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Having written novels about Elizabethan England, the modern-day South Pacific and the Middle East during the lost years of Jesus Christ, San Francisco author Christopher Moore brings his creative focus much closer to home with his new book, “Noir.”
Set in the Bay Area in 1947, “Noir” is a celebration of the fog-shrouded City-by-the-Bay at a time of dramatic and dangerous transition. Like Moore’s other work — such as “Fool,” “Island of the Sequined Love Nun,” and “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” — the novel is fueled by a steady stream of banter, slapstick and intricate wordplay. There’s also a serious side to the proceedings that prevents the narrative from being merely a highly efficient joke machine.
Reached by phone, Moore talked about re-reading Raymond Chandler’s and Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled oeuvre as preparation for penning “Noir.”
Moore ticked off some of the essential elements of noir films and literature.
“There has to be a dangerous dame. There has to be a guy who’s down on his luck. There has to be fog, liquor, cigarettes.”
All of those characteristics are evident in the opening scenes of “Noir.” A knock-out blonde known as Stilton (like the cheese) captures the eye of Sammy “Two-Toes” Tiffin, the bartender at Sal’s Saloon in North Beach. Sammy does his best to chat her up, even though he’s distracted by the fact that his boss is dead in the stockroom, having been bitten by a deadly black mamba.
From there, the plot only becomes more complicated and zany, encompassing crooked cops, cryptic government agents in dark attire and an Air Force general with connections to a mysterious plane crash in Roswell, New Mexico.
There’s plenty of action in the book, but it’s the metaphor-laden language that drives the narrative.
“The diction doesn’t come from books, but more from movies and cartoons,” Moore said.
Born in Toledo and raised in Mansfield, Ohio, Moore, 61, came to California to study photography at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. When that plan didn’t work out, he lived for a while in Cambria and worked an eclectic series of jobs, from hotel night auditor to rock ‘n’ roll DJ.
Moore published his first novel, “Practical Demonkeeping” in 1992, and has since published 15 other novels. He spent three years living in Kauai before settling in San Francisco in 2006.
“At the point I moved here, I could pretty much live anywhere in the world I wanted to, and this is the place I chose,” he said.
In addition to reading crime fiction in preparation for writing “Noir,” Moore studied Bay Area history in the postwar era.
“I didn’t know that the whole West Coast changed demographically because of the defense industry — including shipbuilding and munitions. I was surprised, for example, at how the Sunset District was built to house troops returning from the war, who were starting families. You needed a place for them to live. From what I understand, the district was just a lot of sand dunes, until post-war.”
The venerable institution of the Bohemian Club, famous for the secrecy in which its members comport themselves at their forest hideaway in Sonoma County, plays a role in “Noir.”
Although he found academic papers detailing its rituals, Moore didn’t worry about the accuracy of his portrayal.
“Because the club was so exclusive, it wasn’t important for me to get it right, because no one was going to go, ‘Oh, they don’t have a map of the camp on the wall.'”
Moore’s favorite writers of humorous fiction include Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins. Also on the list is John Steinbeck. Two of Steinbeck’s comic novels directly influenced “Noir”: “Cannery Row” and “Sweet Thursday.” Both books feature “a diverse group of friends trying tomake it in changing times,” Moore said.
With their clever concepts, strong narrative structure and pithy dialogue, Moore’s novels might seem destined for adaptation in Hollywood. Most of his books have been optioned or purchased at one time or another, but none of those deals have ever produced an actual movie or television series.
What’s the hold-up?
“I don’t know,” Moore said. “I met with some of the most powerful agents in Hollywood last week, and they don’t know either.”
Asked whether he is frustrated by the situation, Moore said, “It’s like being frustrated with traffic. There’s nothing you can do about it. What I decided to do in 1990 was go on and write more books. Thank goodness I did, instead of putting my energy into trying to push a rock up a hill.”
Winding down a national book tour, Moore saw “Noir” debut at No. 3 on the New York Times’ best-seller list. Asked about the effect of touring on his career, Moore acknowledged that it is a great opportunity to interact with fans and new readers, but “unless you’re the fired director of the FBI or you lost the presidential election, book tours have never made economic sense to me. And I’ve been doing them for 25 years.”
The news is grim in his 1947-era book, but many people are experiencing tough times today, too. An outspoken critic of the Trump administration, Moore uses his Twitter feed ( @TheAuthorGuy) to comment on the daily news.
“I think everybody needs to remain aware and woke,” he said. “There are some things so absurd about the current administration that you just can’t parody them. I think you just have to keep pointing your jester’s stick at it and say, ‘You just have to see how absurd, and silly and ridiculous this is.'”
Moore is scheduled to hold book signings at various Bay Area bookstores. For more information, go to chrismoore.com/events.
Freelance writer Michael Berry can be emailed at mikeberry@mindspring.com.
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“Three Days of Rain” is on stage at the Dragon Theatre in Redwood City. Photo courtesy of Scott Ragle. -
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