Altaf Tyrewala

I'm not overly familiar with Indian fiction, though I have read some and I am familiar with the Noir genre. This book of short stories is an interesting mix of corrupt police, crime and death, but the most appealing are those with more than a touch of suspense. The stories are a broad range of styles and subjects as would be expected, and some are more memorable than others, though not necessarily better written. The stories are all well written - the editor has done a fine job of their work in arranging this group - and some have a style that is more, I'd have to say "Indian" than others. By that I mean that they don't follow the usual format that Western noir literature does, consequently there is a different, and interesting flavour. I won't go into each story as I find that sort of review painful to read, suffice to say that, as a group, this is a very book, with the usual mix of stories, some better, some not as good, but all enjoyable. I really enjoyed it!… (meer)

It's been a while since I read Mumbai Noir, so I don't have the level of specific memories that an anthology review probably needs, but I remember being frustrated by a number of the stories-- but now all that stick out to me are the ones that I liked. I was more taken by the idea of a set of noir stories set in India before I realized that it is part of a series of books set in different cities that Akashic Books essentially churns out, but it still is set in a part of the world that I honestly don't read much about.  Devashish Makhija's "By Two" is the one that I remember the most clearly, about a pair of twins, one of which hides a deadly secret.  Editor Tyrewala's "The Watchman" also left an overall positive impression, about a watchman at a housing development who knows a death is coming, as did Namita Devidayal's "The Egg," about a woman in a vegetarian housing situation who just can't take it anymore.

Perhaps most intriguing was Ahmed Bunglowala's "Nagpada Blues," one of the few outright detective stories in the book. Apparently the detective (one Shorty Gomes) is from other fiction Bunglowala has published; I'll have to check it out.

Most of the weak stories have flitted away, as I said, but Kalpish Ratna's "At Leopold Café" was the most disappointing, in that it had an interesting premise, flitting between the 19th century and the present, reflecting on the changes, but I was completely unable to make sense of it.… (meer)

This collection of stories is quite a departure from my normal reading. I selected it because I like to sample the literature of other countries, especially in translation. Never having read anything (other than the Bhagavad Gita! 8^P) translated from an Indian dialect, I went for it. I’m not even sure I had ever given much thought to what the “Noir” genre even was. In his introduction, Altaf Tyrewala, who also contributes a story to the collection, says that noir restrains the writer to “an unflinching gaze at the underbelly, without recourse to sentimentality or forced denouements.” I also didn’t realize that Akashic Books publishes a whole series of city-based noir. I assume that each of them gives as unflinching of a portrait of the subject city as this one does of Mumbai. One of Mumbai’s characteristics, according to Tyrewala, is that “A tragedy in one part of Mumbai barely registers elsewhere. People fall off moving trains, bombs erupt in busy bazaars, lives are made and broken in the city’s daily flux, and thing go on as usual.”

I took this book along on a safari in Kenya and Tanzania. A collection of short stories like this was ideal as I only had short periods of time in which to read in the two weeks I was there, although I could probably have read War & Peace on the flights from the west coast of the U.S.A. I didn’t see a Nairobi Noir in the series but from the brief look I got of that city, I’m sure there is plenty to write about. I’m curious to check out Orange County Noir, assuming that is Orange County California, where I currently reside, and Baltimore Noir, as that is my heartland.

Now to some of the stories that stuck out for me:

In Devashish Makhija’s By Two, two twin brothers work one taxi job. This enables them to work unbelievable hours. It’s all good until Mumbai’s unforgiving nature grinds them up. As Rahim reflects at the very beginning of the story, “…at night Mumbai was a brutalized, heaving whore. She didn’t give a fuck who pissed in her seas. It was during the day that Mumbai creaked and rattled like a desperate machine. It gets pissed off. And then it crunches your balls between it tooth-gear wheels.”

Both Smita Harish Jain, in The Body in the Gali, and Soni Faleiro, in Lucky 501, deal with rather frightening episodes of the Dai Nirvan, where men are voluntarily castrated to become hijra, the third sex.

In Jerry Pinto’s They, you nervously realize how dangerous it could be to come to the notice of the police, even if you are innocent of whatever it is they are investigating.

This book is well worth the quick read that it is. Or search out the Noir title for a city that resonates with you. If they are all as good as this one, you won’t be disappointed.

[Reviewed for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program]… (meer)

It’s always a challenge to adequately review a short story collection, especially when the stories are each by a different author, because the quality of the stories can vary so widely. That’s why I normally don’t review them. I made an exception for Mumbai Noir because I am intrigued by all things Indian and try to read as much about that country and its people as I can.

The stories in Mumbai Noir are definitely focused on the darker side of the city, as the title implies. Some are morality tales and some are just melancholy. Overall, I found them entertaining and enlightening. There were a few stories about hirjas, which are sort of like what Westerners think of as transgendered people but not quite. I enjoyed these stories in particular because the hirja culture is both fascinating and confusing to me and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about it.

There were two stories that I didn’t understand at all – At Leopold Cafe and They. At Leopold Cafe is a Twilight Zone type story that has something to do with a fountain of youth elixir that was confusing to me. It jumped back and forth in time and I couldn’t follow it. They is a detective story about a murder in a gym. I couldn’t follow the detective’s logic as far as how he figured out who the killer was.

A lot of the stories reference historical events in India that I don’t have a good knowledge in yet. I was still able to enjoy them but probably would have gotten more out of them if I was more familiar with Indian history. There was a glossary of terms in the back which I appreciated. Most of the unfamiliar words could be found there but not all of them.

Overall, I think this is a book worth reading if you like stories about the dark and seedy side of big cities.… (meer)