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A review by mad_about_books
L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories by Megan Abbott, Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Andrew Vachss, Duane Swierczynski, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer
4.0
There is nothing quite like the hard-boiled detective story. I like to think of them as brain candy. These tales are never going to be great literature, no matter how literate the writer who may tackle noire, but they will continue to provide enjoyable reading for as long as they are around.
I must confess, I have seen some trailers for the L.A. Noire video game (also from Rockstar Games), and I am hooked on getting that game. I gave my WII system to my son and his family (along with all that I had accumulated in the way of games and accessories), and I have bought a PS3 from a friend of that same son. I am not a big online gamer; I played the old PC first person shooters back in the day, but very cautiously, and definitely not against other people.
As long as we are talking WII and PS3, I found the WII controllers to be too awkward and annoying. Since my main reason (at least now) for having a game system is to be able to watch Netflix on my television, I started thinking about getting rid of the WII a while ago. I think WII is for kids and not for us old folks.
OK. This is a book site. So why a 4 for my brain candy read? Well, one of the stories, Black Dahlia & White Rose, by Joyce Carol Oates, was written from the point of view of a wannabe starlet, using rather poor English and without much punctuation (at least no punctuation that really made sense). I don't expect literature in every tale I read, but this story was all but unreadable. All the rest met my expectations of noire.
I must confess, I have seen some trailers for the L.A. Noire video game (also from Rockstar Games), and I am hooked on getting that game. I gave my WII system to my son and his family (along with all that I had accumulated in the way of games and accessories), and I have bought a PS3 from a friend of that same son. I am not a big online gamer; I played the old PC first person shooters back in the day, but very cautiously, and definitely not against other people.
As long as we are talking WII and PS3, I found the WII controllers to be too awkward and annoying. Since my main reason (at least now) for having a game system is to be able to watch Netflix on my television, I started thinking about getting rid of the WII a while ago. I think WII is for kids and not for us old folks.
OK. This is a book site. So why a 4 for my brain candy read? Well, one of the stories, Black Dahlia & White Rose, by Joyce Carol Oates, was written from the point of view of a wannabe starlet, using rather poor English and without much punctuation (at least no punctuation that really made sense). I don't expect literature in every tale I read, but this story was all but unreadable. All the rest met my expectations of noire.