The Big Sleep

Rating:
Summary: A Cut Above . . .
Review: Though I'm not much of a detective fiction fan, I was drawn to try this one because I'd heard the names of Raymond Chandler, and Philip Marlowe, his creation, since I was a boy. A short, moody and convoluted tale of a tough-guy detective with a brain and real moxie, this one lives up to its hard boiled reputation.

Marlowe shows up at the Sternwood estate to undertake a quickie investigation into an apparent blackmail attempt (and, hopefully, to suppress the matter) at the behest of a dying old man who is clinging to life even as he angles to protect the two miscreant daughters of his twilight years. Both daughters are wild and careless of others, and prone to fall in with bad company . . . and to do even worse things. But Marlowe soon learns that the trail to the putative blackmailer he must follow leads inevitably from murder to murder, while the one person who means the most to old man Sternwood still hovers, missing, in the background. What happened to ex-bootlegger Rusty Regan and why did he take a powder when he had everything going for him including the beautiful elder daughter, and all the money she stood to inherit, of General Sternwood?

As Marlowe follows one trail into another, the deaths get messier, the cops get angrier and Marlowe approaches his own brush with mortality at the hands of a deadly gangland enforcer. The dark and decadent ambience of mid-twentieth century L.A. hangs like a sullen rain cloud over this entire tale as Marlowe fumbles about, trying to figure the real mystery behind the series of apparently coincidental killings he is faced with until, in the end, he confronts the big sleep that awaits us all.

This tale seemed rambling and almost accidental in its construction, just like real life, albeit with a tad more style. And it kept me hooked and satisfied, like a good drag on a newly lit cigarette in a noirish Bogart flick, right through to the end. I'm ready for another.

SWM

Rating:
Summary: I guess they had sex in those days, too
Review: This book is from the era of the golden age of the detective movie. It's a black and white world full of deceit and double crosses. And if you just watch the movies from that time, there is a lot of passion, but no sex.

Now if you read books, like this excellent one, you can see that people were just as nasty and sensous when it comes to sex and we are now. And maybe they did it with a little more style, too.

The novel covers a case that involves pornography, so I guess they had that in those days, too. It covers a pair of rich young women who are as loose as one can imagine. People don't take their clothes off in the movies from that time, but they sure do in the book.

Ok, there's more to it than the above. If you read this book for the first time, and didn't know that much about the background, you might think it a bit cliched'. You have the wisecracking detective who has a smart line even when a gun it pointed at him. Heard this a lot of times before, right? Well, this is one of the original that had this style. And even if I've heard the type before, reading this book for the first time made me appreciate Raymond Chandler's style. Not only has it been copied countless times, but it stands up as a better work than many of it's imitators.

Rating:
Summary: Philip Marlowe rules OK
Review: Perhaps the textbook from which all other modern thrillers are based, THE BIG SLEEP surprised me by being much more than just another tale of murder and deceit. Certainly there's a lot of villainy on display, and a lot of the fundamentals of the genre can be found within these pages. But it was Raymond Chandler's clever and distinct use of the language that kept me engrossed and interested.

The book is heavy in description and dialogue while being fairly light on introspection. But then, Philip Marlowe doesn't hang around thinking too much about his character, because that would cut into the time where he could be killin' an' drinkin' an' wise crackin'. The characters aren't especially deep, but they're certainly worth reading about. Chandler creates people who make up for in sheer griminess what they may lack in absolute realism. They're intriguing and thoroughly enjoyable.

I found it much more fun to read about the people themselves rather than concentrating on the exact minutiae of their actions, and it seems that Chandler took the same approach to writing. The plot is a little bit shaky at times and not everything quite adds up at the end of the book. But as an effective mood piece, such details are mere trivialities. The individual sequences are what make this a worthwhile piece of writing. The characters, the slick prose and the swagger all combine to make this a memorable work.

Rating:
Summary: a solid introduction into the world of Philip Marlowe..
Review: The Big Sleep, one of those many tough guy sleuth detective stories which reminds one of Perry Mason, The Thin Man, and Colombo (..if he was placed in 1930s Los Angeles), is one of Raymond Chandler's better stories. Some of his Philipe Marlowe detective stories have very convoluted plots which make the stories almost incoherent. Fortunately this isn't the case with The Big Sleep.

Here our story is of a elderly, disabled rich man with wild and dangerous daughters. Philip Marlowe is hired to sort out a blackmail situation, but then finds himself pulled into the twisted lives of the two daughters, their boyfriends, and the criminal underworld. The story does hang together, and is generally plausible. Next to The Lady in the Lake, The Big Sleep is my favorite Philipe Marlowe novel.

