I have to admit that on occasion I've found some of Moore's work a little silly. In this case though he's spot on. His characters are just the right side of over done. So while some might verge on the cartoonish, we soon realize there is more to them than initially meets the eye. Of course it doesn't hurt that the story, and the intricate plots which keep it spinning over, are examples of Moore's imagination at its finest. While the absurdities come fast and furious... they're all part and parcel of the plot. No matter how far-fetched something might appear to be at first, within the context of the story everything fits together perfectly.
Moore is a master of metaphor and a sultan of simile and, well, a fine describer of the shriek that finding your boss dead might elicit (even if the mechanics of rushing into a burning building penis-first seem ill-advised). One of the great pleasures in Noir is trying to decipher the myriad comparisons that Moore employs, which are often nonsensical but no less entertaining for the effort ... In keeping with the noir style, there are many divergent plotlines that ultimately have to be tied up, and Moore’s solution — no spoilers here — is unique to the genre.
...Moore has produced a book that’s moodier than his usually snappy fare. For his cast of characters, occupying the lower levels and the margins of society, postwar America is a place of job shortages, housing shortages and 'broken veterans' as well as racial prejudice and sexual exploitation ... Lest any of Moore’s regular readers think he’s gone sappy, it’s worth noting that he’s as silly as ever ... Noir is a sad and daffy and wacky, and surprisingly heartfelt, novel.
Noir, ostensibly a satiric mash-up of the sci-fi and hard-boiled mystery genres, cleverly morphs into a well-crafted novel about love and friendship ... Despite his deviations from classic noir, Moore still manages to deal with thematic touchstones of the genre. There is an element of cynicism, alienation, and general unease about the world ... While adhering to the basic tenets of noir fiction and film, he surpasses the usual by introducing sci-fi elements into the mix ... Noir turns a legendary genre on its side and offers grand entertainment at every level.
We’re in Raymond Chandler country straight away, but is this sci-fi? ... In the end the sci-fi content of Noir is fairly small, but the exuberance of the Chandler pastiche never flags ... Noir is worth reading just for its similes and metaphors ... Not serious, but fun.
It’s a fun story and, as Moore admits, not nearly as dark or desperate as he originally intended. Lucky for us, because we get plenty of Moore’s trademark linguistic high jinks, oddball characters and a cartwheeling plot in danger of spinning out of control before miraculously sticking the landing. If you like your crime fiction heavy, this book may not be for you. But as a light read, Noir is perfect.
Noir is a fun romp. Readers with delicate sensitivities may want to avoid Noir, or any other Chris Moore book for that matter. He’s not for everyone but for those who love him, Noir is a must-have addition.
...satisfying twists and reveals and sharply drawn characters ... suffused with nostalgia for San Francisco in 1947, when the action takes place — and when language and attitudes, Moore forewarns us, were not politically correct ... There’s fun in following Moore’s shaggy-dog plot, though some readers may find its ending loopy.
'Perky Noir' ... It’s the perfect two-word expression for a novel that starts out as a fairly straightforward yarn about a sad-sack bartender named Sammy whose world is rocked by a daffy waitress with a past ... It all hangs together, just barely, if you don’t care too much about plot and structure. Moore sure doesn’t ... Moore’s all about the zany and the zinger ... Sometimes this House of Silly collapses on itself and sometimes it’s as solid as Alcatraz during an earthquake.
...weird and oddly hilarious ... This isn’t just a spoof of the kind of noir that Thompson, Cain, and Goodis were writing in the 1940s and ’50s; hiding behind those trappings is a pedal-to-the-metal, exquisitely written comic romp through a neon-lit San Francisco that may never have actually existed, but that, in Moore’s supremely talented hands, sure feels like it could have. The scene in the diner, where the Cheese and her pal call out food orders, is by itself funny enough to have you snorting in public. So beware: you probably won’t get through this one without making a fool of yourself.
Moore’s introduction of an interrupting, semiomniscient second narrator between Sammy’s first-person tale can be jarring, even if it is explained late in the book. The novel finally coalesces in its back half ... What results is a kindred spirit to Richard Brautigan’s Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942 (1977). A frantically comic tale of guys and dolls that shoots and just misses.
...things just get stranger in this work that puts an amusing spin on the noir subgenre. An author’s note gives fair warning of the characters’ era-appropriate language and attitudes, which may be disturbing to some readers.
