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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a dark and bloody take/tale on small town politics, power struggles, and corruption. Still feels pretty relevant and modern all things considered.
This was recommended to me as one of the 'original' hard boiled detective novels, and I can definitely see a lot of themes that have carried through to later noir works. The plot and it's execution are simple: A town has fallen on hard times. An investigator comes to town, hired to investigate corruption. The ‘last good man in town’, Mr. Donald Willsson, who had tried to cleanse the town by publishing stories of corruption in the local newspaper, is murdered just before the investigator arrives.
The Continental Op, having been originally hired to help Mr. Donald, takes it upon himself to do the investigative work to purify the town that he had originally been hired to do. He eats cheap but decadent food, keeps a wildly irregular sleep schedule, despairs at the greed and violence in the town, and ultimately leaves having solved a problem but feeling uneasy at the violence he saw and it’s ongoing presence.
Probably my favorite part is that much of the evil in the town came to be when violent strikebreakers were hired to union-bust. There’s a whole paragraph about it, it’s beautiful.
Of all the noir I’ve watched and read, this book most reminded me of a recent movie ‘The Dry.’ Like Red Harvest, ‘The Dry’ features a town which has fallen on desperate economic times, due to climate change and automation making rural life less financially viable for anyone. And like in Red Harvest, The Dry contains an ending where facts are revealed and in so doing the essential nature of the town (and perhaps the world) are shown to contain great evil.
However I saw lots of parallels to other books, from ‘Inherent Vice’, to ‘X’ by David Davis, and William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’ series.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
Yes
Fast, punchy, and violent. Lots of hard men doing bad things, and then there's the woman they all blame because, well, you just can't trust a dame, I guess.
It's really interesting reading these old novels. In some way they're pretty unpleasant and cruel, but in other ways they're incredibly tame. I suppose you could call it polite misogyny and racism, if you wanted to.
Setting aside that, though, this is a fast and pretty thrilling ride. For a novel so coated in violence, the violence is never really dwelt on or described beyond the way a very lazy mortician might describe it. Few gunshots here, few broken bones there--dead is what they are. That kind of thing, if you get me. There's no glamorizing or even really dealing with the violence the way a book written in the last forty years might.
And so in weird ways this violent and brutal novel is pretty tame, and wouldn't bother even a squeamish reader. I mean, if you're not put off by casual racism and misogyny.
But, yeah, Hammett--I like these books. Hardboiled detectives. Makes me want to write one.
It's really interesting reading these old novels. In some way they're pretty unpleasant and cruel, but in other ways they're incredibly tame. I suppose you could call it polite misogyny and racism, if you wanted to.
Setting aside that, though, this is a fast and pretty thrilling ride. For a novel so coated in violence, the violence is never really dwelt on or described beyond the way a very lazy mortician might describe it. Few gunshots here, few broken bones there--dead is what they are. That kind of thing, if you get me. There's no glamorizing or even really dealing with the violence the way a book written in the last forty years might.
And so in weird ways this violent and brutal novel is pretty tame, and wouldn't bother even a squeamish reader. I mean, if you're not put off by casual racism and misogyny.
But, yeah, Hammett--I like these books. Hardboiled detectives. Makes me want to write one.
Oh Christ this was bleak. From the first lines about Personville/Poisonville I was on board. I like that you can feel the Op becoming infected with the violence and amorality of the place and you can feel him getting scared of himself even as his deadpan never breaks. When I read “what’s the rumpus?” I yelped because that line is so burned into my brain from Miller’s Crossing. A very Coen bleakness now that I’m thinking about it, actually. Can hear a Carter Burwell score swelling in the background.
“He stood at the foot of the bed and looked at me with solemn eyes. I sat on the side of the bed and looked at him with whatever kind of eyes I had at the time. We did this for nearly three minutes.”
“He stood at the foot of the bed and looked at me with solemn eyes. I sat on the side of the bed and looked at him with whatever kind of eyes I had at the time. We did this for nearly three minutes.”
Also loved this! Possibly my favourite out of the three Hammett stories I've read so far, based purely on the breakneck pace and plotting and huge assortment of characters -- rather than the usual claustrophobic familial mystery, this was an entire cluster of mysteries and problems all tangled and knotted up in one. So much violence and action, too -- the shootouts and car chases with wheels leaving the ground, men hanging off the sides, and bullets spilling from the windows were as cinematic as you could get. (I'd love to see a modern adaptation of this, and think it could transfer extremely well.)
The Continental Op is an interesting figure; the best scene, IMO, was when he was explaining how the town had ruined him and each household object had become a weapon in his eyes. It summarised the entire point of the book and crime's contagious poison in one succinct scene. I also enjoyed seeing several detectives on the scene, all muddying up the works. All in all, it was like having four noirs for the price of one; the scope was immense.
The Continental Op is an interesting figure; the best scene, IMO, was when he was explaining how the town had ruined him and each household object had become a weapon in his eyes. It summarised the entire point of the book and crime's contagious poison in one succinct scene. I also enjoyed seeing several detectives on the scene, all muddying up the works. All in all, it was like having four noirs for the price of one; the scope was immense.
Set off to read all of Dashiell Hammet's novels. Never read them before. This one lives up to the reputation regarding the hard-boiled detective and the pithy patter. Enjoyable, but I didn't love it.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced