Milwaukee Noir

Tim Hennessy, Editor

Akashic     2019

291 pages     Noir

I am constantly enthralled by the way authors and editors define noir fiction, and the new book, Milwaukee Noir, which came out this week, continues to redefine the style of writing that can be considered “noir.” This collection is unique, just like the stories in all the other collections from Akashic.

The editor, Tim Hennessy, is a book seller and writer. His introduction to the book also appeared in the website Crime Reads. It appeared earlier this week on the site the day the book came out. He mentions that society doesn’t think much of Milwaukee, but he goes on to elaborate all the literary figures who have lived or died, as the case may be, in the city. Of Milwaukee he notes:

“Presently, Milwaukee is going through a renaissance—abandoned factories being converted to condos, craft breweries and distilleries pushing out corner taverns—yet at the same time it is among the most segregated and impoverished big cities in the country. The gentrification of neighborhoods outside of the downtown bear the impact of twentieth-century redlining efforts, forcing residents out due to housing demand, adding fuel to the affordable-housing crisis. Such an environment and atmosphere make excellent fodder for noir fiction—an outlook out of step with the romanticized nostalgia that Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley created of Milwaukee.”

The collection had my attention with the first name on the cover, Jane Hamilton. Her book, The Excellent Lombards, was my favorite fiction book of 2016. Her entry, Friendship, is the tale of what happens when three New York friends journey to Milwaukee to visit their friend, Sally John, who has moved to this strange midwestern city. Hamilton incorporates much of the city in the story, including the marvelous art museum right on the lake. Hamilton speaks to this: “What city would commission Santiago Calatrava to design their art museum, a city with a gorgeous body of water as backdrop, and blot it out in the approach with a third-rate heap of orange-painted steel I-beams!” She is a marvelous writer and the story, while perhaps a stretch to call it noir, doesn’t disappoint.

One of my favorite stories is by Larry Watson called Night Clerk. This is more traditional noir, as is Summerfest ’76 by Reed Farrel Coleman. My favorite line about Milwaukee is in Coleman’s story:    “. . .all I ever saw out of Lisa’s window was grayness. Oh, that’s not totally fair. It was grayness interrupted every other day by lake-effect snow.” (Lake-effect snow is the bane of the existence of any one who lives on the Lake Michigan shoreline.)

   Houston Noir is the other new addition to Akashic’s noir collection. Hope to read it next week.