Chris Manno reviews Houston Noir<\/em>, a collection of short stories edited by the 2013 Poet Laureate of Houston, Gwendolyn Zepeda.<\/p>\n

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When Edgar Allen Poe proclaimed two centuries ago that no one should write anything that can\u2019t be read in one sitting, he couldn\u2019t have anticipated how well that constraint serves today\u2019s frenetic, uber-scheduled modern millennium. The Houston Noir<\/em> short story collection is what Poe meant: solid, quick, satisfying reads that fit perfectly between appointments, in waiting rooms, carpool lines, coffee breaks, or when you just need a quick escape from reality.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Editor and 2013 Houston poet laureate Gwendolyn Zepeda has assembled a wicked collection of fourteen engaging, compact, and tightly-woven short stories. Noir,<\/em> the unifying concept, promises the dark side zeitgeist of sprawling, steaming, pancake Houston. The book delivers, and while in any box of assorted chocolates there are usually a couple you might spit out if no one\u2019s looking, some stories outshined others, yet I found all of the stories to be darkly satisfying in a variety of ways. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Anton DiSclafani\u2019s \u201cTangled\u201d inscribes a mien of decaying, upper-crust, old-school Houston with a palpable angst worthy of McMurtry\u2019s Patsy<\/em>, lulling the reader with slick-varnished ennui right up to the fulfillment of Iron Mike Tyson\u2019s warning, \u201cEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,\u201d as well as Poe\u2019s third law of fiction that stories should end with a climax. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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My favorite in the collection is Adrienne Perry\u2019s creation, \u201cOne in the Family,\u201d a kaleidoscope of vivid, tactile sensation; quirky, poetic musing; brilliant juxtaposition; and an innovative extratextual, on-page graphic experiment I can\u2019t begin to describe, but it works. The writing is visceral, habitable; Houston: \u201cAugust brought Hell\u2019s furies. Walking over asphalt hot enough to melt, I became a blister. Red, shiny and taut.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In \u201cPhoto Album,\u201d Sarah Cortez mesmerizes with dreamy, livable, layered, poetic prose a mind\u2019s-eye moving picture conjured from an unseen photo album, another inventive device like Perry\u2019s visual experiment mentioned above. It works\u2014the reader lives hope, fear, regret, loss in a haunting, cave wall shadow like Plato\u2019s Meno<\/em>, what\u2019s not there made vivid by the shadow of what is.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Robert Boswell\u2019s \u201cThe Use of Landscape\u201d turns loose a sociopathic Bud Davis of Urban Cowboy<\/em>, only in this Noir version he has a PhD to Pam\u2019s GED, which inverts the intersection of \u201chaves\u201d and \u201chave nots,\u201d predator and prey. Boswell smacks the reader with another Poe theorem rewritten and smirking from his prose, \u201cnothing is more poignant than the death of a stupid woman.\u201d You almost feel guilty for having relished the story at the same time you feel compelled to savor it again.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cA Dark Universe\u201d by Larry Watts was the only comparative underreach in the assortment, partly because he breached the conventional viewpoint wall (in a later story, \u201dHappy Hunting,\u201d Icess Fernandez Rojas does the same thing, thrice), which I was willing to grant if the d\u00e9nouement justified the excursion\u2014which it didn\u2019t\u2014and partly because the characters fell short of their early potential. So, the story finishes with a sigh rather than a gasp.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll be compelled to reread \u201cXitlali Zaragoza, Curandera,\u201d Reyes Ramirez\u2019s engrossing, tactile, sensual daytrip into an unsettled spirit realm. Of all the stories, this one most seamlessly, wholly integrates the reader emotionally and sensually into a mounting, foreboding netherworld\u2014which is the story\u2019s engine room\u2014worthy of the malevolent subtext that drives Christopher Marlowe\u2019s devilish Faustus<\/em>.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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There\u2019s more, much more richness, from other talented writers\u2014too many to fit into this review. So, I\u2019ll simply sum up this short fiction collection in two words: \u201cbrilliant\u201d for the writers\u2019 craftsmanship, and \u201crewarding\u201d for the reader\u2019s experience. Edgar Allen Poe, storied master of dark fiction who probably earned more of his income from literary criticism, would likely concur from both perspectives.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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