What ‘The Sopranos’ Didn’t Tell You About ‘New Jersey Noir’
Joyce Carol Oates shows how much more the genre can hold in a book of dark stories about the state
Ask pop-culture fans to name an example of “New Jersey noir,” and you may hear “The Sopranos,” or the title of one of the darker songs in the Bruce Springsteen canon.
But that sensibility thrived in the state before either of those. The landscape and geography of New Jersey lend themselves to its shadowy themes, haunting settings, and anti-heroic — if not criminal — characters. With Route 1 running through it, linking Philadelphia and New York, the state is an easy mark for mobsters from both cities.
My siblings and I spent much of our childhood living near a hamlet in the Pine Barrens called Double Trouble (a noir name if there ever was one), a spot where — our elders said — the cranberry bogs quickly absorbed bodies dumped by the Mafia. “The Sopranos” more or less confirmed their reports in an episode called “The Pine Barrens” (though the vegetation in it leads some of my classmates to suspect it was filmed elsewhere).
Noir-ish experiences are common enough in my native state that a resident journalist once wondered: “Is noir the dominant sensibility of New Jersey?” My answer: No, that distinction…
