Raymond Chandler : Stories and Early Novels : Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)

published	October 1st 1995 by Library of America
binding	Hardcover
isbn	1883011078 (isbn13: 9781883011079)
pages	1216
description	If you're looking for the perfect gift for yourself or some other lover of mysteries, this beautifully-made volume from the Library of America series ...more [close] If you're looking for the perfect gift for yourself or some other lover of mysteries, this beautifully-made volume from the Library of America series will definitely prove that you care enough to send the very best. And if you haven't picked up The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, or The High Window recently, you'll be amazed at how well they stand up to the test of time. (A second handsome volume, Later Novels & Other Writings -- including The Long Goodbye -- is also available.) [close]
date added	10-02-06 edit book

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Platoeatssouls rated it:

(review of isbn 0375415025)

06/20/07

bookshelves: mystery, theboxmarkeddone

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: people who want to be happy

Raymond Chandler is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy. Or at least my ownership of this is proof that someone loves me, because these are four of the best novels I've read all year.

Philip Marlowe, Chandler's detective, roams the streets of Los Angeles and environs, looking for clues, criminals, or someone to hit with a witty one-liner. He's tired, lonely, propelled forward by some impetus he doesn't reveal; what we see...more Raymond Chandler is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy. Or at least my ownership of this is proof that someone loves me, because these are four of the best novels I've read all year.

Philip Marlowe, Chandler's detective, roams the streets of Los Angeles and environs, looking for clues, criminals, or someone to hit with a witty one-liner. He's tired, lonely, propelled forward by some impetus he doesn't reveal; what we see of him comes in bits and pieces: he's in his late thirties, not bad looking, plays chess, speaks Spanish, and smokes and drinks. He likes coffee in the morning, sandwiches for lunch, and blondes for dinner, and he works by his own moral code which makes seducing someone else's wife all right, but taking money for the wrong sort of case uncool. And did I mention he's funny?

The novels here are hardboiled noir in the sense of "no innocents, only suspects", but there's actually relatively little violence in them, at least compared to contemporary writers like John Burdett. The Lady in the Lake has four bodies, as does The Little Sister, and the other two have fewer. Marlowe takes his share of knocks, and Chandler handles the violence and his reaction to it realistically.

Chandler is often credited as being the one who raised detective fiction to a literary form (credited, I suppose, by literature snobs), but if he did so he did it entirely through his use of language. To give a brief example from the beginning of The Lady in the Lake:

"The sidewalk in front of [the Treloar Building] had been built of black and white rubber blocks. They were taking them up now to give to the government, and a hatless pale man with a face like a building superintendent was watching the work and looking as if it was breaking his heart."

This style, clipped and clear eyed, has become known as Chandleresque, and rightly so. He plays out his genius slowly, keeping you hooked, waiting for the next good one liner.

This edition is nice, with a hard cover and a little bookmark, very handy if you're me and schlep everything everywhere. It also has an introduction by a guy named Tom Hiney which is worth skipping; Hiney seems mostly to want to apologize for the fact that this is GENRE FICTION and not LITERATURE and seems to have difficulty keeping straight the difference between Marlowe (fictional) and Chandler (real). But you and I, being more intelligent, don't need that sort of person to tell us what to think.

In summary, read this book, it will make you happy....less

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Raymond Chandler : Stories and Early Novels : Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)

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