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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Little slow to start back up, not bad, just not as good as the Big Sleep. Wasnt as interested in the mystery. Also didnt find this book's banter/whit/one liners, what ever you want to call them to be less often and not as good.
“In fact, its a pretty lousy world if you ask me”
“Money must help”
“You think it’s going to when you haven’t always had money. As a matter of fact it just makes new problems. And you forget how hard the old problems were”
“Money must help”
“You think it’s going to when you haven’t always had money. As a matter of fact it just makes new problems. And you forget how hard the old problems were”
Boy howdy, Philip Marlowe sure is a blast. He's not a brawler, but he's tough. He's not a clown, but he's funny. He's not an academic, but he's sharp. He's not showboat, but he's charming. He's just this fun, wisecracking balance of sluethy goodness – not necessarily delighted by the ride, maybe amused, but he's damn curious where it all goes and how it all got there. He doesn't seem to bow to anyone, but he's not bold or brainy about any of it. He's just connecting dots until it gives him the picture and that's alright by him. Also, the jive talk in this thing is a hardboiled hoot.
It doesn't take itself as seriously as The Big Sleep which makes for a much better, easier read.
The main thing stopping me from pulling out the 5th star is that Marlowe is a bit too wisecracky in this one. I don't know why Chandler felt the need to make every single comeback a classic, but by the end it became a little bit too much of a good thing for me.
Marlowe also comes across as a really bitter arsehole at times.
The main thing stopping me from pulling out the 5th star is that Marlowe is a bit too wisecracky in this one. I don't know why Chandler felt the need to make every single comeback a classic, but by the end it became a little bit too much of a good thing for me.
Marlowe also comes across as a really bitter arsehole at times.
"She had a full set of curves ... She was giving me a look I could feel in my hip pocket."
-- Frank Drebin, The Naked Gun, AND Philip Marlowe, Farewell, My Lovely.
Leslie Nielsen once said how he said a lot of unfunny things that were taken in a funny way. His work in Airplane proved that, with lines lifted directly out of an overly serious disaster movie and dropped into a comedy to hilarious result. So imagine my delight on recognizing this little line.
Anyway, the wry comments like this one come one after the other in this lovely Black Lizard edition of one of Chandler's Marlowe novels. Tightly written, convoluted plot, moral protagonist, immoral antagonists, helpers and obstructors doing so for their own reasons, you name it, it's all here in one of the fundamental building blocks of L.A. noir.
Also here is some serious, over-the-top racism. Some of it is the type of people we meet in this book, some of it is a product of it's time, but some of it, even for the time, is pretty harsh in spots. In parts, you see Marlowe is just talking the talk to navigate the amoral worlds he has to move in to try to solve the case and to figure out who keeps sapping/trying to kill him. But he is also a man of his time, and so at best, he just may not be troubling himself with thinking about these types of issues. And maybe he should have, and that's the point: Chandler's novels, as some literary critics have said, really can be read as art, and as a reflective portrait -- often a dark one -- of the contemporary society in which they were published.
-- Frank Drebin, The Naked Gun, AND Philip Marlowe, Farewell, My Lovely.
Leslie Nielsen once said how he said a lot of unfunny things that were taken in a funny way. His work in Airplane proved that, with lines lifted directly out of an overly serious disaster movie and dropped into a comedy to hilarious result. So imagine my delight on recognizing this little line.
Anyway, the wry comments like this one come one after the other in this lovely Black Lizard edition of one of Chandler's Marlowe novels. Tightly written, convoluted plot, moral protagonist, immoral antagonists, helpers and obstructors doing so for their own reasons, you name it, it's all here in one of the fundamental building blocks of L.A. noir.
Also here is some serious, over-the-top racism. Some of it is the type of people we meet in this book, some of it is a product of it's time, but some of it, even for the time, is pretty harsh in spots. In parts, you see Marlowe is just talking the talk to navigate the amoral worlds he has to move in to try to solve the case and to figure out who keeps sapping/trying to kill him. But he is also a man of his time, and so at best, he just may not be troubling himself with thinking about these types of issues. And maybe he should have, and that's the point: Chandler's novels, as some literary critics have said, really can be read as art, and as a reflective portrait -- often a dark one -- of the contemporary society in which they were published.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-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
I love these books. love love love. Everything about them.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes