Saturday, January 20, 2024

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

 

I have been enlightened, I see was at least some of the fuss is about. Twisty as its reputation (and yeah, the chauffeur ...) but what really makes the novel work is the combination of Chandler's somewhat heightened language and Marlowe's attitude (which might well be Chandler's from what I know of his biography). It's not a perfect novel (that chauffeur ...) but it is a very, very good one--deep in the foundational structure of Noir and other related Twentieth Century genre fiction.

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand

  Well, this is the second mediocre-at-best novel I've read from Ms. Hand, I don't think I'll be giving her any further chances-...

  • World Gone By by Dennis Lehane
      A beautiful novel about life as a mobster (in 1940s Tampa) and all the contradictions and complications of it. Lehane clearly has an ear f...
  • Blossom: A Burke Novel by Andrew Vachss
      This is early Vachss, all taut and violent, more than a little murky to my mind. It is not good to be a sexual offender in a Vachss novel....
  • My Darkest Prayer by S. A. Cosby
      A beautiful novel of violence, vengeance and pain, set against a backdrop of small-town bigotry. If you see this, or *Razorblade Tears*, t...