The Big Sleep

Great reading experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 1940s slan ing in this book. Chandler certainly had a way with words! Very entertaining. I watched the movie with Bogart and Bacall as soon as I was finished with the book. It was fun too.

“The Big Sleep” is a classic of mystery, a classic of noir, and even a classic of American literature. Published in 1939, it’s the first novel in which author Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) featured his famous detective Philip Marlowe, and it set the stage for the Marlowe novels that followed. The novel was also the basis for the 1946 film of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.Marlowe, a private detective, is hired by ailing General Sternwood to find out why a blackmailer is asking for money concerning one of his daughters. Sternwood made in money in the Southern California oilfields; his estate even includes pumping well (tastefully hidden from view of the palatial house). His son-in-law also seems to have disappeared, but no one seems terribly concerned about it. Marlowe is told to stick to the blackmail request.The private detective makes use of clues and his many contacts to track the blackmailer to what appears to be a rare and antique book shop but is a front for a lucrative pornography business. Marlowe soon finds himself sucked into the Los Angeles underworld of pornography, gambling, violence, missing witnesses, and the glamour that disguises all of it.Marlowe is a fascinating detective. An outstanding graduate of the hardboiled detective school, he uses his tough-guy, no-nonsense exterior to harbor democratic ideals and a desire for good to triumph. He’s often compelled to chase down a wrong that’s been done, even when his employer tells him not to. It often leads to another feature of the ambiguousness of the culture highlighted in The Big Sleep – where the good buys and bad guys frequently change places.Chandler’s Philip Marlowe’s novels also include “Farewell, My Lovely” (1940), “The High Window” (1942), “The Lady in the Lake” (1943), “The Little Sister” (1949), “The Long Goodbye” (1953), and “Playback” (1958). He also worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, writing the scripts for such movies as “Double Indemnity,” “The Blue Dahlia,” and “Strangers on a Train.” Many of his short stories were published as collections. He died in 1959 at La Jolla, California.“The Big Sleep” is one of the milestones of American mystery fiction. It occasionally included descriptions and terms that were commonly used in the 1930s and 1940s but would cause many readers to wince today. But it’s a fascinating read, opening a window on life and culture in southern California at the time and giving us one of the great hardboiled detectives of American mystery fiction.

So much classic goodness. You will breathe and taste LA. Chandler just gets so many things right in this book. The book feels cinematic more than literary without losing the literary experience.

I may have read Chandler years ago, but this is the first time I really did appreciate it. The language may be a bit outdated but the writing has crisp dialogue and the descriptions by the incorruptible Marlow make it a classic.