Description
Twentieth-century mass produced pulp crime usually ends with the protagonists unable to rid themselves of the presence of forces that inhibit professional or emotional growth. Stoic perseverance is often their acknowledgement of the power of fate.
The diverse, still-emerging genre of Country (or Redneck, Ridgerunner, or Ozark) noir is marked by protagonists who have an instinct for community as a coherent territory and recreate the possibly self-destructive but stubbornly self-assertive traits that characterized what Greil Marcus called “the old, weird America.”
Rural fiction’s protagonists struggle to replace a set of convictions which no longer sustain community or family. Often enough, their struggles produce a generational survival of perseverance, family and clan mutuality, the need for passing tough tests, and spirituality. They often wind up “far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow” (Dylan’s “Tambourine Man”).
The author gives more background to the book in an article titled, “Loneliness in Vast Open Spaces”.
Judd Greenberg –
I did not know much about crime literature other than the urban greats–like Highsmith, Chandler, or Hammett. There are not any Sam Spades in rural noir, but there are, I learned, devils who come disguised as frontier marshalls, mountain men hunters, and fire and brimstone preachers. Beyond Twisted Sorrow (a quote from Dylan) takes a deep dive into the heroic and murderous side of Western legends like Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Hugh Glass (who crawled back to camp after a mauling by a Grisley) and Seth Bullock (out of Deadwood).
If you liked the movies _Nomadland_ and _Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri_, Gertzman has very interesting reviews of them.