Tampa Bay Noir, edited by Colette Bancroft

Tampa Bay Noir by Colette Bancroft
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are short story collections that are mildly interesting, then there are collections that grab the reader's attention and won't turn loose until the last page. Tampa Bay Noir is definitely the latter.

Edited by Colette Bancroft (former book editor for the Tampa Bay Times), Tampa Bay Noir is one of two books representing Florida in publisher Akashic Books's noir series. (Miami is the other Florida city.) As with the other noir anthologies, this book has all new short stories; these are based in different areas of the Tampa Bay area, mainly Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. Michael Connelly's "The Guardian," set in Hyde Park, opens the anthology; Tim Dorsey, Lisa Unger, and a host of others add stories/mysteries to this quirky, dark collection, ending with Colette Bancroft's "The Bite."

While some of the stories here may not be for the faint-of-heart, I found the book difficult to put down. Each story, each writer, took the book to another level that ensured that I will definitely put this into my rotation of books-to-reread-and-reread, year after year. It also left me with a list of writers who novels will soon be in my to-be-read pile.

For anyone who has lived in the Tampa Bay area, thought about living here, or just plain wants a book to keep one captivated, Tampa Bay Noir is definitely the book to pick up and read, cover to cover.

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The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ever since originally reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac, I knew I'd have to follow up with Kerouac's The Dharma Bums. I'd read the first couple of pages several times, then put the book back on the shelf. This time, I read all the way through.

As with On the Road, Dharma is loosely based on Kerouac and shows others he knew. The narrator, Ray Smith, is based on Kerouac, while Japhy Ryder (the other main character) is based on Gary Snyder, who was instrumental is steering Kerouac towards Buddhism. There's one point when Smith and Ryder go to a poetry ready where Alvah Goldbook (based on Allen Ginsburg) reads his poem "Wail." (Yes, that is referrencing Ginsburg's "Howl.")

The book follows Smith and Ryder as they seek Truth, from San Francisco to mountain climbing in the High Sierras, keeping the reader thoroughly engaged.

In some ways, The Dharma Bums reminds me of On the Road: a lot of traveling, pages of exceedingly long paragraphs, some several pages long (sort-of the anti-Ernest Hemingway's short, concise writing); the writing occasionally leaving me a little ambivalent (Do I love it? Do I want to put it down before finishing?). But in the end, as with On the Road, I did finish The Dharma Bums.

The punchline is that if you're looking for an interesting book highlighting part of the 1950s, Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums just may be it, especially after reading On the Road.

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On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like many others, I've had a list of books that I've meant to read but never quite got around to. One or two from the list, when I got around to reading them, left me wondering what the big deal is, while others left me wondering what took me so long to read.

Then there are those that leave us feeling so ambivalent throughout the reading that we end up giving it a second reading just so we can decide. That is how I felt when starting On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It was one of those classics that many people talk about ("Have you read...? No? Really, you should...") while not having actually read. I'd picked up a copy of it from a now-closed bookstore near the University of South Florida St. Petersburg when they were promoting books by many of the Beat writers, especially Kerouac.

Note: Jack Kerouac died in St. Petersburg's St. Anthony's Hospital in 1969. His name, address and phone number remained in the St. Petersburg phone book for quite a few years afterwards. He supposedly frequented several bars while in St. Pete, while his ghost is said to have visited Haslam's Bookstore before it closed.

The first few paragraphs very nearly turned me off. I had tried reading it when I first bought the book, but those first couple of paragraphs were what caused me to put it down. They were wordy, bordering on almost flowery. If Ernest Hemingway was known for short, concise sentences, much of On the Road seemed the opposite in its wordiness. While Kerouac did rein this in a bit after the first few paragraphs/pages, he never quite moves completely away from it.

However, the further I got in the book, the more engaging it became. It is easy to imagine being carefree and on the road, going from place to place. Sal Paradise (based on Kerouac) meets Dean Moriarty (based on Neal Cassady), someone he has heard about, at the beginning of the book. They are soon criss-crossing the country separately, meeting up in different parts of the country, just missing each other in other parts. The one thing Sal hears numerous times is that others are not as fond of Dean as Sal is. While Sal finally sees that others might be right about Dean, he still defends him. By the end of the book, we find Sal wandering off after sending Dean on his way. But he mentions occasionally thinking about Dean Moriarty.

By the end of the book, I had to admit: This book deserves to be considered a classic, and deserves to be read. If you haven't read Jack Kerouac's On the Road, what are you waiting for?

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