I love finding definitions of noir and this one from Rob Lopresti takes the idea of a noir story down to the bare bones. And it hits on a vital truth, not just about noir but about life, we're all striving for something more, but sometimes it's just out of our grasp.
"The protagonist needs to aspire to something, preferably something I can sympathize with. Has it ever struck you that the essence of noir is the American dream? A nobody, hungering for success, tries to lift himself up by his own bootstraps. Maybe he does it by robbing a bank or killing his sweetheart’s husband, but he wants to achieve, just like everyone in this country is supposed to. He gets squashed like a bug, but dammit, he’s trying."
For the rest of Rob's essay on what hooks him as a reader go here http://criminalbrief.com/?p=16756 It's a great look at what a writer can do to make his story stand out from the crowd.
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