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Cynthia Swanson

Författare till The Bookseller

6 verk 1,081 medlemmar 74 recensioner

Verk av Cynthia Swanson

The Bookseller (2015) 854 exemplar
The Glass Forest (2018) 192 exemplar
Denver Noir (2022) — Redaktör — 32 exemplar
A Vida Aqui e Agora (2015) 1 exemplar

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Födelsedag
20th century
Kön
female
Nationalitet
USA

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Recensioner

Denver Noir brings this iconic series back to its roots in the mean streets of Everywhere, this time in Denver, Colorado. I am always intrigued when the Noir Series features a city from a place that has no noir tradition, where the invited writers are, in a way, inventing a new genre. But I love coming back to books edited and written by authors who understand noir in their bones. That is what puts Denver Noir near the top of my Noir list.

It’s not that Cynthia Swanson, the writer who edited Denver Noir, avoided risk-taking. She include a graphic (illustrated) short story by R. Allan Brooks, that was quite wonderful. I’ve only read a couple graphic novels and usually get tired by the format, but as a short story, it hits the sweet spot for me.

There are fourteen stories in three sections. The first section has stories from “the longest, wickedest street in America.” These are stories of people on the downside of power, struggling to make ends meet, to live their lives with what dignity they can, and the grifters, cons, and miscreants that always, always kick down. The middle section is about the Colorado-ness of it all, they outdoors, the urban counterculture, the influx of people, gentrification, and surely the bleakest story of them all, “No Gods” that takes place one night at a local bar being forced out of business. The third part is innovative in that the focus is stories with youth. Editors find different ways of filters stories into sections, but I’ve read most in the Noir series, and I think this is the first time I’ve come across that focus. It worked. Sometimes I think our teen years are the most noir years of our lives, the uncertain future, the scramble to fit in, the hierarchies, and the lax permission structure for bullying. It’s great to see that captured.

I loved Denver Noir. Swanson did an excellent job of including diverse voices, not just ethnic diversity, but also age, from young people to retirees, from the right and the wrong side of the law and the ambiguous who are neither. The stories are well-written, demonstrating the short story writers’ skills at saying a lot with a little.

I have probably become tedious in my admiration for and proselytizing about Akashic Noir books, but I remain as enthusiastic as ever. When I went to Spain in high school, my friend and I got lost in Cordoba with very little cash because the bank had closed and we couldn’t cash our travelers’ checks (long ago) we were wandering around looking for a place that looked cheap, got lost, and met two women who took us to a commissary for the Guardia Civil where our $3 between us bought a huge meal and the soldiers bought us lots of beer. We became friends with the women and the took us to the Mosque though it was closed for repairs, snuck in by a friendly guard. We went to Spanish Drivers’ Ed, taught by one of them. It was the best experience and the closest thing to “travel tourings” was our late night illicit tour of the Mosque. Akashic Noir is like that. It takes you to a place and shows you what is under the surface, what is not on postcards. And I love the series for that.

I received a copy of Denver Noir from the publisher through Shelf Awareness

Denver Noir at Akashic Books
Cynthia Swanson author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2023/08/06/denver-noir-ed-by-cynthia...
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Tonstant.Weader | 16 andra recensioner | Aug 6, 2023 |
[b:Denver Noir|59515149|Denver Noir|Cynthia Swanson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1635799945l/59515149._SY75_.jpg|93737258] edited by Cynthia Swanson is another solid entry in Akashic Books Noir Series. As expected, some stories are better than others. I did like seeing the addition of a graphic short story in this edition. As for the other stories, 'Pieces of Everyone, Everywhere' by Cynthia Swanson was truly outstanding. I also really enjoyed 'Dreaming of Ella' by Francelia Belton and 'On Grasmere Lake' by Mathangi Subramanian.

[Note: The publisher provided me with a copy of this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.]
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
lpg3d | 16 andra recensioner | Nov 12, 2022 |
Denver Noir edited by Cynthia Swanson is another solid entry in Akashic Books Noir Series. As expected, some stories are better than others. I did like seeing the addition of a graphic short story in this edition. As for the other stories, 'Pieces of Everyone, Everywhere' by Cynthia Swanson was truly outstanding. I also really enjoyed 'Dreaming of Ella' by Francelia Belton and 'On Grasmere Lake' by Mathangi Subramanian.

[Note: The publisher provided me with a copy of this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.]… (mer)
 
Flaggad
lpg3d | 16 andra recensioner | Oct 15, 2022 |
Kitty Miller is single. She owns a business with her best friend, Frieda, and she is pretty contented with her independent life and her cat. Then she falls asleep one night and finds herself in an alternate reality in which she is Katharyn, a married woman with children, a loving husband, and a much more complicated but fuller life. Dreaming of this life once is like taking a trip, but Kitty dreams of this life over and over again and the line between reality and dreaming begins to blur.

I adore authors who can take unbelievable, incomprehensible concepts and make them seem possible and real. Kitty as a character is interesting, believable and sympathetic. I began to care what happened to her and worry that she would be stuck in one of these lives when she wanted to live in the other. The plot and the tension build and when Swanson gives us the key to the puzzle, she does not cheat her reader with the manner in which she resolves this dichotomy.

I thought this novel was well-written and great fun. I could not figure out what would prove to be true until the last reveal and I liked that it wasn't a choice between one good life and one bad life, but a choice between two worlds in which something would be lost on either side. Kudos to Cynthia Swanson for a story well-told.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
mattorsara | 45 andra recensioner | Aug 11, 2022 |

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Associerade författare

Mark Stevens Contributor
Mario Acevedo Contributor
Peter Heller Contributor
Manuel Ramos Contributor
Erika T. Wurth Contributor
Barbara Nickless Contributor
R. Alan Brooks Contributor
Amy Drayer Contributor
Francelia Belton Contributor
D.L. Cordero Contributor
Kathe Mazur Narrator

Statistik

Verk
6
Medlemmar
1,081
Popularitet
#23,778
Betyg
½ 3.7
Recensioner
74
ISBN
40
Språk
3

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