Bottom line: an above par Philipe Marlowe story. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Almost a classic
Review: Go read it.
This book was actually created from a couple of short stories that Chandler had written earlier. I recently happened to read a collection of short stories which contained two of the main stories which it borrows from. The integration of characters and plots is really amazing. Hats off to the man.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Another book in my quest to read the classics - A great addition to the list! I am a big fan of mystery books such as Sue Grafton's alphabet series...now I see how the genre began. Raymond Chandler sets the bar for other PI novels to follow.

THE BIG SLEEP introduces us to Phillip Marlowe - a sarcastic PI with a unique perspective on things. Marlowe is hired by an aging rich man to find out who is blackmailing one of his daughters. Marlowe finds out the blackmailing is only the beginning of a tangled web of intrigue. There are two murders that seem unrelated at first, however as the book progresses Chandler does a wonderful job of weaving them together.

Chandler's writing style is pure joy to read....each scene is described in great detail, you feel like you are there. I love Marlowe's dialogue - tough, sarcastic and to the point. The BIG SLEEP is a classic mystery any fan of mystery novels should read.

Rating:
Summary: The Flaws Hardly Matter: It's Still A Brilliant Work
Review: There isn't any question about where American noir fiction began: all fingers point to James M. Cain's THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. Likewise, there isn't any question about where the tough California P.I. novel started: the credit goes to Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON. But in 1939, a pulp magazine writer fused the two concepts, and the result is a style--street-smart, tough, witty, and compellingly direct--that belongs to one writer only: Raymond Chandler. And his first novel, THE BIG SLEEP, made him a household name.

In some respects THE BIG SLEEP is a problematic novel. The plot concerns detective Philip Marlowe's efforts to protect the wealthy Sternwood family from blackmail--but from this starting point it spins out into several complicated directions. Chandler manages this myriad of elements very well through the first half of the novel, but at mid-point the plot breaks apart into a series of loose ends and improbabilities from which it doesn't recover until the last fifty pages--and then only just. But that is almost beside the point. Thanks to Chandler's unique style, you simply can't put the book down long enough to criticize it.

THE BIG SLEEP reads with tremendous speed and power, creating a portrait of a seamy world ruled by bisexual pornographers, purring hitmen, cheap hoods, and enameled dames determined to have their way no matter what--a fascinating collection of everything small and mean and gutter common. At the same time, it also presents a surprising degree of integrity in the midst of the corruption: Marlowe won't sell out, no matter what the bribe, and behind their various masks the hardbitten Vivien Sternwood, mysterious Mona Mars, and small-time Harry Jones have enough courage, loyalty, and unexpected integrity to win your respect.

THE BIG SLEEP is not the perfect novel. But it is extremely, extremely readable, and with it Chandler paves the way for everything from Sue Grafton's popular mystery series to television crime drama. Chandler's voice here is often imitated, but it has been seldom equalled and never really bested, and both his style and THE BIG SLEEP remain as potent today as they were when the novel was first published. Strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly over-rated classic full of wit
Review: The Big Sleep is not as quick of a read as most modern mysteries, probably because of the 1930s slang. I found the action entertaining, yet difficult to tie together. Only at the very end do we get the benefit of Marlowe's revelation. Even so, one of the deaths was never addressed. Between bodies falling, this book features more shady characters than even Los Angeles could have supported. Most of them die, of course. With the exception of the General, only Marlowe seems to have a clear conscience in this saga into the gutter of morality. I did enjoy Chandler's use of language in characterizing so much of the story with subtlety. It is hard to believe Marlowe would risk so much because of his duty to his client.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: The Big Sleep is one of those books that is so good that you don't want to it to end. You savor each sentence like a spoonful of ice cream. The dialog and atmosphere time travel you back to 1930's L.A. Chandler had a gift for writing sharp little ironic phrases that stick in your mind. There's an unforgettable line in "Farewell, My Lovely": "It was a blond. A blond to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window." The Big Sleep has some improbable moments but it more than made up for by the whole. There is no need to worry that some plot turns are inexplicable; the book is more about atmosphere and snappy dialogue than the details of Marlowe's detective case.

