San Juan Noir
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
"Santos-Febres and 13 other contributors of Puerto Rican heritage take full advantage of San Juan's wide range of disparities between rich and poor, weak and powerful, tourists and residents, in this fine addition to Akashic's noir anthology series."
--Publishers Weekly
"A welcomed addition to the publisher's popular noir series, San Juan Noir has the distinction of being issued in two editions, English and Spanish, to more accurately reflect the Caribbean island's bilingual culture. Editor Santos-Febres gathers a varied collection of stories she expects will 'reveal a side of Puerto Rico otherwise obscured by the tourist trade and preconception.'"
-- NBC News Latino
"The stories within San Juan Noir stare right into the face of colonialism as they examine the gaps between the city's rich and its poor, its residents and its constant flow of tourists, its colorful exterior and its gritty underbelly. This is noir with a bite, noir that enthralls with its dark tales even as it challenges the reader--do better, do better, do better."
--Literary Hub
"From the interiors of sleazy bars or chic resort hotels, shabby apartments and in open streets and avenues with no escape, the tales of San Juan Noir trace the doomed routes of their victims and villains with an acute social and tragic awareness. These journeys keep the reader transfixed and understanding this Caribbean city in entirely new ways."
--Insights
Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.
Brand-new stories by: Wilfredo J. Burgos Matos, Ernesto Quiñonez, Mayra Santos-Febres, José Rabelo, Luis Negrón, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Ana María Fuster Lavín, Janette Becerra, Manolo Núñez Negrón, Tere Dávila, Edmaris Carazo, Alejandro Álvarez Nieves, Charlie Vázquez, and Manuel A. Meléndez. Translated by Will Vanderhyden.
From the introduction by Mayra Santos-Febres:
"Puerto Rico is often portrayed as sandy beaches, casinos, luxury hotels, relaxation, and never-ending pleasure--a place that satisfies all senses and appetites.
Yet the city of San Juan is much more than that. The capital of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is the oldest Spanish settlement in all the territories and colonies of the United States. Since Puerto Rico is economically dependent on the US, the financial downturn of 2008 hit us hard. Many Puerto Ricans have left the island, looking for a better life. Crime has risen and the black market has thrived. As in many crises, art, music, and literature have also flourished. Never before has there been so much literary production. We have responded to our crisis with many stories to tell. And, especially in these times, many of those stories are noir...
I hope these stories spark your imagination, and reveal a side of Puerto Rico otherwise obscured by the tourist trade and preconceptions. Maybe it will also pique your curiosity, and you will come visit our 'pearl of the Caribbean.'"
Read more from Mayra Santos Febres
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Reviews for San Juan Noir
23 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5San Juan Noir is a collection of crime stories edited by Mayra Santos-Febres. Most were written originally in Spanish and there is a Spanish language edition available. This collection is slenderer than the other books in this series, but Santos-Febres has made up for this by choosing stories that are relentless dark. The stories, like in most anthologies, an uneven group and having a single translator for all the stories makes all but a few sound as though they were written by the same person. Still, there were several memorable stories.Death on the Scaffold details the narrator's unrest at losing their privacy when their apartment building is undergoing renovation and a scaffolding is erected that passes in front of the living room window. In A Killer Among Us, a schoolboy and his friends join a group of neighbors who have found the body of a murdered man. Y tells the story of a teacher's search for his missing student, and Death Angel of Santurce narrates the final hours of a woman's life. The Akashic Noir series is strongest when the subject matter is somewhere off the beaten path. This edition has provided me with a half dozen authors to keep an eye out for.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Anthologies. Hit or miss with me, sometimes in-between. This was the latter. First half was fab, second half didn't appeal to me. That doesn't mean it won't to a different reader. Noir is grim, no levity for the most part. Gritty and grimy. That definitely describes the stories in this book. Gut-wrenching, sad, angry.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This latest installment in the Akashic Noir series did not seem to deliver the same punch as some of the earlier collections. A couple of the stories stood out, but many fell flat. Overall, not a bad collection, just not one of the better ones.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5San Juan Noir is another entry into the Noir series published by Akashic Books. I found these stories less compelling than others in the series because almost all of them dealt with the same topics, prostitution and drugs. After a while, one story blended into another and the only surprise was whether or not the prostitute or the client would end up dead. The book was sad more than noir. Grinding poverty and desperate people are caught in hopeless situations where they survive only by selling their bodies or getting high.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After the slight disappointment of Brussels Noir, Akashic rebounds quickly with San Juan Noir. Mayra Santos-Febres has assembled 14 excellent short stories showcasing the darker side of Puerto Rico's capital featuring everything we've com to expect and love in these volumes - murder, deceit, humor and great writing.This is a great addition to this series
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After reading San Juan Noir I was left wanting. Wanting that one story that just touched my heart and soul. The closest I came to finding that feeling was in Death on the Scaffold by Nanette Becerra and A Killer Among Us by Manuel A. Melendez. Both contained the mysterious, edge of your seat, what's going to happen next aspect of the Akashic noir series I have come to love.What I was not left wanting for was the dirty, poor and often (in my opinion) over sexually explicit aspects of the stories in this book. While that is to be expected in a noir book, to some degree, I felt the sex was over done and not necessary to many of the stories.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I first started reading this book the first word that came to my mind was "beautiful", the writers had me laughing out loud and in others just sitting back and watching from my minds eye. I love this book!