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Product Description
From Amazon
From Library Journal
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Pulp Fiction,
By
This review is from: The Big Sleep (Paperback)
This novel could certainly never be considered high art, but the writing is certainly stylish, and the characters have a real life mixture of strength and frailty that make them interesting sketches, all on their own.Marlowe is the classic "hard boiled" detective. Tough and jaded enough to cut like a knife, but damaged enough by it for the reader to realize he's taken his knocks. Under it all, some human weakness, on the edge of no longer being contained by morality. Highly recommended for an enjoyable read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
perfect writing, massive wit, and philosophical, too!,
By
This review is from: The Big Sleep (Paperback)
Chandler is, bar none, the best writer of the so-called "hard boiled detective" genre, and this is his greatest work.In a labyrinthine plot featuring corrupt, orchid-growing millionaires, beautiful blondes, gray men with guns and the cynical, deeply romantic narrator-protagonsit Marlowe, we see Los Angeles of the 1940s as Marlowe looks for the truth about murder, pornography and, ultimately, loss. The sheer genius of Chandler's writing-- aside from the accompished plot twists-- is his deceptively simple language, which sparkles, and his narrator's deadpan wit. From the descriptions of women ("Inside was a blonde. A blonde! A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.") to the caustic remarks in the face of death ("She would either shoot me, or she wouldn't.") to his existential comments ("I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun"), Marlowe is as entertainign to lsiten to as he is to watch. Chandler's achievement here goes beyond the action sequences, or the wit of his narrator, or the complexity of his plots. His narrator, the tough-as-nails Marlowe, appeals because he is profoundly romantic at heart, but doomed, like Hamlet, to be disappointed. Like Hamlet-- who writes a play to discover the origins of his misery-- Marlowe too is a storyteller, whose stories lead to one kind of understanding, where actions and sequences finally cohere. But Marlowe's dilemmas are Hamlet's, in that although he can tell the story, his sense of what it all means at the end is far from complete. Chandler's stories are really about people who are lost. Marlowe's quest to find the body and re-tell the story-- although always successful-- is always undermined by his elliptical and understated awareness that, for all our ingenuity and striving, it all ultimately comes down, as it does for Hamlet and for all of us, to the big sleep.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genre Defining Classic,
By "loopylou38" (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Big Sleep (Paperback)
The first book of Chandler's Philip Marlowe series is an especially interesting read for those who've seen the classic film with Bogey and Bacall. The film is actually a fairly faithful adaptation of the book, with all references to pornography removed. This is odd, because the story is about blackmail and pornography. Cinemaphiles will read the book and at key points think "oh, that's what it was about."Be warned: when you start reading Chandler, you're going to read two or three in a row.
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