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nicrtay 's review for:
Only to Sleep
by Lawrence Osborne
I have to be honest, I started this book leaning more on the side of pessimism. I had never read anything from Osborne before. I expected to like the story (although the discoveries at the end of mystery novels, I must admit, usually go right over my head), but I didn't expect to like Osborne's Marlowe so much.
I thought I'd come out a purist. I didn't.
Although his character itself isn't that hard to grasp, I think Osborne did an excellent job at making his Marlowe both like and unlike Chandler's Marlowe. Being that this novel takes place approximately 40 years after Chandler's cases, it was important for Osborne's Marlowe to share the deeper aspects of Chandler's original, all the while making enough changes to make the time jump believable. By that, I mean that I'm really happy Osborne didn't just write Marlowe exactly the way he was before: he would not have been the same man at 75 as he was at 35. I got excited at first because it seemed like Osborne was going to finally address Marlowe's alcoholism more directly, but it was done more so implicitly, not unlike the originals.
But I think the most interesting change in Osborne's Marlowe is the slow recognition of his own inability. Whether it was his inability to seem an imposing figure to younger men or his inability to philander his way into uncovering information, he had changed. I believe it was The High Window in which Marlowe describes his personality as "virile": it seemed that Marlowe's greatest conflict in this novel was coping with his physical capabilities no longer mirroring his inner character. But I digress from the book itself.
I thought the original aspects of this book were also fantastic, although I don't have much experience with the mystery genre besides Chandler and a couple other hard-boiled PIs.
All in all, I was really happy with Osborne's Marlowe and would definitely read another Marlowe story written by him if he was ever given permission to do so again.
I thought I'd come out a purist. I didn't.
Although his character itself isn't that hard to grasp, I think Osborne did an excellent job at making his Marlowe both like and unlike Chandler's Marlowe. Being that this novel takes place approximately 40 years after Chandler's cases, it was important for Osborne's Marlowe to share the deeper aspects of Chandler's original, all the while making enough changes to make the time jump believable. By that, I mean that I'm really happy Osborne didn't just write Marlowe exactly the way he was before: he would not have been the same man at 75 as he was at 35. I got excited at first because it seemed like Osborne was going to finally address Marlowe's alcoholism more directly, but it was done more so implicitly, not unlike the originals.
But I think the most interesting change in Osborne's Marlowe is the slow recognition of his own inability. Whether it was his inability to seem an imposing figure to younger men or his inability to philander his way into uncovering information, he had changed. I believe it was The High Window in which Marlowe describes his personality as "virile": it seemed that Marlowe's greatest conflict in this novel was coping with his physical capabilities no longer mirroring his inner character. But I digress from the book itself.
I thought the original aspects of this book were also fantastic, although I don't have much experience with the mystery genre besides Chandler and a couple other hard-boiled PIs.
All in all, I was really happy with Osborne's Marlowe and would definitely read another Marlowe story written by him if he was ever given permission to do so again.