Prison Noir
4/5
This review refers to the audiobook. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Prison Noir going in. Were the stories actually going to be good in principle or only good for stories written by prisoners? Even though much praised by critics, I couldn't determine exactly where the bar was set. Of course, that Joyce Carol Oates as editor was somewhat reassuring and I since I apparently find stories about prison life strangely intriguing (see Orange is the New Black and pre-aging-pill Oz or the quite interesting True Notebooks) I figured it couldn't be awful, but I have to say that Prison Noir is much much better than awful and that the praise lauded on Prison Noir is well deserved. There were some amazing stories here and while there were a few so-so contributions, there was no truly bad story here. In all cases the writing ranged from good to great and the stories that didn't work for me tended to be the ones that seemed the most cliched and where I was pretty sure I knew where they were going and the “twist” ending wasn't very twisty. Happily, this only occurred a few times and generally the quality of writing keep the even those stories entertaining. Even though every story took place in prison, the subject matter never became tedious and the perspectives were quiet varied. There are a few stories worth a special mention: Trap by Eric Boyd and There Will Be Seeds for Next Year by Zeke Caliguiri were both excellent meditations of loneliness and desperation. The latter was particularly affecting and a knock-out story in any context. Immigrant Song by Marco Verdoni – about a Mexican immigrant who ends up jailed in Michigan – is a wonderful exploration of freedom and responsibility. It also brings another dimension to the concept of culture shock. A Message in the Breath of Allah by Ali E. Sareini is outstanding. The story is about an inmate desperate to have Allah answer his prayers to be released from prison and the lengths he goes to to make sure Allah is listening. Of particular interest was the discussion of prophets and relationship between the main character and his Christian charge. There were not many entries by women prisoners, yet Milk and Tea by Linda Michelle Marquardt, a story about an abused woman who has spent far too long in prison, was one of the best in this collection. I was really impressed by Prison Noir and found it better collected than many of the short story anthologies I read. Recommended. A note about the audio version: As with many short story collections, different narrators read different stories in Prison Noir. Some are much better than others. In some ways, I feel that narration may have really boosted my positive interpretation of some stories and maybe exacerbated mediocre feelings. For example, one narrator read both his stories as if he were an old grizzled con right out of Shawshank Redemption. I think the stories would have worked better with a less obvious sort of reading. Yet, all of the narrators were solid and the varying voices made the stories nicely individuated.
