SACRAMENTO NOIR

Sacramento certainly has its dark side. Like every big city, it has its share of homelessness. Residents struggle to keep up with the high cost of living in California. Housing is too often unaffordable, thanks in part to an influx of telecommuting tech workers from the Bay Area. But Freeman ignores the city’s real struggles, offering instead a collection of stories that could take place just about anywhere. In “The Former Detective,” Jamil Jan Kochai’s hero works at the Port of Sacramento but seems never to have left Afghanistan. Editor Freeman’s “Intersections” takes place largely in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. “The Sacrament,” Reyna Grande’s story about a painter and a sex worker, is set in East Sacramento, a locale not particularly known for art or sex work. And Luis Avalos’ “A Textbook Example,” supposedly set in Broderick (now called West Sacramento), actually takes place largely on the campus of UC Davis. Two of the stories really do give a sense of what Sacramento is (or was) like. Naomi J. Williams’ “Sakura City” provides a powerful look at Sacramento’s now-destroyed Japanese community, and Nora Rodriguez Camagna’s “Painted Ladies” at life in the Sacramento River Delta. For the most part, though, the collection is a study in lost opportunities. Surely a noir set in the capital city of the country’s most populous state, the city that gave rise to the Gold Rush, offers the chance to chronicle misdeeds that are genuinely Californian.

Mar 4, 2025 - 07:22

Sacramento certainly has its dark side. Like every big city, it has its share of homelessness. Residents struggle to keep up with the high cost of living in California. Housing is too often unaffordable, thanks in part to an influx of telecommuting tech workers from the Bay Area. But Freeman ignores the city’s real struggles, offering instead a collection of stories that could take place just about anywhere. In “The Former Detective,” Jamil Jan Kochai’s hero works at the Port of Sacramento but seems never to have left Afghanistan. Editor Freeman’s “Intersections” takes place largely in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. “The Sacrament,” Reyna Grande’s story about a painter and a sex worker, is set in East Sacramento, a locale not particularly known for art or sex work. And Luis Avalos’ “A Textbook Example,” supposedly set in Broderick (now called West Sacramento), actually takes place largely on the campus of UC Davis. Two of the stories really do give a sense of what Sacramento is (or was) like. Naomi J. Williams’ “Sakura City” provides a powerful look at Sacramento’s now-destroyed Japanese community, and Nora Rodriguez Camagna’s “Painted Ladies” at life in the Sacramento River Delta. For the most part, though, the collection is a study in lost opportunities. Surely a noir set in the capital city of the country’s most populous state, the city that gave rise to the Gold Rush, offers the chance to chronicle misdeeds that are genuinely Californian.