Cutting Edge

September 1, 2019
"Is there a distinctive female noir?" asks Oates (The Pursuit, 2019, etc.) in her introduction. This collection may not settle that question, but it goes a long way toward supplying candidates for an emerging canon. There are 15 stories here, all but one of them new, and half a dozen new poems. From Aimee Bender's enigmatic "Firetown," in which a female private eye searches for a missing husband and cat on behalf of a client whose motives are even more mysterious than the disappearance, to Cassandra Khaw's fablelike "Mothers, We Dream," in which the man who's miraculously survived a shipwreck finds himself hemmed in by both his female interrogator and his female associates, these stories show empowered women either running roughshod over men or ignoring them entirely. Even the heroines of Livia Llewellyn's "One of These Nights," S.J. Rozan's "A History of the World in Five Objects," S.A. Solomon's "Impala," and Sheila Kohler's "Miss Martin," all victims of abusive men, find unexpected ways to transform their victimhood into violent agency. Lisa Lim's heavily illustrated "The Hunger" dramatizes a savage mode of female mourning; Edwidge Danticat's "Please Translate," first published in 2014, collects 41 frantic phone messages from a woman to the husband who's run off with their son; Margaret Atwood's six poems include meditations on female werewolves and the maternal side of the Sirens; Oates' own "Assassin" follows a woman who methodically hatches and executes a plan to decapitate the prime minister. The women here are equally comfortable--that is, equally disturbing--when they're cast as reluctant detectives, as in Steph Cha's "Thief," witnesses to possible crimes, as in Elizabeth McCracken's "An Early Specimen," accused murderers, as in Valerie Martin's "Il Grifone," or potential healers, as in Lucy Taylor's "Too Many Lunatics" and Jennifer Morales' "The Boy Without a Bike." The punchline of the one story with a male lead, Bernice L. McFadden's "OBF, Inc.," entirely justifies its outlier status. Not every story will be to every taste, but the average is high enough to satisfy readers of all genders.

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September 30, 2019
The 15 stories and six poems in this slim yet weighty all-original noir anthology—contributors include Margaret Atwood and Edwidge Danticat—are razor-sharp and relentless in their portrayal of life, offering snapshots of dysfunction, everyday toil, and brief joy. It is unusual, however, in its scope, zeroing in not only on what the female characters endure but what they dish out, as shown in Valerie Martin’s “Il Grifone” and S.A. Solomon’s “Impala.” Though the compilation is often bleak and disturbing (Cassandra Khaw’s “Mothers, We Dream” comes to mind), it is also startlingly imaginative in characterization and setting, and at times wickedly funny (cue Bernice L. McFadden’s “OBF, Inc.”). Each story sears but does not cauterize, leaving protagonists and readers raw. As Oates points out in her introduction, and the stories hauntingly evoke, noir’s strength has very little to do with man-centric plots and everything to do with female ascendance. Fans of contemporary crime fiction won’t want to miss this one. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc.

November 15, 2019
In crime fiction, the preponderance of narrative, action, and authorship is male, with women being the victim more often than the perpetrator, and men serving as the force behind these ill intentions. Oates' stellar anthology of female noir turns this equation on its head, collecting new work by 16 notable female authors, including Oates herself, to demonstrate what happens when women are in charge. The result is an inclusive homage to the female/feminist perspective. Aimee Bender channels the great private investigators of yore in her edgy, lustrous tale of a woman in search of her missing husband and cat. Valerie Martin's heroine exacts delicious if ambiguous revenge on a gorgon-like creature who torments her otherwise idyllic Roman holiday in Il Grifone, and Margaret Atwood delights and titillates with six provocatively piercing poems. Taken as a whole, the collection is a surreal yet satisfying journey into the darker side of the female consciousness, a book that, for all its murk and mayhem, celebrates feminine strength, cunning, and determination.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)