Fifth Summer of Noir: Last session this week (Derek Raymond and Denise Mina)

with The Marxist Education Project Literature Studies Group

“As Georges Bataille tells us, there is a profound link between literature and evil. If writing and reading are transgressive acts, or crimes, which unmask deep philosophical truths about us and our world, then what does crime fiction — a genre focused on those transgressions — reveal? Scholars from Dennis Porter to Ernest Mandel argue that the crime genre is also distinctly social, even political, and revealing about mainstream ideology, power, and control.”           —Russell Williams, “The Serie Noire and Social Intervention”, LA Review of Books, July 27, 2015

For the last four summers, the MEP Literature Studies Group has delved into a wealth of noir fiction. This year our six selections will take us deep into the underbelly of capitalism – good for reading at the beach, on the subway, a train, boat or plane, or in your favorite reading chair safely at home.

We have completed our discussions of Drive, Clark Gifford’s Body, Dread Journey, Black Wings Has My Angel and How the Dead Live.

SEPTEMBER 9 • THE LESS DEAD by DENISE MINA
A story of daughters and mothers, secrets and choices, and how the search for the truth—and a long-hidden killer—will lead one woman to find herself. 336 pages

Denise Mina is a Scottish crime writer and playwright. She has written the Garnethill trilogy and another three novels featuring the character Patricia “Paddy” Meehan, a Glasgow journalist. Described as an author of Tartan Noir, she has also dabbled in comic book writing, having written 13 issues of Hellblazer.