Tel Aviv Noir (2014) Edited by Etgar Keret and Assaf Gavron

With the book market consolidating it is difficult to find publishers willing to take-on new writers; fortunately, Akashic Books considers it a calling. In 2004 they printed Brooklyn Noir which became the first of dozens of books in the “Noir” series. They are anthologies of work by emerging writers in specific literary locales. In 2014, Tel Aviv Noir made its entry in the series.

The publishers don’t select the authors in the Noir books. Instead, they commission established writers who are a part of literary life of a city to discover new writers ready to present to the world market. For Tel Aviv they selected Assaf Gavron, a writer I was previously unfamiliar with, whose latest work is The Hilltop, also published in U.S. last year; and Etgar Keret, who I’ve raved about before and reviewed in my BookBlog (Suddenly a Knock on the Door). Gavron and Keret chose to explore the dark side of Tel Aviv as their theme. 

  

Tel Aviv is an interesting place, I’ve been there once, while vacationing in Israel. I was there long enough to catch the city’s appeal, but not long enough to become even remotely familiar with it. It is widely called “the Bubble” because it is a culturally modern European city in the mist of the not so modern Middle East. It is an undisputed hot bed of international music and literature. The tourism business tells you about the city’s stunning Mediterranean beaches and fashionable resort hotel strip.  Tel Aviv Noir tells you the rest.

 

Collected in the book are 17 short stories by 15 “new” writers, and then one each from Gavron and Keret. Among my favorites are:

• Deakla Keydar’s thought provoking short story titled Slow Cooking involves a middle-aged woman whose marriage is in decline. Her husband has moved out. At work her colleagues urge her to pursue a doctor who is one of their customers. By reviewing his purchasing records, she believes he is recently either divorced or widowed. Based on that, she gives in and arranges to meet him at a soup kitchen he volunteers at -- she’s just going to drop off some prepared food. The soup kitchen is at a park in an immigrant/refugee neighborhood. [Most of the world is so fixated with the Israeli-Palestinian divide that it misses the fact that Israel is one of the most multi-cultural places on Earth]. Her encounter at the park with an African man who does not speak Hebrew is a learning experience for her, him, and her family. 

• One of the funnier stories in the collection is Clear Recent History by Gon Ben Ari. The story is about a man who enlists an old friend to help him with a personal problem. He’s being blackmailed, it seems a computer hacker has figured out a way to pirate his camcorder activities.

• The Expendables by Gai Ad tells the story of a woman who returns to the workforce after the death of her husband. In it she ponders whether she wants to have a second relationship now that she is a widow, and wonders if doing so is even appropriate. When she makes her decision she finds out many factors impact one’s life, for better or worse.

• Swirl is a story by Silje Bekeng that expands on what is known as “Shin Bet folklore," Shin Bet being the Israeli version of the CIA. The story is moving and creepy at the same time.

• Darker than the other stories is Said The Good by Antonio Ungar. It is set in the Arab neighborhood of Ajami, in Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv. Its cast of characters includes an ethnic hodgepodge of Israelis, Arabs, immigrant Europeans and Boris, a Ukrainian who is supposed to be a Jewish refugee, but apparently is not. The story involves family and the drug trade.  Think the Godfather and you get the goal. 

  
Other stories are: Sleeping Mask by Gadi Taub; Women by Matan Hermoni; The Time-Slip Detective by Lavie Tidhar; My Father’s Kingdom by Shimon Adaf; Who’s a Good Boy by Julia Fermentto; The Tour Guide by Yoav Katz; and Death in Pajamas by Alex Epstein.

 

As I mentioned earlier, this was my first time reading Gavron. His contribution to the book is probably the best. Titled Center, the story is the tale of a pool contractor who places a yellow pages ad under the “private detectives” heading. He gets hired and brings on a close friend to solve a crime. 

  

Keret’s contribution is quite short at six-pages, and as always, is an irreverent story. It is titled Allergies, it's about a dog. Keret has developed a reputation for books with humorous illustrations and that carries through to Tel Aviv Noir – at the beginning of the book is a map with each author’s name superimposed on a police-chalk drawing of a dead body in the neighborhood their story is set in.

 

The stories in this collection were first written in Hebrew, Spanish, or English.  This book marks their first English publication.