South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
‘Miami Noir’ knits together S. Florida classics
“Miami Noir: The Classics”: Edited by Les Standiford. Akashic Books, 400 pages, $17.95
The 19 stories featured in the superb “Miami Noir: The Classics” are solidly entertaining and a thoughtful history about life, crime and punishment in South Florida. Historian, author and editor Les Standiford has assembled an intriguing collection of short stories, each a reprint, that are divided into four sections and arranged by decade to chronicle the region’s development over 90 years.
Each story in “Miami Noir: The Classics” illuminates South Florida’s landscape of immigration, ecology, grifters, betrayal and fresh starts. Some characters manufacture their own peril while others are just trying to survive. It’s doubtful that anyone would expect stories by conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas or activist Zora Neale Hurston to land in this collection. Yet Douglas’ “Pine Island,” written in 1925, and an excerpt from Hurston’s classic “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” written in 1937, are chillingly prophetic in their examinations of nature, to which Hurst on weaves in racial issues.
The excerpt from Douglas Fairbairn’s 1977 novel “Street Eight”— a personal favorite— is considered to be the first novel to showcase South Florida’s Cuban immigrant community. The gritty “Street Eight” centers on a usedcar salesman caught up with Cuban expatriates who need a warehouse. Ironically, as Standiford notes, Fairbairn’s origi---
nal title was “Calle Oche” but his publishers insisted that readers would be “puzzled” by this title. The parallels between “Street Eight” and Carolina Garcia Aguilera’s “Washington Avenue” are unmistakable.
In 2007, Standiford edited “MiamiNoir,” a collection of original short stories. “MiamiNoir: The Classics” is a solid companion.
Stories by Lynne Barrett, Vicki Hendricks, John Dufresne, Charles Willeford, Elmore Leonard,
Edna Buchanan, among others, elevate “Miami Noir: The Classics” to near-required reading for Florida residents while giving the rest of country a glimpse of what makes Florida tick.
Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol.com.
Zoom with the authors
Les Standiford will lead a discussion about
“MiamiNoir: The Classics” with Lynne Barrett, Carolina Garcia Aguilera, Vicki Hendricks and John Dufresne beginning at 5 p.m. Nov. 18 sponsored by Murder on the Beach bookstore, 104W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, murderonthebeach.com. Cost to join the virtual discussion is $17.95 to purchase the collection, or $5 that may be credited to the book; includes free shipping. Email Murder on the Beach at murdermb@gate.net or call 561-279
7790 for more information. A link for the virtual event will be sent to those registered.
Standiford also will lead a discussion with authors featured in “MiamiNoir: The Classics” as part of the virtual Miami Book Fair. This panel will be available on Nov. 15. Readers must register for the Miami Book Fair at miamibookfaironline.comto create their own book fair schedules. Registration is free; for more information call 305-237-3258.