Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler - 3+* - My Review

Classic crime noir that I had somehow missed reading until now. I won’t summarize the plot as the book and the film are well-known. It is a murder mystery set in 1930s Los Angeles. Published in 1939, it is one of the original detective stories. Adjectives that come to mind are gritty and hard-boiled. We have gangsters, corruption, blackmail, multiple murders, seediness, cynicism, and yet, a bit of understated heroism. Philip Marlowe is a great character. This subject matter has been subsequently imitated numerous times, but I’m sure it seemed fresh at the time it was written. It is not my preferred reading material, but I am glad I finally got around to it.

As Marlowe sums up: “What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now.