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The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)

Raymond Chandler

Start date: May 1, 2023

Finish date: May 31, 2023

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: May 2023 New School Classic Group Read
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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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Jun 14, 2016 Brad rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: detective, read-in-2016, audio-book, ashamed-of-myself, guiltiest-of-pleasures, infuriating

The Big Sleep filled my yearly quota of misogyny and homophobia in one shocking shot.

I read this years and years ago, watching it somewhen around the time I watched Bogie and Bacall in Howard Hawke's adaptation, although I can't remember in what order I read/watched the two versions. I do remember loving the book, though, and I have since seen the film a dozen times over thirty-some years. I remembered the hard-bitten cynicism of Philip Marlowe, I remembered Vivian Sternwood's languorous sexine The Big Sleep filled my yearly quota of misogyny and homophobia in one shocking shot.

I read this years and years ago, watching it somewhen around the time I watched Bogie and Bacall in Howard Hawke's adaptation, although I can't remember in what order I read/watched the two versions. I do remember loving the book, though, and I have since seen the film a dozen times over thirty-some years. I remembered the hard-bitten cynicism of Philip Marlowe, I remembered Vivian Sternwood's languorous sexiness (although it turns out this is much more Bacall's performance as Vivian than Raymond Chandler's character). I also remembered the general nuts and bolts of the story. What I didn't remember, what I had no sense of at all, was just how normalized the disdain for women and homosexuals was in this book.

It is virulent.

Women are to be avoided at all costs. They are either the devil herself, or succubi there to tempt men into their own downfall. They are incapable. They are weak. They are irresponsible. They are foolish. They are objects in the worst ways. They are infantile. They are spoiled. And they are flat (which might not be saying much considering that every character in this story, including Philip Marlowe, is static and without a hint of growth). To read it now (or to listen to it, as I did) is to feel every moment of misogyny as a pinch to the nervous system. At least that's how it felt to me.

But then there is the homophobia, which isn't omnipresent like the misogyny (since women abound in the story) but is no less disgusting. The homophobia carries with it the stain of disgust that homosexuality carried with it in our general popular culture well into the nineties (and in so many places still today), and the gay characters in The Big Sleep are the worst kind of humanity. They are positioned as no better than vermin, and homosexuality is discussed in the book the way that child molestation is discussed today.

If the misogyny was a pinch to my nerves, the homophobia was a Vulcan nerve pinch to my bisexual mind (it's no wonder it took me so long to come to terms with my sexuality with such stories shaping my mind as a child).

Yet for all my anger and disgust over the misogyny and homophobia, I find myself guiltily admitting that I really enjoyed The Big Sleep all the same. I should probably be ashamed of myself, and I assure you part of me is ashamed, but Raymond Chandler could sure tell a tale. The dialogue was crisp, the pacing was taut, the story was compelling, the setting of 1930s' LA was everything my mind has come to imagine it to be, and The Big Sleep kept me so riveted I found myself setting aside the misogyny and homophobia as just a product of the time (yeah ... I know. I am guilty as charged).

I feel like there is more to say about all this, more I should say, and much self-criticism that I should ponder (and I will), but for now I will stop, and let you make of my guilt what you will.

One last thing, I listened to the Audible audio version, narrated by Ray Porter, and his performance was one of those uneven performances that drive me mad. His vocal feel for Marlowe and the other men in the book was spot on, and he really nailed the cadence of Chandler's dialogue, but his vocals for the female characters made Chandler's misogyny audibly tangible. He cannot do women's voices, so that every woman in the story sounds like the worst possible version of themselves. It is one of those cases where a shared narration with a woman performing the female dialogue would have elevated the production far beyond what it achieved. I will be avoiding Ray Porter narrations in the future. ...more

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Jan 18, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, read-in-2019, mysteries-thrillers, 1001-books, suspense

Raymond Chandler created a genre! What more needs to be said? This man is responsible not just for a great character, but really an entire shift in the detective novel. Now I must find a copy of the Bogey & Bacall movie.

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Aug 21, 2017 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-mystery, fin-1994, zoe-bc, fin-2025

Just as good the second time around. I first read this in 1994, just as I was getting into reading hardboiled mysteries, and it set the bar high. I was a bit worried that by rereading it, my impression of the book would be lessened. What a person likes to read in their twenties is not always what they like to read in their fifiies. Luckily, I ended up loving it even more the second time.

I am a sucker for the language and writing style. I know, it's such a cliche now, but this is the original, th ...more

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Apr 25, 2014 Maggie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: boxall-1001, fiction, mystery, classics, guardian-1000, thriller, series, usa

This was my first venture into the world of hardboiled fiction. It is a masculine world, a world of blackmail, guns, porn, gambling, alcohol, fights, tough talk and women. It is a world that I expected to detest, so it was surprising that I actually liked The Big Sleep.

Chandler wrote this in the 1930s, and it paints a picture of Depression-era LA that was corrupt and seedy, where almost everyone from murderer to cop was a crook in some way. I don't know how accurate this picture is of LA in tha ...more

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