1001+ Books: The Big Sleep

1001+ Books:
#1 - The Big Sleep

by: Raymond Chandler (1939)

       "Not a game for knights" is how Philip Marlowe describes his chess match against himself, and that is pretty close to how you could describe Marlowe's world. Unfortunately for him, he happens to be the knight-errant of late-30s Los Angeles; a city as corrupt and vile in his eyes as the naked young woman in his bed, his damsel in distress, committed to finding herself in distress, with nothing more to say than "you're cute" and nothing more to offer than a warm body. Marlowe is a half decent man operating in an indecent world, a man looking for purity in places of the impurest nature. He knows this, and quietly enjoys in it to an extent. He's committed to his job like a knight to a quest, and he's doing it for the money, yes, but also, in the end, to spare a dying old man his dignity. At least, I think that's what happened. I'm still a little foggy on some of it. Who killed the chauffeur?

       Starting a new project (reading 1001 books, probably a terrible idea considering my commitment to 1001 albums and 1001 movies), I thought this would be an appropriate pick for a nice easy read, a page turner (or, you know, the audio equivalent), something to ease me back into the groove of reading. Easy and breezy as it was, that shouldn't be confused for simple. It's a notoriously complicated plot, so much so in fact that when Howard Hawks was directing the film adaptation, he called up Raymond Chandler to fill in gaps he couldn't connect. Of course, Chandler couldn't help much, he didn't know the answers either. But the plot isn't the thing here, and he must have understood that, based upon how impossibly complex it is and the loose ends that never are really tied up. It's all tone, mood, atmosphere; cigarette smoke, sharp suits with sharp tongues, hot LA heat, coffee, booze, cynicism and smooth misogyny.

       It's a perfect working of atmosphere over story, and I'm not bothered by that at all, it's often what I look for in a piece of fiction first. Marlowe is a great protagonist (some would argue one of the greatest in American literature) and a nice center point for the confused action that happens around him. His witty, sardonic cynicism is key to the understanding of the world, and perfect vantage point from which that world can unfold itself and show all its nasty crevices and corners. Like I said above, Marlowe seems to be the only semi-clean spot in all the muck and grime that the city and its characters live in, not to say that he is by any means an angel himself. He's just a man set to do his duty, get the job done and get paid. It's the tension between his duty and his temptations that is interesting. He kisses the older of the two spoiled and wild sisters that are children to his employer, but refuses to sleep with her. He's chivalrous. He has a strong sense of duty and keeps his word, but even he stooped a little for a moment to embrace life's base pleasures. He's almost like a man out of time, like a knight-errant again, albeit a disillusioned one, with too strong a sense of morality to fit in with a corrupt world.

       But more than it is a character study or an allegory (which I really doubt it is), it's just some nice pulp fun. A classic PI novel a great character and great setups and lines of dialogue. Sure you can dive in an psychoanalyze its characters, but I had more fun letting it all wash over me, and enjoying the quips and strings of extravagant words, the endless and inventive metaphors and similes, and the presence and narration of the protagonist. 

   Rating: B+