The Big Sleep

Fantastic. The prototypical modern noir/P.I. story from 1939, and yet Philip Marlowe remains as compelling a leading detective as any other. The story twists and turns as expected, but shows a bit of age in its relative simplicity. Curious to find out how this holds up to Ellroy's quartet, both set in L.A. but the latter being written decades later...

Short version: a lot of fun, a noir classic for a reason.

Longer version: I picked up the 1946 Bogart film adaptation some time back when I was on a Bogart-and-noir kick. I don't remember it very well; it didn't seem especially coherent, and mostly I remember thinking The Maltese Falcon was better. I left it on the shelf and haven't watched it since.

That's really a shame, because the book is excellent. I started reading it when A Dance With Dragons didn't grab me right off and I decided to detour to something else until i was more in the mood for it, and this was the book of the month for the Something Awful Book Club. My understanding is that some of the seedier details were left out of the film for reasons of decency, and without them the movie doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'll rewatch the film soon and see if that's true. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable now that I know what's going on.

I'm always a little surprised when I see older works with snappy dialogue, even though that makes no sense. Overcoming that illogical mental hurdle was what first got me into Bogart. The book has it too, and some admittedly overwrought writing, but that's sort of a hallmark of the genre, I think. The prose will probably not win awards. But it is very fun nonetheless.

This one is a quick read, weighing in at about 234 pages. It's worth a look, especially if you can imagine all of Marlowe's lines in Bogart's voice.

I really enjoyed this thriller which had me engaged from start to end. Although I've never seen the film the story felt like a black and white movie with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe. It was filled with classic one liner descriptions that I felt were brilliant. A great piece of literature and a fantastic depiction of the times.

Sincerely have no idea why this is considered a classic. Even if one overlooks the unacceptable-by-today's-standards language, the plot and dialogue are atrocious. I had hoped to get some fun, mindless crime fiction out of this but found myself constantly hoping that the story would wrap up. Won't be recommending to friends.

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood to look into the gambling debts of his daughter Carmen, and he ends up getting pulled deeper and deeper into the life of the Sternwood family.

I listened to this as an audiobook on a long trip I took last week, and what a delight it was. The characters. The setting. The lingo. Pure delight.

when we recorded our podcast about this I was desperately afraid that I would accidentally say “The Big Chill” instead of “The Big Sleep” tho IDK why because I've never seen The Big Chill. Anyway this book isn't really my cup of tea but like, it's fine if you're into that kind of thing.

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-166-the-big-sleep/

After reading the Grimnoir Chronicles I was inspired to see what all the fuss is about. I was not disappointed.

While some allowances must be made for when it was written, it is an exciting mystery with plenty of action and, above all, amazing dialog. The plot was slightly convoluted and a little choppy in places, but mostly easy to follow. The ending was satisfying, although not what I was expecting. I'll be reading more of the Philip Marlowe series.

Frankly, I was amazed at how enjoyable this book was. I expected hyper-masculine, hard-boiled, plot driven nonsense. The plot is convoluted and somehow irrelevant. Philip Marlowe is obviously sad but cruelly observant. The descriptions are incredible my favorite part. The sexism was to be expected, but I was surprised and horrified by the gay-bashing. Still, I enjoyed the book very much.

I thought this would be a 5 star when I was in the early chapters. I liked the mood, the sardonic style, the steadily building intrigue. But the story simply never elevated above nice writing, for me. I didn't care about any of the characters - I wasn't really concerned who lived or died, or who committed the crimes, or where Rusty Regan had got to. It didn't affect me. I felt nothing. It was all cold. (“not as cold as her lips”)

Objectively, I can see it's an excellent bit of work, but I zoned out more than I should have, and I wasn't compelled to keep reading. I'd like to give it another go in the future, in case I'm missing something, or in case it just was the wrong time.