The Big Sleep (by Raymond Chandler)
I was looking forward to reading this; it’s always nice to get a chance to read a detective novel as part of the reading project, and here was my chance to find out what Philip Marlowe was all about. I’ve never seen the Bogey-and-Bacall movie, so I had no ideas or expectations.
I thought the book was boring, though, and a little confusing. I didn’t understand anyone’s motives all that clearly, least of all Marlowe’s. I thought some of his metaphors (those famous noir metaphors) were stretched pretty thin. It wasn’t that suspenseful or exciting because I didn’t actually care about anyone. It had its moments, but overall, it seemed more “important” than actually good. I far preferred The Maltese Falcon.
[Edited to add that I just went looking around the Amazon reviews, and the consensus is that his later books are much better. There are a lot of four-star reviews glowing about Chandler but then admitting that his plot makes no sense. So, yay! Not just me.]
I thought the book was boring, though, and a little confusing. I didn’t understand anyone’s motives all that clearly, least of all Marlowe’s. I thought some of his metaphors (those famous noir metaphors) were stretched pretty thin. It wasn’t that suspenseful or exciting because I didn’t actually care about anyone. It had its moments, but overall, it seemed more “important” than actually good. I far preferred The Maltese Falcon.
[Edited to add that I just went looking around the Amazon reviews, and the consensus is that his later books are much better. There are a lot of four-star reviews glowing about Chandler but then admitting that his plot makes no sense. So, yay! Not just me.]
posted by mo pie at 2:45 PM
1 Comments:
I was reading about the movie and I was like "they can't mean THAT Faulkner." Then I realized they were! Total worlds colliding in my head.
Also, I think it was cobbled together from a number of short stories, so the fact that the main mystery is basically solved a third of the way through the book is also understandable.
Fortunately, I don't care who killed the chauffer.
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