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hollidayreadswithme's review against another edition
4.0
For more of my reviews, check out my book blog at www.readingreckless.wordpress.com.
This book is about a detective on the streets of LA who takes a job from an old disabled military vet with two young daughters. The general is being blackmailed and this private detective is hired to figure out what is going on and make this all go away. Seems simple enough, right?
I picked up this book because it was on the list of 1001 books to read before you die. (I will save the trouble of going around looking for an accurate list. Click the link.) This was from the core list which hasn’t changed and the list itself has been changing about every four years. Does this book belong on the list? Absolutely.
First I want to talk about the ratings that it has been getting for the woman beating and misogyny in the text. There have been some bad ratings based on that and the fact that it’s really not as good as the ones that have followed in the noir genre. Lots of art and media has not really aged well. Lolita by Valdmir Nabokov is a great example of that. There are so many books that are a reflection of the reality of the times, especially because the book was written by an ex oil executive (older rich white dude).
But the fact of the matter is...It is written really well. The way that that the scenes are described are incredibly visual. I could imagine, every bit of rain that feel and the glistening glare of guns. The one thing I couldn’t visualize was the main character and I think that is intentional. I rarely like the waxing and waning of certain characters in other books. I read one book where the protagonist did a page and a half of thinking and didn’t do anything. In my mind, I was imagining her standing frozen in place for several minutes...at which point someone should act like that’s weird, not like the world froze Saved by the bell style.
This book did to crime fiction what Jane Austen did to romance, when you look back on the tropes that litter today’s romance (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, matchmatching, etc.), we see them now as played out because people have done them before.
As for the plot, it is very convoluted and confusing but that is probably because I listened to it and didn’t read it from the page. There are so many other complicated twists that made it hard to follow the narrative. The one thing I did love was the reveals. And there were so many of them. I had no idea what was going to happen next. The indication of a good thriller to me is the twist.
Our main detective is anything but a nice guy but he doesn’t try to be. The relatable factor goes up when you realize that there is nothing about him that you are supposed to like. He drinks too much, he hits women and he just generally sucks but he sticks by his word and gets the job done. Since this there have been thousands of iterations of the hardened detective trope (Luther, Broadchurch, Columbo, etc), even the show House takes that and moves it into the medical sphere.
So what are the takeaways from reading something this old and iconic? Take it for what it is. It was written in a different time of society and at the end of the day, it paved the road for a lot of the media that we (I) enjoy today.
Have you read anything from the 1001 books to read before you die list?
This book is about a detective on the streets of LA who takes a job from an old disabled military vet with two young daughters. The general is being blackmailed and this private detective is hired to figure out what is going on and make this all go away. Seems simple enough, right?
I picked up this book because it was on the list of 1001 books to read before you die. (I will save the trouble of going around looking for an accurate list. Click the link.) This was from the core list which hasn’t changed and the list itself has been changing about every four years. Does this book belong on the list? Absolutely.
First I want to talk about the ratings that it has been getting for the woman beating and misogyny in the text. There have been some bad ratings based on that and the fact that it’s really not as good as the ones that have followed in the noir genre. Lots of art and media has not really aged well. Lolita by Valdmir Nabokov is a great example of that. There are so many books that are a reflection of the reality of the times, especially because the book was written by an ex oil executive (older rich white dude).
But the fact of the matter is...It is written really well. The way that that the scenes are described are incredibly visual. I could imagine, every bit of rain that feel and the glistening glare of guns. The one thing I couldn’t visualize was the main character and I think that is intentional. I rarely like the waxing and waning of certain characters in other books. I read one book where the protagonist did a page and a half of thinking and didn’t do anything. In my mind, I was imagining her standing frozen in place for several minutes...at which point someone should act like that’s weird, not like the world froze Saved by the bell style.
This book did to crime fiction what Jane Austen did to romance, when you look back on the tropes that litter today’s romance (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, matchmatching, etc.), we see them now as played out because people have done them before.
As for the plot, it is very convoluted and confusing but that is probably because I listened to it and didn’t read it from the page. There are so many other complicated twists that made it hard to follow the narrative. The one thing I did love was the reveals. And there were so many of them. I had no idea what was going to happen next. The indication of a good thriller to me is the twist.
