The Little Sister
by Raymond Chandler
published
April 30th 1989
(first published 1949)
by Penguin Books Ltd
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binding
Hardcover, 304 pages
isbn
0140108963
(isbn13: 9780140108965)
description
Raymond Chandler's gritty detective, performed by Elliott Gould who played the role himself, comes upon another Los Angeles mystery in this newly done...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 593)
Read in April, 2008
Although I've never been a fan of whodunits or mystery novels, I've recently developed a taste for the hardboiled detective stories of Raymond Chandler. Not knowing much about the genre, I picked up a Chandler novel for the first time a few months ago just before a long flight, and I've been endless fascinated by Chandler's shabby Los Angles with its cast of mean, selfish, little people as seen through the eyes of the Philip Marlowe, the thoughtful and moral but cynical detective. The Little Sister ...more
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Read in July, 2008
A friend lent me this book. Not being my usual type of material, I was slightly reluctant to read it. A few pages in, I was not sold. It's a very stylized prose and you can pratically hear the voice of some stereotypical private eye in the smoky and sleepy office with the door that kinda bangs shut.
I kept reading, because that's the kind of reader I find myself to be, and before I knew it I was totally engrossed. Not only did I want to find out what was going to come next, I found myse...more
I kept reading, because that's the kind of reader I find myself to be, and before I knew it I was totally engrossed. Not only did I want to find out what was going to come next, I found myse...more
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Read in July, 2008
Having fallen in love with our unloveable hero, Phillip Marlowe, "The Little Sister" pulls the heartstrings by furthur illustrating the inner turmoil of Marlowe (reflecting Chandler's own suicidal tendencies) and his disasterous dealings with women. They mystery's great, the charachters as always are amazing, but whether it's the amount of time I've spent in this world with him, or the emotion being brought forth by Chandler in "The Little Sister" is something rarely witness...more
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Read in July, 2008
The point of reading a Philip Marlowe novel is to spend time with Philip Marlowe, one of the great creations in all of American literature, not to spend time with a good mystery--Raymond Chandler was not much of a mystery writer, truth be told. In reading a Marlowe novel, then, the question, bizarrely, becomes this: How much does the mystery interfere with the novel? In the case of The Little Sister, the answer, happily, is not too much. The book is never in any real danger of sinking...more
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Read in September, 2007
I'm not too familiar with the pulp mystery genre, but I do like what of read of Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) so far. Chandler's description and commentary on crime and character in a burgeoning urban American, spoken in the mind of his mainstay character Phillip Marlowe, is vivid, entertaining, and insightful. I've only read two books so far, but I'm impressed at the ammount of sensative depth Marlowe retains as a character, despite the fact that he is a candid cynic and hopeless loner. I am ...more
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Read in August, 2008
3 1/2 actually. This plot has so many twists and turns it effectively twirl the reader around and sideways but manages to never make you sick. You get the nice girl, the bad girl, the very bad girl, a few psychotic killers and a somewhat out of control Marlowe that tries to make some sense out of a very bad situation. Nothing is what it seems and the good guys aren't always wearing white hats. A solid plot, characters that make you care about them even if they are soooo bad. Like this one a lot....more
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Read in August, 2008
I've seen the Marlowe movies, but this is the first Chandler I've read. The story zips right along, but the conversational interactions are odd. Maybe it's just the period, but I found myself wondering if people really talked that way, way back then.
I'll soldier on, though, into other Marlowe stories. Chandler, of course,is the prototypical hard-boiled writer, so there should be plenty of pleasure and lessons to learn.
I'll soldier on, though, into other Marlowe stories. Chandler, of course,is the prototypical hard-boiled writer, so there should be plenty of pleasure and lessons to learn.
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Read in December, 1999
recommends it for:
Pulp fiction fans who want to see where it all started.
Another great Marlowe book from Raymond Chandler. I had to read this for a class on detective fiction once in school. Yes, I took a class on detective fiction. Sounds easy, right? Well, possibly more than any other class I've ever taken, that class taught me how dumb I really am. The Little Sister was one of a handful of books I seriously underestimated while reading that semester.
NC
NC
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Both Chandler & Hammett feature many a woman who appears sweet & harmless on the surface but who turns out to be homicidally manipulative underneath. This is probably Chandler's magnum opus along those lines. I wonder if any feminist critiques have ever been written about such novels? The women are far from weak & submissive but they're hardly positive either.
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Read in October, 2007
I like Chandler. He knows he's writing in the genre and mocks it just gently enough.
It's all about the ambiance for me though. I'm really not interested in following complicated plot twists. I just want to hear Marlowe utter dissaffected one-liners in the company of bad women.
Wish I had marked some of the passages.
Fun read.
It's all about the ambiance for me though. I'm really not interested in following complicated plot twists. I just want to hear Marlowe utter dissaffected one-liners in the company of bad women.
Wish I had marked some of the passages.
Fun read.
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Not as good as the Big Sleep or the Long Goodbye. But better than almost everything else out there. To me, everything Chandler touches is gold. It's a shame he wrote so few novels.
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Read in March, 2008
another enh. it was worth reading to the end, but the sexism was fairly thick and heavy and i didn't much like the ending after all. chandler is apparently not for me.
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Read in July, 2007
A great hard-boiled detective novel. I am trying to get a bit more into LA based novels (in an attempt to get more attached to LA/California)...
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Read in November, 2006
This was second Chandler book I read and I loved it every bit as much as The Big sleep. I will read every book in this series.
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Read in September, 2008
Who better but Raymond Chandler to write a sexy, witty mystery? Excellent writing and an intricate plot - so far, so good!
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Read all Raymond Chandler. But do it slowly; this is something you can only do once in your life. Make it last.
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Chandler is archetypal noir. Any noir film you see or book you read, Chandler's been there, done that.
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Read in July, 2007
Not quite as good as some of the others, but still vintage Chandler.
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i loved it. but i could read philip marlowe reading the phonebook.
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