David L Ulin (ed)

165 Pages·2016·1.05 MB·English

by  Noir Akashic

This collection is comprised of works of fiction. All names, characters, places,
and incidents are the product of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to
real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Akashic Books
©2011 Akashic Books
Series concept by Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple
Cape Cod map by Aaron Petrovich
ISBN-13: 978-1-936070-97-8
eISBN-13: 978-1-617-75061-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010939098
All rights reserved Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
[email protected]
www.akashicbooks.com
A A N S
LSO IN THE KASHIC OIR ERIES:

Baltimore Noir, edited by Laura Lippman
Barcelona Noir (Spain), edited by Adriana V. López & Carmen Ospina
Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane
Bronx Noir, edited by S.J. Rozan
Brooklyn Noir, edited by Tim McLoughlin
Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Tim McLoughlin
Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing but the Truth
edited by Tim McLoughlin & Thomas Adcock
Chicago Noir, edited by Neal Pollack
Copenhagen Noir (Denmark), edited by Bo Tao Michaëlis
D.C. Noir, edited by George Pelecanos
D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, edited by George Pelecanos
Delhi Noir (India), edited by Hirsh Sawhney
Detroit Noir, edited by E.J. Olsen & John C. Hocking
Dublin Noir (Ireland), edited by Ken Bruen
Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat
Havana Noir (Cuba), edited by Achy Obejas
Indian Country Noir, edited by Sarah Cortez & Liz Martínez
Istanbul Noir (Turkey), edited by Mustafa Ziyalan & Amy Spangler
Las Vegas Noir, edited by Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce
London Noir (England), edited by Cathi Unsworth
Lone Star Noir, edited by Bobby Byrd & Johnny Byrd
Los Angeles Noir, edited by Denise Hamilton
Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Denise Hamilton
Manhattan Noir, edited by Lawrence Block
Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Lawrence Block
Mexico City Noir (Mexico), edited by Paco I. Taibo II
Miami Noir, edited by Les Standiford
Moscow Noir (Russia), edited by Natalia Smirnova & Julia Goumen
New Orleans Noir, edited by Julie Smith
Orange County Noir, edited by Gary Phillips
Paris Noir (France), edited by Aurélien Masson
Philadelphia Noir, edited by Carlin Romano
Phoenix Noir, edited by Patrick Millikin
Pittsburgh Noir, edited by Kathleen George
Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell
Queens Noir, edited by Robert Knightly
Richmond Noir, edited by Andrew Blossom,
Brian Castleberry & Tom De Haven
Rome Noir (Italy), edited by Chiara Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski
San Diego Noir, edited by Maryelizabeth Hart
San Francisco Noir, edited by Peter Maravelis
San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Peter Maravelis
Seattle Noir, edited by Curt Colbert
Toronto Noir (Canada), edited by Janine Armin & Nathaniel G. Moore
Trinidad Noir, edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason
Twin Cities Noir, edited by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz
FORTHCOMING:
Wall Street Noir, edited by Peter Spiegelman

Bogotá Noir (Colombia), edited by Andrea Montejo
Jerusalem Noir, edited by Sayed Kashua
Lagos Noir (Nigeria), edited by Chris Abani
Long Island Noir, edited by Kaylie Jones
Mumbai Noir (India), edited by Altaf Tyrewala
New Jersey Noir, edited by Joyce Carol Oates
St. Petersburg Noir (Russia), edited by Natalia Smirnova & Julia Goumen
Staten Island Noir, edited by Patricia Smith
Venice Noir (Italy), edited by Maxim Jakubowski

T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS

Title Page
Copyright

Page
Introduction
PART I: OUT OF SEASON
WILLIAM HASTINGS Falmouth
Ten-Year Plan

ELYSSA EAST Buzzards Bay
Second Chance

DANA CAMERON Eastham
Ardent

PAUL TREMBLAY Dennisport
Nineteen Snapshots of

Dennisport

ADAM MANSBACH Martha’s Vineyard
Variations on a Fifty-Pound

Bale
PART II: SUMMER PEOPLE
SETH
Hyannisport
GREENLAND
Bad Night in

Hyannisport
LIZZIE SKURNICK Wellfleet
Spectacle Pond

DAVID L. ULIN Harwichport
La Jetée

KAYLIE JONES Dennis
The Occidental

Tourist
PART III: END OF THE LINE
FRED G. LEEBRON Provincetown
The Exchange Student

BEN GREENMAN Woods Hole
Viva Regina

DAVE ZELTSERMAN Sandwich
When Death Shines Bright

JEDEDIAH BERRY Yarmouth
Twenty-Eight Scenes for Neglected

Guests

About the Contributors
INTRODUCTION
S S
UMMER AND MOKE

I
first began to think of Cape Cod in noir-ish terms during the fall of 1979. I say
that, of course, entirely in hindsight, since noir was not then part of my lexicon. I
was eighteen, just out of high school, on a year off that would later take me to
South Texas and San Francisco. My best friend and I were making this journey
together, and before we left, I spent a week at his parents’ cottage in Wellfleet,
where he was living alone, working as a cranberry picker, stockpiling money for
the trip. Every day, he would go to work, and I would pretend to write a novel,
staring out the windows at the gray October sky. At night, we would go to bars.
The house was on a marshy point of land known as Lieutenant’s Island, which
was only an island at high tide. Some nights, we’d come back to find the road
flooded, as if it had never been at all. I was not new to the Cape—I’d spent
summers there, or parts of summers, since 1971—but this was a more
conditional experience, more elemental and more charged. The same was true of
the bars we frequented: dark places, their air thick with cigarette smoke and a
kind of survivor’s tenacity. Cape Cod in the off-season was a hunkered-down
place, if not in hibernation exactly then in a strange, suspended state. In those
days, before the Internet, when even cable TV was still scarce, there was nothing
to do but drink.
Here, we see the inverse of the Cape Cod stereotype, with its sailboats and
its presidents. Here, we see the flip side of the Kennedys, of all those preppies in
docksiders eating steamers, of the whale watchers and bicycles and kites. Here,
we see the Cape beneath the surface, the Cape after the summer people have
gone home. It doesn’t make the other Cape any less real, but it does suggest a
symbiosis, in which our sense of the place can’t help but become more
complicated, less about vacation living than something more nuanced and
profound.
This, it might be said, is also the case with noir, which is the dime-store
genre that exposes our hearts of darkness, the literary equivalent of the blues. In
noir, bad things happen to good people—or more accurately, possibilities
narrow, until every option is compromised and no one ever wins. How one deals