Paris Noir

by Aurélien Masson

Paris Noir takes you on a ride through the old medieval center of town with its winding streets, its ghosts, and its secrets buried in history. This is more than an homage to the crime genre, to Melville and Godard, it’s also a lush introduction to the very best in French fiction.

Brand-new stories from: Marc Villard, Didier Daeninckx, Jean-Bernard Pouy, Salim Bachi, Christophe Mercier, Jerome Leroy, DOA, Laurent Martin, Herve Prudon, Patrick Pecherot, Dominique Mainard, and Chantal Pelletier.

Aurélien Masson is the director of la Série Noire at Gallimard, one of France’s leading publishing companies.

Genres: Noir, Short Stories, France, Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Paris

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Nancy]

Posted at Shelf Inflicted

Paris is a wonderful place to visit. I love the city for its grandeur, its palaces, museums, monuments, breathtaking views, restaurants, cafes, its rich culture and history. It is a dynamic, international and happening place. Being a tourist, however, is not the same as living, working, raising a family, and making friends in another country. “The City of Light” has a dark underbelly, particularly for those who do not speak French well and have difficulty assimilating into a new culture, those who are poor, or those not in the best of health. If you are young, healthy, strong, flexible, and financially sound, you can probably survive most anywhere.

Unlike Delhi Noir, the stories in this collection were all translated from the French language. I wish I had better knowledge of foreign languages, but in the meantime I am thankful for those translators who enable me to read and enjoy a wider variety of literature.

Even though I’ve visited Paris a number of times, the stories in this collection show the city and its inhabitants in an entirely different light.

It was a fun and worthwhile trip!

Here are the standouts in this collection:

Marc Villard’s The Chauffeur - Bad people get what’s coming to them, and the hooker stays alive. Gritty and sweet.

Chantal Pelletier’s The Chinese Guy - Beautiful descriptions of spring, flowers and food from the perspective of a mentally disturbed woman who becomes obsessed with a Chinese guy. One of my favorites.

Salim Bachi’s Big Brother - Highlights the lives and struggles of Algerians who live in Paris and how darkness and violence inhabits the soul of one man who feels unjustly treated by society.

Jean-Bernard Pouy’s The Revenge of the Waiters not only has a great title, it is a sad and humorous story that vividly portrays the lives of average working people and the inhabitants of old buildings about to be knocked down. A group of waiters are very concerned about an old jogger who seems to have gone missing and are determined to find him.

Dominique Mainard’s La Vie en Rose is a sad and gripping story about an aspiring author who wants to write a crime novel, but needs help understanding what could drive a murderer to kill. With help from his journalist friend, he gathers information about a brutal murder of a young girl and interviews an old man who may or may not know something about the crime.

Though the stories varied in quality, they were all enjoyable and entertaining.

[Tackle]

Mitigé. Quelques histoires sont superbes, autres sans grand intérêt. Je suis quand même impressionné comment une histoire peut capturer le lecteur en 3 pages. Je tire mon chapeau notamment devant DOA, Chantal Pelletier, Jérôme Leroy, Laurent Martin, Dominique Mainard, Didier Daeninckx pour leurs courtes histoires captivantes.

[WortGestalt]

Besonders zu Beginn viele tolle Kurzgeschichten, viele tolle Schreibstile und kesse Plotideen. Gegen Ende war bei mir ein wenig die Luft raus, manche Storys waren fast schon einen Tick zu lang. Insgesamt aber eine absolut lohnenswerte Anthologie, die eine großartige Auswahl an französischer Autoren bietet (12 an der Zahl) und Paris mit vielen (kriminellen) Facetten zeigt.

[Denise]

Didn't like most of this book. Only a few stories captured my interest and thought they were clever - the 1 star is for them. A number were crude, some just blah. Overall, the only book in the Noir series that has been overwhelmingly disappointing which was a surprise.
DD@Phila

[Takkusaan Books]

I have a weak spot for stories that are not shy to put the city in the centre of attention. This collection of short stories, set in different parts of Paris, fitted my mood perfectly because many of them had such a sudden twist in the plot. Besides, I love to find myself "in the middle of it" so fast, compared to longer novels. The book made me even a bit nostalgic of some of the neighbourhoods!

[Diana]

I don't know what I just read.

