CAPE COD NOIR Review

CAPE COD NOIR
Edited by David L. Ulin
9781936070978
300 Pages
Akashic Books
June 1, 2011
$15.95 US
P.J. Coldren
July 25, 2011
Ibrahim Ahmad 718-643-9193 ibrahim@akashicbooks.com
Cape Cod, short stories, noir

Part of the award-winning series of original noir anthologies, this collection is set in Cape Cod.

For many people, Cape Cod brings to mind beaches, summers, the Kennedy clan and their peers, and fond memories built up over years of traditional family vacations. As anyone who has ever grown up or spent winters in a summer tourist area knows, there is a dark side to all that bliss. CAPE COD NOIR is thirteen stores about the dank, dark underside that tourists rarely, if ever, see.

Ten-Year Plan by William Hastings gives a behind-the-scenes look at a busy
restaurant, provided by an ex-con who is an outsider in more ways than the obvious.

Second Chance by Elyssa East takes reader a look to an unusual reform school with unusual precepts.

Ardent by Dana Cameron is a look at the role of women, and how a woman of
intelligence can change her life if given the chance.

Nineteen Snapshots of Dennisport by Paul Tremblay demonstrates that not all family albums capture good times.

Variations on a Fifty-Pound Bale by Adam Mansbach brings life, however improbably, to an urban legend.

Bad Night at Hyannisport by Seth Greenland takes readers into the world of the summer people, although in this case it's the world of a young summer construction worker, and he's been drinking a lot.

Spectacle Pond by Lizzie Skurnick is a story of betrayal and mourning.

La Jetee BY David L. Ulin is a story of déjà vu, one that does not end well at all.

The Occidental Tourist by Kaylie Jones is a tale of summer love, love that recurs for a while and then becomes memory.

The Exchange Student by Fred G. Leebron is told by a young man from Denmark; his experience as an exchange student is certainly not what he expected when he signed up.

Viva Regina by Ben Greenman plays out line by usually short line, tension building slowly and then fading.

When Death Shines Bright by Dave Zeltserman is ironic, yet comforting in that irony.

Twenty-Eight Scenes for Neglected Guests by Jedediah Berry takes place in and around a summer theater; the play in the story and the plot of the story are almost hallucinatorily intertwined.

Previous entries in the Noir anthology series have been, at least in my limited experience, good reads. Taken individually, the stories in CAPE COD NOIR are well written, good reading. Taken as a whole, I found it difficult to believe that the stories defined Cape Cod. They did not, to me, make me feel I had experienced Cape Cod in a way that was markedly different than my experience as a townie in another summer resort community. I've never been to Cape Cod; perhaps that would change my
mind.