Noir’s
protagonist, film noir or neo-noir, are always associated with corruption. Both
protagonists in the “The Kidnapper Bell” by Jim Pascoe and in “City of Commerce”
by Neal Pollack are comprised of the down-and-out, morally corrupted, and all the
known noir elements that showcase the unhealthy side of human life. Pascoe and
Pollack immediately reveal their protagonist to be
unscrupulous. Jim and Nick are obsessed in the fact that they are self serving and
need to please their obsessions. Obsessions that lead them to entangling
themselves in a very complex plot, yet both protagonists are able to walk away
from these malignant
events, but by no means altering their immoral compasses. Jim goes home and
lays down next to his wife, trying to think of an explanation of how the bell ended
up with him and what to say to his wife about the bell, yet when he is about to
wake up his nights experience has not phased him. Parallel to Nick, who slightly
thinks about his wife and career as he is driving out of the City of Commerce whose
main focus and is on his next poker hand. Based on Pascoe and Pollack short stories,
neo-noir protagonists embody the classic film noir protagonist with an unscrupulous
twist.
Noir
and not so noir
This is a little challenging,
since all stories, a least I felt, did not completely fit the noir mold. However
out of the four stories, I would have to say that Robert Ferrigino’s The Hour When the Ship Comes in,
would best fit the mold of neo-noir. The story line begins when the protagonist
is dying and slowly takes you through his condemned journey. This short story
give an ambiance of noir, where as Brian Ascalon Roley’s story was a little
more hard insinuate presents of neo noir. I had a hard time to finding noir
elements in Kinship,
this story of revenge, had me thinking what made it neo-noir? My guess that the
saved sinner inflicting premeditated harm to another is what made the cut for
this story to be featured in this book. I did enjoy reading all four stories
but all weren’t so obvious of the film noir, the location was prominent, femme
fatale was not so present, but you can feel the change to neo-noir in all these
stories. The perverse attraction to demoralized human qualities is
very evident in all the stories, which them so appealing and exciting.
