Women Crime Writers
Even the whitest of picket fences can hide a twisting darkness. And that very pressure could itself serve as one of the most complex themes of noir — that of dreams deferred and decisions made with extreme regret.
1946
Works written in 1946 CE.
Some facts about 1946:
- It was the first year after the end of World War II
- 18th Academy Awards are held; the best picture goes to The Lost Weekend
- Women get the right to vote in Japan
- The Battle of Alcatraz occurs after an unsuccessful escape attempt
- Italy becomes a republic and give women the right to vote
- The first bikini is modelled in Paris
- Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Argentina and Quebec also give women the right to vote
- The first female police officers are hired in Korea and Japan
- Gertrude Stein dies
- H.G. Wells dies
- Herman Hesse wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
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Crime Novels of the 1930s and 1940s
For July, I’m going to take a deep dive into American crime noir novels from the 1930s to 1960s, give them a bit of context, and maybe mention a film or two along the way.
Nightmare Alley
I was first exposed to Nightmare Alley via TCM’s Noir Alley and the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power in one of his few villain roles. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, though it is a lot different from the novel.
Hiroshima
Hiroshima follows the stories of six individuals who lived through the bomb — a clerk, a seamstress, a doctor, a minister, a surgeon, and a Catholic priest initially from Germany. There are five chapters each with six sections — one for each person.
Lark Rise to Candleford
These novels aren’t exactly ‘novels’ per se, in the sense that they are not traditionally structured narratives. Instead, they are more of a collection of stories about rural life in the later nineteenth century. This is a review of Flora Thompson’s Lark Rise to Candleford.
Five Noir Novels of the 1940s & 1950s
I found noir as a genre relatively late. I’ve always been interested in true crime, but for some reason, my younger self just wasn’t drawn to the black and white grit of classic movies until it was included in our cable package. This is a review of five collected noir novels by David Goodis.