Re: RARA-AVIS: Canadian Noir

From: Kerry J. Schooley ( gsp.schoo@murderoutthere.com)
Date: 18 Apr 2007


At 08:33 PM 17/04/2007, you wrote:

>--- In
><mailto:rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.com> rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com,
>"Kerry J. Schooley"
><gsp.schoo@...> wrote:
>
> > Peter Sellers and I managed to put out three anthologies of Canuck
>Noir a few short years back
>
>How did that series do?

Not particularly well. But I think, longer term, it has helped establish some recognition of the genre in Canada.

> I picked up two of them. Did it sell
>internationally?

Not so's you'd notice. A number of books took brief vacations in England and the US and have returned home to take early retirement.

>Anymore to come?

No plans that I'm aware of. Of course, if the problem was with one-half of the editing, as seems likely, then I'd be last to know.

I've learned to find contentment with the odd bits of critical acclaim gathered here and there, and to use them to spout off about Canuck Noir when someone says Canada's much too nice a place to host such genre trash.

>I notice Akashic has a Toronto Noir at the very bottom of its
>forthcoming books schedule, long after Istanbul Noir and Lagos Noir,
>although I won't get depressed about the placement because the list
>appears to be in alphabetical order.
>
>Aside from the Canuck stuff, I'm looking forward to the international
>flavour of several upcoming titles in the Akashic series (Istanbul,
>Lagos, Delhi, Havana, Paris, Rome). I'm currently thoroughly
>enjoying Robert Wilson's The Big Killing and a big part of it is the
>West African setting. It adds a different perspective simply because
>everyday norms are so different from the usual North American or
>English settings, yet it contains familiar noir themes. I'm hoping
>these upcoming Akashic books will give me more of that since I can't
>really think of too many noir titles set outside the US or Great
>Britain.

I think that is a relatively new trend in noir - or possibly an old one still growing - using noir to explore the crime and social scene in other societies. I'd very much like to read what's now considered noir in Toronto, and hope it's not failing to thank the automatic checkout machines at Loblaws.

What could be more evil? Kerry

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