What struck me more than anything was how much better it is than detective classics written at the same time. Hammett's "The Thin Man" is unreadable by comparison. The over-repeated quote about Chandler writing like a slumming angel is apt; the next book you read after The Big Sleep will be a tedious chore to by comparison. The Bogart movie is in some ways unusually faithful to the text of the book, some dialog is repeated word for word. The ending of the movie is perhaps better than the novel, as others have pointed out. The book has no concluding confrontation with Eddie Mars but does explain the fate of Sean Regan.

Rating:
Summary: Pulp fiction at the apex
Review: This was Chandler's first novel, written when he was 51-years-old, although he had published a number of hard-boiled pulp fiction stories in the six years previous. The title refers to his hero, Philip Marlowe's idea of death. Not very original, but apt enough.

I read this to compare it to the famous Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall film directed by Howard Hawks released in 1946. The structure of the book and the movie are very similar, but there's a subtle difference in the characterizations that gives the movie and the novel an entirely different feel.

The movie is a romantic mystery with something like a happy ending. The novel is an existential slice of one man's life as a worldly wise straight-shooter in a corrupted world of thieves, murders, predatory females, and assorted grifters. In the movie the part of Vivian Regan, General Sternwood's older daughter, is prettied up and expanded for Lauren Bacall so that she and Bogey can work on the romantic chemistry. In the book romance takes a third tier seat to manliness, cynicism, and loyalty to the client. Indeed, Marlowe prefers Mona Mars, whom he calls "Silver-Wig," to Vivian. But what he prefers even more than any of the women who are constantly throwing themselves at him is hard liquor and nicotine. He drinks morning, noon and night, always hard stuff, whiskey, rye, brandy. He spends a lot of time lighting and smoking tobacco and describing others doing the same. He even smokes a pipe, as did Chandler himself. With prohibition just a bad memory, and lung cancer something ugly that happened to coal miners and old people, the mass American mind thought it sexy and oh so sophisticated to toss back a few and indulge in the ritual of the cigarette, a ritual for tough guys that included striking the stick match with a thumbnail, dangling the cigarette out of one side of the mouth while talking out of the other, or pausing to eye the babe before flipping open the Zippo. Such an innocent world it was then.

Chandler wrote the novel in a white heat from chapter one to #30 at the end of the text on the last page in about three months. He had intended to make a few bucks, this being just a longer short story, but a funny thing happened. His unconscious took over and Chandler ended up projecting not only a hauntingly atmospheric Los Angeles during the thirties and a reflection of the entire culture, but a nearly heroic notion about right and wrong personified in his alter ego, the shamus Philip Marlowe. Note above all that Marlowe is a highly moral person who doesn't take advantage of women, refuses money that doesn't belong to him, and is something close to fearless in the face of personal danger. In a short Introduction to the Modern Library Edition of this book, it is noted that when Chandler himself fell on hard times in 1912, he borrowed money from an uncle and made a badge of paying it back, "Every penny...with six percent interest." Chandler never imagined at the time that he was writing "literature." Indeed he would have scoffed at such a notion and pretended not to know what it is, just as Marlowe pretends not to have heard of Proust.

So perhaps the secret of Marlowe's appeal is that Marlowe is the man Chandler would be on his best days, an essentially honest man, a very worldly man, a courageous straight-shooter, loved by women and admired by men, a man who is true to himself and his code. The average reader and moviegoer could easily identify with such a man, and his character became a formula for success in the private eye genre for another four or five decades. One reviewer insightfully recalled the Harrison Ford character from Blade Runner (1982). I am thinking of James Garner's "Jim Rockford" in the long running--it's still running, actually, in between infomercials on channels with numbers in the fifties--"The Rockford Files," whose character bears more than a token resemblance to Chandler's creation.

Besides this creation of an existential hero, the other striking feature of Chandler's novel is the sharply observed first person narrative spun out by Marlowe, and his quick, hard-boiled wit. He was not only brave, but had an eagle's eye for detail and more street smarts than an alley cat, and a nasty habit of speaking his mind in a way that penetrated. He describes the characters with precision, right down to their tie pins, and the scenery with enough verisimilitude to spring it to life. ... His running analysis of the motives of others and his observations about himself are immediate and to the point.

There are of course contrivances. Marlowe does indeed seem to observe more than his fair share of action, and he seems to be where he should be nearly all the time. The scene (not in the movie) at the oil sump with Carmen near the end could never have been anticipated, not even by Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan working in tandem, and yet Marlowe did anticipate it, and was able to recreate an unlikely sequence of events to unravel the last mystery.

The Big Sleep is pulp fiction at the apex, a novel squarely between a fancy Bel Air hotel and a skid row flophouse, eagerly read by the clientele of both establishments.