Created by Robert Coover
“The body has to eat and drink so it can stay healthy long enough to enjoy an agonizing death, and the mind, to help out, has to know where the provisions are and how to get them and who else is after them and how to kill them”
Who reads this stuff?
Well, besides me?
The P.I. genre (or sub-genre or whatever you call it) has been around long enough that a lot of very smart writers (just ask them) don’t mind putting the boots to it, getting all meta-fictional and post-modern on the Shamus Game.
And here’s another one.
Is Noir, the generally well-regarded 2010 novel by Robert Coover, evidence of a genuine love for the game, a smug literary putdown, a hilarious spoof or a woozily simple cover up of the fact the author couldn’t quite pull off a straight private eye novel?
Spin the bottle and take your pick.
But this one raises the stakes considerably… You are PHILIP N. NOIR, a hard-boiled private eye.
That’s right–the whole thing is told in second person, the most annoying point of view available.
Accused of excessive use of hoary old tropes, clichés and stereotypes, a recurring theme from writers being called on it is that it’s a satire or a spoof or a parody or whatever, and “not to be taken seriously.”
Except, of course, the writers themselves do want to be taken seriously. Often very seriously.
Or do they? Seems they’re never quite as hilarious as they claim them to be.
Certainly, the results have been as hard to pin down as their motives (or the plots occasionally).
But whatever… here’s the spiel for Noir, straight from the publisher:
You are Philip M. Noir, Private Investigator. A mysterious young widow hires you to find her husband’s killer…but has he really been killed? Then your client is killed and her body disappears…but was she really your client? Your search for clues takes you through all the layers of the city, from classy lounges to lowlife dives, from jazz bars to swimming pools, from yachts to the morgue. ‘The Case of the Vanishing Black Widow’ unfolds over five days above ground and three or four in smugglers’ tunnels, through flashback and anecdote, and expands time into something much larger. You don’t always get the joke, though most people think what’s happening to you is pretty funny.”
Your Honour, I rest my case…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
UNDER OATH
- “Give a writer a long enough career and he will write a mystery, apparently. In Coover’s nightmarish narrative, private investigator Philip M. Noir wanders the rain-slicked streets of the nighttime city, chasing clues down blind alleys, interrogating guys named “Rats” on the waterfront, and getting conked on the head and left for dead…Some passages… are vintage Coover, over the top and funny. But others feel like a parody of an already dusty archetype (when Prairie Home Companion beats you to it, you’re really late to the party)… he just doesn’t have as much to say here. Long-waiting Coover fans will still enjoy this lesser work for its language and imagery; mystery buffs will be mystified.”
— Keir Graff (Boooklist) - “Metafiction lustily mates with hard-boiled mystery in this hilarious homage to Raymond Chandler and company… Like Thomas Pynchon in 2009’s Inherent Vice, Coover pops off laughs on every page.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) - “As his dazzling career continues to demonstrate, Mr. Coover is a one-man Big Bang of exploding creative force.”
— The New York Times - “[An] absurdist take on the hard-boiled detective novel . . . depraved and amusing.”
— Kirkus Reviews
NOVELS
- Noir (2010) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- “Oh, Mama, I got the post-modern metafictional blues again…”
Who reads this stuff?
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
