Hopeton Hay

Yet another Akashic Books anthology of noir stories, this one set in Austin, Texas, the notoriously weird city that stands out from the rest of Texas. I've never been to Austin, but if there is one thing I know about it, it is that a lot has changed from how Austin used to be as more people have migrated there from out of state, property costs have increased, and developers have changed the feel of Austin. Many of the authors set their stories with this in mind, and you get a sense that they want to "Keep Austin Weird."

When reading anthologies, I tend to jump around and, often, I'm left with the longer stories at the end. This benefited me as the last two stories I read (about 30 pages each) were the stand outs for me. Amy Gentry's "Stitches" has a visiting lecturer returning to the University of Texas co-op where she lived as a student and is flooded with memories of her time there and the people she met, including a free-spirited woman she connected with just before the woman disappeared. Is there more to the woman's disappearance than just the transient nature of college and co-ops?

Miriam Kuznets "Saving" also revisits the past. In the late 80s, the narrator gets a job from a friend helping AIDS patients. When the friend dies, she gets caught up in trying to figure out what her job really was.

As always with these books, your mileage may vary. Some stories need the backdrop of the city setting, while others just seem to have landmarks sprinkled in to meet the assignment. Overall, this was one of the stronger collections.… (más)

Austin Noir is another book in the Akashic Noir series that I've read and really liked. The introduction really grabbed me. Yes, I've always heard that if you want to move to Texas, move to Austin. The editors' introduction, appropriately titled "We Hear Dallas Is Nice," offered me a new and seemingly honest perspective. It also offered a one or two sentence description of each neighborhood. This was very helpful. All in all, a short but great way to begin my literary tour of Austin.

Some of my favorites stories:

Part I - Ace Atkins' "Stunts: So real I felt I was watching an actual Western.
Amanda Moore's "Reflections": Quite the surprise ending.
Jeff Abbott's "The Good Neighbor": Wow! What a story! I don't know what to believe, but the ending was creepy.

Part II - Loved every story in this section. The best part of the entire book.

Part III - Amy Gentry's "Stitches": This one's a reread for sure. A great story.

A solid short story collection.… (más)