The Big Sleep

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It's a hit!

When you first start to read this book, you think that it is filled with clichés: the cynical but honest detective with the tough guy exterior and... (show more)

When you first start to read this book, you think that it is filled with clichés: the cynical but honest detective with the tough guy exterior and the heart of silver (if not gold) underneath; the sharp banter; the edgy sexual flirtations; the relentless rain. Then you realize that these are only clichés because everyone after Chandler has more or less copied him. You don’t just remember that he is the original—you feel it, right on the page.
The voice of Marlowe is extraordinary: sharp and bloated at the same time, a voice both sunlight sober and sloppy drunken. Chandler is the king of comparisons:
“She was as limp as a fresh-killed rabbit.”
“Dark silent mystified eyes stared at me solemnly, the doubt growing larger in them, creeping into them noiselessly, like a cat in a long grass stalking a young blackbird.”
“I was as empty of life as a scarecrow’s pockets.”
Yes, there is a suspenseful plot, but I don’t know if this book is a page-turner or a page-stopper; I kept pausing to read the prose over and over again.
“The Big Sleep,” with its cutting language and its themes and plot elements of murder, betrayal, pornography, blackmail, and even epilepsy, is both a Modern and modern novel. Except for the absence of cell phones, it could be written—and could take place—in 2009.
I never read Chandler in school. I read him a few years after grad school, wondering why no one had ever told me to read him before. I am so happy to rediscover him now. I don’t think I’ll be reading anything else for a while. (show less)

 

 

by Kelly Dwyer

No, it's a flop!

I'm going to be swimming against the tide here no doubt but I just don't get why this is considered such a classic - this kind of book seems to me ... (show more)

I'm going to be swimming against the tide here no doubt but I just don't get why this is considered such a classic - this kind of book seems to me to be the very definition of pulp fiction and, although I know there are those who would argue that that doesn't necessarily exclude it from the title of 'classic', I would. It's plot is clever but hardly breathtaking with the storytelling only just holding my attention. As for the characters they were two dimensional at the most - one dimensional if you had the misfortune to be one of Chandler's women who seemed to only have two gears: femme fatale or screaming victim. I suppose what it has going for it is its style - one that I recognised instantly from the thousands of copies and spoofs that it has engendered - but I can't help but feel that style is definitely winning over substance if that is the case.
A good, mindless read if you like crime novels and not much else I'm afraid. (show less)

 

 

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  The quintessential detective story. While Dashiell Hammett is credited with creating the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction, Chandler took it to an unmatched level of poetry ("Dead men are heavier than broken hearts"). How often do you read a tale about blackmail, pornography, extortion, and multiple murder that can also be described as "beautiful"? Well, this is one. The words seem to flow onto the page as if Chandler wrote it while dreaming. In Philip Marlowe, he has... (show more)

  The quintessential detective story. While Dashiell Hammett is credited with creating the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction, Chandler took it to an unmatched level of poetry ("Dead men are heavier than broken hearts"). How often do you read a tale about blackmail, pornography, extortion, and multiple murder that can also be described as "beautiful"? Well, this is one. The words seem to flow onto the page as if Chandler wrote it while dreaming. In Philip Marlowe, he has created the man that every man wishes he could be, except perhaps for the subtle hints of his anti-semitism and homophobia that existed in the 1930's. Marlowe's toughness, wit, intelligence, cynicism, and utter incorruptibility make him an authentic American hero. The story is as twisty as Mulholland Drive and nearly impossible to understand until the last 3 pages, but no page is wasted, and no scene is ever boring, far from it. It's full of colorful characters that never feel dull or pushed. And while Chandler has a tendency to be a bit indulgent in his trademark descriptions and similes, he never fails to create a unique world that we all wish we could be a part of. This is the work of an inimitable original. On several occasions, I couldn't help myself from speaking the dialogue, and description, out loud in my best Humphrey Bogart impression. By the end, you feel like you are Philip Marlowe. Chandler's brilliant mix of the dark, gritty Los Angeles underworld and his cynical, yet optimistic view of life make this an authentic American classic and puts him on the shelf of not only the greatest American mystery writers, but with Hemingway and Fitzgerald as one of the greatest American writers, period. (show less)

   

   

  by Jared Shipley on Jul 01, 2009 at 04:35AM

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  So many charismatic characters. Very character as opposed to plot driven. The dialogue is not realistic, it's the sort of conversations you would like to have in real life, where everyone is witty and has an agenda. Like a lot of crime novels, it's about how a city functions and, from that, society and where it's going (and now I'm thinking about The Wire again):
  'I'm a copper,' he said. 'Just a plain ordinary copper. Reasonably honest. As honest as you could expect a man to be in a world wh... (show more)

  So many charismatic characters. Very character as opposed to plot driven. The dialogue is not realistic, it's the sort of conversations you would like to have in real life, where everyone is witty and has an agenda. Like a lot of crime novels, it's about how a city functions and, from that, society and where it's going (and now I'm thinking about The Wire again):
  'I'm a copper,' he said. 'Just a plain ordinary copper. Reasonably honest. As honest as you could expect a man to be in a world where it's out of style. That's mainly why I asked you to come in this morning. I'd like you to believe that. Being a copper I like to see the law win. I'd like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at Folsom, alongside of the poor little slum-bred hard guys that got knocked over on their first caper and never had a break since. That's what I'd like. You and me both lived too long to think I'm likely to see it happen. Not in this town, not in any town half this size, in any part of this wide, green and beautiful USA. We just don't run our country that way.' (197)(I think I might be using this as a study of some sort.)
  Although there is cynicism for the police force, it comes from a desire to see true justice, which has some comfort in it I suppose. And that perhaps people do like order of some sort. (show less)

   

  by Susan Robinson on May 20, 2009 at 06:30PM

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