The big sleep Book

The original Guy Noir. There isn't much to say about Raymond Chandler's most famous hero that hasn't already been said more than once. I was interested to learn that, though born in Chicago, Chandler was raised in England and went to a British public school where the word "dame" has a different meaning than it does on the streets of Bay City (poor old Santa Monica which doesn't come off very well in Marlow's telling). Made me imagine a Pythonesque ending to the scene in which the thug surprises Marlow by sneaking into his apt while he's asleep, asks him why he left the door off the latch, and Marlow says, "Waiting for a dame." "What dame?" "Just a dame." Finally comes the knock on the door, and in walks Maggie Smith dressed for Downton Abbey.

The author of the intro suggests that "Farewell, My Lovely" beats even "The Big Sleep," and I agree. As the intro notes, Marlow's descriptions of California's sights, sounds, and smells, now getting on for a century ago, are vivid, exact, and beautiful, what you'd expect from a private seamus who knows his Shakespeare. His eye for the telling details of every character, no matter how minor, is striking. But it's his similes that make you remember the books--when I got to "A case of false teeth hung on the mustard-colored wall like a fuse-box in a screen porch," I started writing them down. And top this for a worth-a-thousand-words way to put you inside the underfunded, run-down, neglected Santa Monica City Hall: "Inside was a long, dark hallway that had been mopped the day McKinley was inaugurated." That was a long time ago even then.

And one of the best things is that way back in the early 40's the hero introduced himself at least once as "Marlow. Philip Marlow." So Ian Fleming must have liked him too.