Noir

A Novel

De: Christopher Moore

Narrado por: Johnny Heller

Duración: 9 h y 3 m

Resumen del Editor

The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times best-selling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped air force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more.

San Francisco. Summer, 1947. A dame walks into a saloon....

It's not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar. It's love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an air force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. 'Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he's got the connections on the street.

Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted up the Pacific coast in Washington State near Mount Rainer, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. But the real weirdness is happening on the streets of the City by the Bay.

When one of Sammy's schemes goes south and the Cheese mysteriously vanishes, Sammy is forced to contend with his own dark secrets - and more than a few strange goings-on - if he wants to find his girl.

Think Raymond Chandler meets Damon Runyon with more than a dash of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes All Stars. It's all very, very Noir. It's all very, very Christopher Moore.

©2018 Christopher Moore (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Narrator Johnny Heller nails the wry tones and rhythmic pacing of the working mugs, corrupt cops, streetwise urchins, and tough dames who people Christopher Moore's novel, which the author calls 'perky noir.'" (AudioFile)

He was a horrible little kid...

Love the story and the performance is perfect! Christopher Moore writes perfectly zany and wonderful characters, and Johnny Heller makes them leap right off the page. Could not imagine anyone else reading to me about The Cheese and Lones and of course the Horrible Little Kid. I really, really, hope these two partner again for Noir 2. Hint hint

HILARIOUS!

Very funny, quick paced, wonderful narration. As a San Franciscan, born in 1942, I recognized the landmarks and the ambiance of The City.

Moore from a different angle

i've mostly read Moore's series, but I like this as a stand-alone book. it was a pleasant listen. Loved the narrator, really, he did a fantastic job with all the quite varied characters and the throwback dialogue. Very well researched: the setting is tangibly real despite the absurdity of the story itself. I think I am likely to re-listen to this one in the future.

full of unexpected surprised

This book may be tough for those that are overly sensitive and PC but it's not done in a way that comes off as irreverent or mean spirited. Great writing, great performance. Highly reccomended.

Noir

This is without a doubt one of the funniest books I have ever listened to. I recommend it highly.

How am I going to manage without Christopher Moore until his next bookristopher Moore for another couple of years?

Hilarious, silly, great plot, and fantastic characters. Oh and have I mentioned how fantastic the reader is? Christopher Moore is, as usual, laugh out loud funny and imaginative. The reader (and I’m sorry I don’t remember his name off hand but I really should because he’s excellent), does such a wonderful job bringing forth the characters that I really look forward to the two hours that I commute every day to work. That’s saying something.

Fabulous

Moore correctly invokes the feel of a time and a place that no longer exists, and probably should never have. Noir is a perfect send up of the American Detective genre.

Moore Takes a Bite Out of Film Noir

If you ever read Christopher Moore, you know to expect one or more of the following: 1. A satirical skewering of the conventions of a classic literary form (Shakespeare in Fool and Serpent of Venice, the Bible in Lamb), 2. Northern California as a setting (Grim Reaper, Bloodsucking Fiends, and Pine Cove series), and 3. Supernatural entities (just about all of them). In Noir, you get all three, a send-up of film noir and hard-boiled pulp fiction set in San Francisco just after WWII, featuring a talking snake, a moon man, and Men in Black.

This is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The first half of the book is mostly a parody of the way people talk in film noir, the original malapropisms and fractured metaphors replaced by a new layer of malapropisms and fractured metaphors, half of which seem to be based on different kinds of cheese. This is fun for a while, but starts to get a tedious and repetitive. That's when the plot kicks in, and strange twists and turns are thrown at us at breakneck pace, which is kind of fun but also kind of hard to keep straight.

What made it all work for me was the better late than never introduction of the moon man. I will argue that it is not a spoiler to bring up the moon man, because this is Chris Moore, so a discussion early in the book about Roswell, New Mexico that some believe to be a flying saucer can only mean one thing, that an alien will surely find its way into the story. It's worth noting that this discussion is led by a side character, the kid, who is simply hilarious every time he appears, which is not often enough for my taste.

Along with the moon man, the men in black, the talking snake, and the kid, we have the wisecracking hero (a bartender), the femme fatale ("a size-eight dame in a size-six dress, and every mug in the joint was rooting for the two sizes to make a break for it"), and a wide array of colorful supporting characters, including the denizens of Bohemian Grove, the cabal of rich powerful men who plan the fate of the world while dancing at the foot of a statue of giant owl (which BTW is real and continues to this day).

I particularly liked the afterword, where Moore explains why he chose San Francisco in 1947 as his setting, vibrant characters in themselves. He describes the neighborhoods and the various groups of people, how he started out wanting to write a serious potboiler but couldn't help throwing in the jokes, and where the individual characters came from, an amalgam of real people and fictional characteristics inspired by news events or other literary works. For me, the whole had already come together in the final few hours, but the afterword really made it all make that much more sense.

The big problem, though, is the narration. I recognize that a hard-boiled voice is needed to narrate a hard-boiled character, but it's just too grating. Not a showstopper, not for me anyway, but I wish they had found someone true to the genre with less edge in his vocal chords, more of a smooth Bogart kind of voice. Even beyond the narration, the spectrum of reviews tells you that this is a love-it or hate-it kind of book. Although I won't go so far as to say I loved it, I ended up liking it well enough, but I could see where it would turn some people completely off. So, your mileage may vary.

Good. Not Lamb Good. But good.

Not as good as Lamb, much better than Serpent. Worth a listen / credit for sure.

Moore always puts out good quality.

Really enjoyed this book. the story wasn't as engaging as some of his other works, but good. The performance of the reader was amazing. well done!