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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
There's a lot of side characters but it's all about Sam Spade, detective. 1939. One needs to keep that year in mind when reading the book. The women are either clingy, weak, clueless, or treacherous....but then so are some of the men. LOL . Just read this while envisioning Bogart as Spade and you'll enjoy it.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Another reread from many years ago. What a great book. Amazing to think it's almost a century old now. Good pacing, classic dialogue (the movie takes a good amount word for word). As an example of hardboiled private detective fiction, it holds up, and the San Francisco scenery is great too.
Given how old the book is, it is obvious that Spade definitely does not deserve his assistant, who he expects to do his bidding (though she can give as well as take). Also related to its age--you lose count of the number of cigarettes he rolls from Bull Durham tobacco.
Given how old the book is, it is obvious that Spade definitely does not deserve his assistant, who he expects to do his bidding (though she can give as well as take). Also related to its age--you lose count of the number of cigarettes he rolls from Bull Durham tobacco.
Sam Spade, a private detective in San Francisco, is hired by Mrs. Wonderley to track down her sister who has run off with a man named Thursby. But not all is as it appears, and soon Sam Spade finds his partner has been murdered and he's racing against time to solve a case involving a stolen relic that is obviously worth enough to kill for.
A detective story in the noir genre, it's a product of it's time where women are portrayed as helpless, irrational, and un-trustworthy and every detail of the setup and crime needs to be explained to the reader. It's easy to see how The Maltese Falcon was likely the inspiration for many detective stories that followed, however, the terrible dialogue and many forms of exposition that go nowhere left this reader mostly uninterested in the eventual reveal.
A detective story in the noir genre, it's a product of it's time where women are portrayed as helpless, irrational, and un-trustworthy and every detail of the setup and crime needs to be explained to the reader. It's easy to see how The Maltese Falcon was likely the inspiration for many detective stories that followed, however, the terrible dialogue and many forms of exposition that go nowhere left this reader mostly uninterested in the eventual reveal.
I saw the movie years ago and remember liking it, but I forgot most of it. The book is fantastic, and now I don't want to see the film again because I'm afraid I might be disappointed. I especially loved the ending, and how everything was wrapped up nicely.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Maybe the best of the hard-boiled detective genre, it still holds up today. Fast-paced and engrossing, it's both a compelling story with an endlessly entertaining cast of characters. Of course this now transplanted San Franciscan loved the minute detail of place and all the memories the novel invoked of my own life in that city--in that exact neighborhood for the most part: I lived on Leavenworth Street in three different apartments between Geary and Bush back in the 1980s--even if some 50 years later. Thinking that, I realize that now another 40 years have passed since I walked those very streets, yet some trace still remains in the architecture, the fog, the unmistakable flavor of San Francisco.
OK, there's a certain amount of homophobia in the Joel Cairo character, and yet, since we see the whole affair pretty much through the eyes of macho detective Samuel Spade, its all very much in character for the time and the type of man he is. Hammett's introduction praises his idealized detective as a real hero he wished to emulate in his own detective work, and his noble gesture at the end to rat out the a-moral gang--including the client with whom perhaps he's fallen in love--is, in its way, quite noble. However, along the way he's unnecessarily belligerent, loses his temper often, and is frequently quasi-hysterical. In fact it's his edgy unpredictability that gives the story its charge really. Culturally, not genetically, he's what I would call feminine, since these attributes are usually juxtaposed to male rationality and stoicism--I mean, he never knows what's really going on until the very end (part of the mystery format), acts impulsively and intuitively for the most part (while making fun of his secretary's female intuition), and is, as I said, always on the verge of a meltdown it seems. Frankly, it's Spade's underlying and unexplained simmering unpredictability that makes this story as compelling as it is.
Also the cast of wacky characters is amusing and their dialogue delicious. (John Huston clearly made the right move lifting so much of it verbatim from the pages of the novel for his film adaptation and now the images one has of these characters will forever be Bogart, Lorre, Greenstreet, Cook Jr., and Astor.) And that setting, the city, its streets, the diners, the hotel lobbies. I saw them all 50 years later, shabbier for sure and filled with a different cast of colorful characters, but this particular North Point Press edition brought it all back with its great historical photos. The layers of time on an enduring place is always fascinating to me. The sheer energy of this story has left its phantom stalking those streets for sure.
OK, there's a certain amount of homophobia in the Joel Cairo character, and yet, since we see the whole affair pretty much through the eyes of macho detective Samuel Spade, its all very much in character for the time and the type of man he is. Hammett's introduction praises his idealized detective as a real hero he wished to emulate in his own detective work, and his noble gesture at the end to rat out the a-moral gang--including the client with whom perhaps he's fallen in love--is, in its way, quite noble. However, along the way he's unnecessarily belligerent, loses his temper often, and is frequently quasi-hysterical. In fact it's his edgy unpredictability that gives the story its charge really. Culturally, not genetically, he's what I would call feminine, since these attributes are usually juxtaposed to male rationality and stoicism--I mean, he never knows what's really going on until the very end (part of the mystery format), acts impulsively and intuitively for the most part (while making fun of his secretary's female intuition), and is, as I said, always on the verge of a meltdown it seems. Frankly, it's Spade's underlying and unexplained simmering unpredictability that makes this story as compelling as it is.
Also the cast of wacky characters is amusing and their dialogue delicious. (John Huston clearly made the right move lifting so much of it verbatim from the pages of the novel for his film adaptation and now the images one has of these characters will forever be Bogart, Lorre, Greenstreet, Cook Jr., and Astor.) And that setting, the city, its streets, the diners, the hotel lobbies. I saw them all 50 years later, shabbier for sure and filled with a different cast of colorful characters, but this particular North Point Press edition brought it all back with its great historical photos. The layers of time on an enduring place is always fascinating to me. The sheer energy of this story has left its phantom stalking those streets for sure.
A detective novel with very little actual detection. Sam Spade tricks and/or strong-arms the truth of things out of people, usually from the comfort of his home or office.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The inspiration of my life and writing, but also the book that helped introduce me to the print noir genre. Hammett is the one who popularized the genre. I think I need to reread this book soon though.