The Big Sleep

Fantastic. The prototypical modern noir/P.I. story from 1939, and yet Philip Marlowe remains as compelling a leading detective as any other. The story twists and turns as expected, but shows a bit of age in its relative simplicity. Curious to find out how this holds up to Ellroy's quartet, both set in L.A. but the latter being written decades later...

One of my favorite books ever, the perfect image of a detective in America back in the day. Gripping writing, tension is high and Chandler is a true master of the Metaphor. Phillip Marlowe is a classic character. Highly recommended.

Short version: a lot of fun, a noir classic for a reason.

Longer version: I picked up the 1946 Bogart film adaptation some time back when I was on a Bogart-and-noir kick. I don't remember it very well; it didn't seem especially coherent, and mostly I remember thinking The Maltese Falcon was better. I left it on the shelf and haven't watched it since.

That's really a shame, because the book is excellent. I started reading it when A Dance With Dragons didn't grab me right off and I decided to detour to something else until i was more in the mood for it, and this was the book of the month for the Something Awful Book Club. My understanding is that some of the seedier details were left out of the film for reasons of decency, and without them the movie doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'll rewatch the film soon and see if that's true. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable now that I know what's going on.

I'm always a little surprised when I see older works with snappy dialogue, even though that makes no sense. Overcoming that illogical mental hurdle was what first got me into Bogart. The book has it too, and some admittedly overwrought writing, but that's sort of a hallmark of the genre, I think. The prose will probably not win awards. But it is very fun nonetheless.

This one is a quick read, weighing in at about 234 pages. It's worth a look, especially if you can imagine all of Marlowe's lines in Bogart's voice.

Chandler's first novel, this book is nowhere near as wonderful as The Long Goodbye. But it is a fun book with some wry moments and bitter lines.