false 2049 27 A wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune&#8212;the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation.<br><br>"Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude."-- Erle Stanley Gardner<br><br>"Raymond Chandler has given us a detective who is hard-boiled enough to be convincing . . . and that is no mean achievement." -- The New York Times 1616 book 1941 The High Window total:1063|5:275|4:458|3:304|2:25|1:1| 1063 4170 1332 64 4 1 false false Sun Apr 13 09:35:15 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 13 09:35:39 -0700 2008 Raymond Chandler. And Marlowe, the joke cracking private eye who's tough on the outside and golden on the inside and who would be cliched except he's the original everyone else copied...it's vintage noir, hard-boiled action, the world without frills, a trail of murders and blackmail and robbe...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 17:02:14 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 14:52:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 11:06:07 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 08:56:26 -0700 2009 What really sets Raymond Chandler apart from his precursors and endless successors is the microscopically-trained eye for detail (obviously an asset in detection) and ability to convey it in concise, exacting terms. I could draw his sets and characters from memory. And, of course, his n...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 08:46:27 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 07:10:43 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 18:36:29 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 18:40:07 -0700 2009
I'm also gaining more of an appreciation for Marlowe's innate code. Maybe it's more c...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 15:05:08 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 15:11:36 -0700 2008 Raymond Chandler, one of L.A.'s leading literary lights. I started off with Dashiell Hammett, who Chandler himself admired, and read several of Hammett's books. Then I moved on to Chandler with The High Window.

Th...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 09:53:10 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 24 13:22:49 -0700 2008 Raymond Chandler novel, and I am an instant fan. I've been wanting to read his stuff because I'm a big fan of film noir classics, especially 'The Big Sleep', and Chandler is universally acknowledged as the supreme master of the 'hard-boiled' genre, from which so many Hollywood clas...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 19:57:43 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 08:51:36 -0700 2008
As in the second novel, “Farewell, My Lovely,” Chandler seems to be fighting to write another saleable novel with the convolution of “The Big Sleep.” Trouble is, the first novel c...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 24 14:28:47 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 17:41:55 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 15:40:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 19:04:15 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 14 13:07:06 -0700 2007 Raymond Chandler's greatest skill is his ability to write the most gorgeous prose you could ever imagine in a hardboiled detective novel, and The High Window is no exception. Chandler's descriptions are fantastic, and yet, they don't seem out of place in the hardboiled novel- they are dark, and lov...more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 16:54:41 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 06:40:21 -0700 2009
In a nutshell for now, I remember the opening scene of David Lynch's Blue Velvet. An American suburbia on a summer day. Bright red roses swinging in the wind. A fireman waving at playful children in slow motion. A lush patch of grass under the...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 06 13:17:59 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 23:02:08 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 10 20:53:22 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 20:56:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Nov 21 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Apr 03 21:57:08 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 22:26:57 -0700 2008 Raymond Chandler’s The High Window sees Philip Marlowe investigating the theft of a rare early American gold coin, the Brasher Doubloon. The case turns out also to involve blackmail and three murders. This is vintage Chandler. The plot is delightfully Byzantine. Marlowe, as usual, finds himsel...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 10:04:45 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 10:09:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 09:54:39 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 08:45:21 -0700 2009 1
SPOILERS:
In the movie, Merle was white and Phil Marlowe's love interest. In the book, Merle was a negro housemaid who is returned to her family at the end.
In the book, Leslie had a fianc...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 19:05:31 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 19:16:03 -0700 2009
looking back i feel the writer may have been dampened and cooled by despair at the ti...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 07:04:20 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 07:09:33 -0700 2009
Still, it's Marlowe, and it's a fun read. My favorite bit was the encounter with the other "detective....]]> 4 0 false true Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 02:21:44 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 19:10:05 -0700 2009 1
1. His femme fatales are usually the killers in his A story.
(The Big Sleep: Carmen. Farewell My Lovely: Velma. The High Window: Mrs. Braddock)

2. There's always a high-powered casino...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 03 13:53:21 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 02:23:40 -0700 2009