[Rosemarie]

I read 7 of the 12 short stories - some I liked more than others but on the whole they were a little somber and “noir” for me. If you like the Paris of Amelie, you’re reading the wrong stuff! 😆

[juanmonique]

Un peu bien; un peu avec un petit frisson; un peu - Regardez! Mes yeux se fermaient ...

[Sarah]

By the end of the book I felt familiar with the denizens of Paris and knowledgeable about the streets and neighborhoods of the city. The stories varied widely in theme and also in quality, but there were a number of really good ones.

The book starts out a little slow with the tale of a prostitute and the chauffeur who tries to save her (The Chauffeur) then we are treated to a harrowing and very disturbing story of a madwoman and her hostage (The Chinese Guy) After that we meet a scholarly Arab and his sidekick who deal with the temptation to commit violence in Big Brother, a violent and chaotic story about spies, and, one of my favorites, the story of a jaded private detective who encounters a doomed mafia victim on Christmas Eve (Christmas) and another favorite, the story of a coalition of waiters who go to great lengths to find a missing jogger (The Revenge of the Waiters) Another story is about an aspiring mystery writer who gets closer to a crime than he bargained for in La Vie En Rose, a story about the murder of a man who made his fortune selling information, and another one that stands out, Dead Memory, about a man who prowls the city streets caught in his own personal madness and constantly chasing sanity, haunted by a wartime tragedy.

Not all the stories in the book were above par, but the majority of them were entertaining. I liked how the stories were all originally in French and by French authors.

[M M]

Akashic Press's latest in their Capital Crime series - Paris Noir (Akashic Noir), edited by Aurelien Masson. (Such a nice name, Aurelien, eh? When the French pronounce it, it sounds exactly like Orleans. At least to my ear. I met a chap called Aurelien once. A student at Rutgers. No, I don't think it's the same as this Masson fellow.) In many ways this is a much better collection of crime shorts than the previous one edited by Maxim Jakubowski, also called Paris Noir. Many of the stories here are really hard noir, brutal and unforgiving in their characterisation and the milieus. Indeed, the stories range into parts of Paris I'd never heard of, although some of them are set in the usual red-light areas of Pigalle. Chantal Pelletier's The Chinese Guy is disturbing, written from the point of view of a psychotic woman who likes to cook for her victims. The story by Salim Bachi called Big Brother is another one that throws quite a wallop - an erudite Arab man turns out to have hidden depths of violence in him. The one I liked for its twist at the end was Precious by DOA, all about heists and torture and deflecting the reader's attention. The book is, I've got to say, a nice-time pass.

[Chris]

From this book you get a glimpse into what was a revelation to me, the French fixation on arrondissements and their uniqueness. All the writers are French so it's a labor of love and you feel the spirit of the city. Of coure the only Arabs as main characters are either terrorists or thieves. It's the usual cast of characters: PI's, Russian thugs, smugglers, corrupt cops, whores, etc.. The City of Light is actually quite dark but I'm still ready to take a trip there. Some day?

[Mark]

This collection of stories purports to show the dark underbelly of life in Paris, but the darkness mostly just happens to take place in Paris rather than originate from any particularly Parisian set of circumstances. If you're used to idealized, romantic portraits of the City of Light, however, these stories might come as a surprise.

[Elisa]

Booooring. I guess I like my noir with murder, not drug dealers or social commentary (I get enough of that on the news). The one story I liked was the one about the police interviewing a suspect after a murder. Other than that, I guess I just did't get this.

[Sherry D.]

A few I thoroughly enjoyed....most, to me, were just OK.
Being a fan of the 'short story', which what these series of 'Noir' books is, I'll most likely read a few more of them. There is bound to be at least one gem in each of them.

[Hayley]

Overall, patchy in terms of tone, with most of the really good stories right at the beginning. Still not a bad read though, as Paris is definitely a city that suits the noir sensibility. Probably a good recommendation for someone who loves Paris, noir fiction or both.

[Amy]

I love Paris, but the stories just didn't grab my attention.

[Steven West]

meh. i think the fault is less in our stars than our translators

[Susan]

A great mix of stories set around the City of Light.

[DunklesSchaf]

Sehr gemischt. Starker Start, dann durchwachsen, die letzte Geschichte hab ich abgebrochen.

[Marc]

Some stories better than others but was mostly interested in the stories that were set in parts of Paris I visited.

[Becky]

Could not get into it...will try again later.

[Harvey Miller]

A bit strange for my taste. A few good stories, one barely comprehensible.