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David Gordon's fifth Joe the Bouncer novel, THE PIGEON, is a self-referential love letter to noir, especially Dashiell Hammett's classic San Francisco Noir. In an acknowledged variation on Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON, the MacGuffin is a very valuable bird. Not a black bird, much less THE Black Bird, and certainly not a jewel-encrusted relic of the Crusades. No, the pigeon that Joe 'the Bouncer' Brody, ex-Special Forces operative and New York mafia mercenary is tasked to recover from its thief is an actual pigeon, the fastest racing bird in the city. He goes by the name of Ramses, and has been lifted by a crime magnate from - of course, pace Hammett - Hong Kong. Now resident on the tenth floor of the Trump Tower-like Eleonora Building, Ramses the Pigeon seems easy to exfiltrate, but, of course, he isn't. When Joe fails at this mission, he sets into motion a Rube Goldberg-like succession of events both criminal and exhilaratingly comedic.
THE PIGEON works as neo-noir because Gordon builds the right kind of atmosphere, in locations ranging from rapidly, insidiously gentrifying Bed-Stuy to the relative affluence of Forest Hills, Queens. The result is an urban mystery that explores all kinds of nooks and crannies, mostly hypocritical, criminal, or both, of New York life. Whether this is the real New York - or any real New York, ever, is perhaps debatable. Constructed to mirror older noir worlds, for older noir's traditional fan demographics, the world of THE PIGEON is as much New York as that of THE MALTESE FALCON or THE CONTINENTAL OP ever was San Francisco.
Gordon's satire doesn't really touch on any very controversial topics. One shady yet friendly character muses to his equally criminal friends about his recent discovery that he is polyamorously demisexual bordering on asexual: "free NOT to have sex with a number of different people." The profoundly evil building owner is an Englishman named Jeremy Blake, suggesting, accurately, that he's a utilitarian in charge of a Satantic enterprise. His washed-up Eastern European model-wannabe wife is, of course, a dead ringer for Melania Trump. Sometimes, however, the quips zing. For instance, Joe warns his associates that it's best not to commit a misdemeanor in the middle of a felony. Good advice that Sam Spade might have relished. Sometimes, Gordon's situations zing, too. Joe is secretly dating FBI agent Donna Zamora, a refreshingly real middle-aged woman with a difficult job who is no Hollywood stereotype--and the furthest heroine from the noir universe imaginable. Joe's mother and Donna's grandmother are friends and constantly talk about setting them up--but it wouldn't work, what with their very different lines of work. Joe and Donna therefore keep their relationship under wraps, even when politely meeting up with the pair of matrons. This is the ultimate New York story: the same plot distinguishes the famously long-running Sullivan Street junk opera THE FANTASTICKS.
THE PIGEON has a lot to say about many things, none of it terribly profound, but it's a fun ride. Especially if you love noir. I look forward to Joe the Bouncer's next trip into the twilight.
§ Rebecca Nesvet is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay and co-edits Reviewing the Evidence.
Reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet, June 2023
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