Joburg Noir edited by Niq MhlongoAAA
Binding: Soft cover
Book Condition: Good condition
Edition: 2020
"Joburg Noir is a collection of short stories by twenty of South Africa's most gifted and versatile authors, some established, some just setting out. Joburg the city meets Noir the genre, and the pair are made for each other. 'In noir the problem is not an individual: the problem is the world. Institutions are corrupt, public moralities hypocritical, the watchmen un-watched. No one gets away clean' (Seely, 2016). Sound familiar? Welcome to Joburg Noir. While the stories allow the reader to layer their experience of current Johannesburg with the traces, memories and experiences of these writers, they also provide a weapon against entrenched and invisible systems of power and privilege and a haven for seldom heard, angry voices; voices that seek to reveal the city space by displaying its complex dynamics. Do they succeed? Perhaps, but at least they are the ones who can look Joburg in the face without flinching. Edited and compiled by the inimitable Niq Mhlongo - no stranger to the world of publishing with three novels, two collections of short stories, and the editor of a bestselling collection of essays, Black Tax, Burden or Ubuntu?, to his name - this collection showcases the depth of black writing talent in South Africa. It illustrates how a publication of this nature, which breaks with tradition and grows the talent pool, adds more than just another publication to the bookshop shelves."
This place is labelled the city of gold, Jozi Maboneng. There is indeed a constant rush, the winner takes it all, and a survival of the fittest mentality driving the hunger and competitive spirit of those born here, and equally seen in the eyes of the immigrants; legal and illegal alike. Dreams not realised have left most of the once-eager hopefuls desolate, seeking shelter under bridges and abandoned city buildings.
Oh Yeoville, Yeoville man, now this was a whole different world on its own the culture, the music, the DJs and live bands, the food and the hangout places in Gloria Bosman, A Little Something from the Pot, Joburg Noir is a collection of writings about memories, legends, loss, jokes, stories, myths and experiences by twenty-two gifted and versatile authors in South Africa. It makes the reader experience present-day Johannesburg as if one were in the past.
The stories seek to understand, reconstruct, reinvent and recover this city space of loss, joy, deprivation, resistance and possibility by revealing its complex dynamics. They are funny, shocking, violent, absurd, strangely tender and memorable. Their lasting resonance lies in the fact that they invoke the joys and traumas of the past and present, making the two to co-exist and interlock.
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