Our main detective is anything but a nice guy but he doesn’t try to be. The relatable factor goes up when you realize that there is nothing about him that you are supposed to like. He drinks too much, he hits women and he just generally sucks but he sticks by his word and gets the job done. Since this there have been thousands of iterations of the hardened detective trope (Luther, Broadchurch, Columbo, etc), even the show House takes that and moves it into the medical sphere.
So what are the takeaways from reading something this old and iconic? Take it for what it is. It was written in a different time of society and at the end of the day, it paved the road for a lot of the media that we (I) enjoy today.
Have you read anything from the 1001 books to read before you die list?
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
3.0
This is your stereotypical crime Noir - all about people back-stabbing each-other. There is a detective who gets all the cool dialogues. Almost all the women fall in category of femme fatale who can be assumed to be wearing, if they are wearing anything, a deep cut dress or a night dress or better still a still a deep-cut night dress. They are all trying to seduce our hero, who may accept or reject their proposal as the case may be. You can be sure there will be drug dealers in there, somewhere - and everybody, without exception, is carrying guns. Everybody is morally deficient in one way or other and there are sure to be psychopaths. I just love psychopaths - they are the only characters I can relate to.
One thing I hate in all crime books when in the rare case hero gets outnumbered or overpowered by villain(s). My problem is that villains are satisfied in knocking the hero to unconsciousness and then just tying him. Why won't they just kill him? They have killed other characters far less threatening than heroes and yet they are satisfied in captivating him, and in a place where they can easily get help. The least they could do is to break some limbs but no .... It is frustrating for someone like me who roots for them. I call it Brutus syndrome - after Brutus from Popeye the sailor man - you know how he is happy in just tying Popeye every time and whats more, around a place where he can easily get some spinach. It is worse in case of masked heroes - villains never unmask them, they are just too respectful of hero's right to privacy. It is high time that our villains should learn from their mistakes.
For me, Chandler's problem is that of Austen and Wells; they were all highly and beautifully original - but the problem is after once they came up with the egg of Columbus, they get averaged out by the better and bad works inspired by them.
One thing I hate in all crime books when in the rare case hero gets outnumbered or overpowered by villain(s). My problem is that villains are satisfied in knocking the hero to unconsciousness and then just tying him. Why won't they just kill him? They have killed other characters far less threatening than heroes and yet they are satisfied in captivating him, and in a place where they can easily get help. The least they could do is to break some limbs but no .... It is frustrating for someone like me who roots for them. I call it Brutus syndrome - after Brutus from Popeye the sailor man - you know how he is happy in just tying Popeye every time and whats more, around a place where he can easily get some spinach. It is worse in case of masked heroes - villains never unmask them, they are just too respectful of hero's right to privacy. It is high time that our villains should learn from their mistakes.
For me, Chandler's problem is that of Austen and Wells; they were all highly and beautifully original - but the problem is after once they came up with the egg of Columbus, they get averaged out by the better and bad works inspired by them.
kaelynrothe's review against another edition
Too much misogyny (among other things) for me to stay. Look at this quote from the book when the narrator was talking about an unconscious and possibly drugged woman he found in a room with a dead body:
"I slapped her around a little. She didn't mind."
marie_90's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Marlowe is a typical detective figure, arrogant, honest, alcoholic and womanizer. This crime strings many different people together, and the story until solution to Marlowes quest at the end stays exciting to read :)
onkeltuka's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
gwit's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. “He didn’t know the right people. That’s all a police record means.”
rainy_window's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
stephibabes's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this more than I did in actuality. Which is a shame. It is the favourite book of someone who played a big supportive role in my life.
I enjoyed the noir and how the narrative voice in my head very much had 'that lilt'. The characters were impressive and the one lines really quite enjoyable.
But I struggled to get into it, and in fact fell out of my reading habit. I struggled to differentiate characters and settings as the thick description, in places so rich, in others left me unsure of where I was in the story.
I borrowed this as an ebook from my library. Support your local library!
I enjoyed the noir and how the narrative voice in my head very much had 'that lilt'. The characters were impressive and the one lines really quite enjoyable.
But I struggled to get into it, and in fact fell out of my reading habit. I struggled to differentiate characters and settings as the thick description, in places so rich, in others left me unsure of where I was in the story.
I borrowed this as an ebook from my library. Support your local library!
kdawud's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5