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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
It has been a while since I was able to spend much of a day reading. I kept going back to this one every chance I got. Loads of fun for fans of the hard-boiled mystery. This story is pretty much all plot, and full of characters who can't be trusted. It is a really good read.
I have it on good authority—my mom—that my father was not a big reader. When asked where my own reading habit comes from, she takes full credit. I asked what I got from dad instead (besides of course the ability to grow a fine, dignified beard) and she paused then said confidently, "His love of animals." I'll take it. I do own a dog, after all.
This "Dad didn't read much" epiphany was tough to square with my image of the man, built over time to mythic proportions in my mind, but I must confess it's corroborated by my own scattershot memories. Dad sitting on the porch with a cigarette, poring over funny pages but never paperbacks. An offhand comment while picking me up from Bible study one time (long, long ago) about how he really respected people who "get a lot" out of reading it, how he never had the patience. And Dad's other favorite book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he owned on tape for road trips. All the pieces fit: Dad wasn't a big reader.
But this was one of his favorite books. Mom disputes this claim but it was. I remember our old home's bookshelves in vivid, photorealistic detail and I know this was up there, leaned up against a Mickey Spillane collection and not far down from a travel case stuffed with the aforementioned HHG2G cassettes.
Dad wasn't a big reader, but this was one of his favorite books—one of his only books. I guess maybe that's an endorsement, that this is a book that captured the attention of a non-reader. A book that proves the magic of reading is for everyone, not just cultish bookworms like yours truly who live and breathe it on the daily, but everyone, including those outside the Big Reader club.
3 stars for the book, and 5 for the place it occupies in my heart and everything that means to me.
This "Dad didn't read much" epiphany was tough to square with my image of the man, built over time to mythic proportions in my mind, but I must confess it's corroborated by my own scattershot memories. Dad sitting on the porch with a cigarette, poring over funny pages but never paperbacks. An offhand comment while picking me up from Bible study one time (long, long ago) about how he really respected people who "get a lot" out of reading it, how he never had the patience. And Dad's other favorite book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he owned on tape for road trips. All the pieces fit: Dad wasn't a big reader.
But this was one of his favorite books. Mom disputes this claim but it was. I remember our old home's bookshelves in vivid, photorealistic detail and I know this was up there, leaned up against a Mickey Spillane collection and not far down from a travel case stuffed with the aforementioned HHG2G cassettes.
Dad wasn't a big reader, but this was one of his favorite books—one of his only books. I guess maybe that's an endorsement, that this is a book that captured the attention of a non-reader. A book that proves the magic of reading is for everyone, not just cultish bookworms like yours truly who live and breathe it on the daily, but everyone, including those outside the Big Reader club.
3 stars for the book, and 5 for the place it occupies in my heart and everything that means to me.
I can't help but see Garrison Keillor as Sam Spade / Mr. Noir in this book...
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow. Sam Spade is a massive asshole. Bogie really brought a level of charm to this character in the film that just was not present in the source material. I enjoyed the classic noir of it all.
In novel form, The Maltese Falcon has no Hollywood sheen, no Humphrey Bogart star power to reassure us of the innate decency of its protagonist. Hammett spends the entire novel in tight orbit around Sam Spade, glorying in his brutal cunning and cunning brutality, while also nurturing our suspicions that this efficient, noble-seeming beast could instead be a callous asshole. And so, when the climax ends with Spade delivering some brisk, apparently selfless justice, we feel relief, our doubts assuaged, our hero revealed. Only, Hammett immediately muddies the waters, presenting Spade's motivations as an uncomfortable mix of don't-shit-where-you-eat pragmatism and loyalty to his deceased partner (whom he cuckolded, and also couldn't stand). Fully uncovered like this, Spade's character, shark-like and mean, might be the scariest thing about this crime thriller, doubly so because we've been hanging on his every scuzzily brilliant move for 200-odd pages.
Great style, I like how it moves from scene to scene. Spade is an interesting character study. There's a definite flair to the era.
I have a feeling this won't be my last detective type novel.
***
"I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon."
I have a feeling this won't be my last detective type novel.
***
"I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon."
I love this story and I love the movie, too. That being said, am I the only one who thinks the actual mystery isn’t all that great? The characters, themes, and dialogue are what make this noteworthy. (Also I low-key ship Effie and Sam I can’t help myself). Lots of misogyny, but I think that kind of comes with the genre.
i think i was so hard up for books that winter that i read everything that anyone could give me.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No