaned a little but then I shut the heck up and kept reading. The story sets up the reader for a weird and horrible ride. The charming but sick parlour owner and his cohort priest with their heinous arrangements, the father whose world ends - twice and slips into a comfortable madness - twice. Leslie, the woman child with an edge. Both main characters are transplanted from 'away' but the well worded descriptions of familiar things and places makes it Trini. The dark deeds that stalked and consumed Gita makes it noir. Noir Scale 9 out of 10 __________________ Trinidad Noir is a brave and new attempt at the genre in a difficult setting. We are told right at the onset, that the writers are new to this genre and it shows. The editors tried to set it up telling us "...there's nothing a Trini won't do for you and there's nothing a Trini won't do to you". Hmm...I couldn't quite buy it knowing the people as I do. It came close-ish. But it didn't ring as true as it needs to, in order for this collection to work. Part of my disappointment with the book as a whole is most likely due to being familiar with some of the writers' other work and having nothing but admiration for it. I therefore came to this book with high expectations. I would enjoy seeing another attempt with some of these writers but with a heavier, darker, seedier noir content - delving more into the psyche to uncover the parts of us that we prefer to leave undiscovered. *******END****** Review by Commess University Press and The e-commess newspaper for the Advancement of Steupse |
