posted on 05 Mar 2016

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Lean and mean, this is probably my favourite Chandler novel. I quite like the film too but I never could quite see Bogart as Philip Marlow - Bogie was a small, world-weary man and not the physically imposing  character Chandler created.

As plenty of other critics have pointed out before, the plot of the book is ridiculous and the motivation of the characters often a complete mystery. Famously Chandler was pretty cavalier about plotting his novels and was indifferent to continuity gaps or time inconsistencies because he just wanted the books to work as atmospheric thrillers and not examples of the police procedural. He was also a cut and paste writer, recycling stories that had appeared elsewhere in pulp magazines and this was often the cause of gaps in plots and twists that Chandler himself couldn't account for.

Chandler writes the novel through Marlow's eyes, allowing him to not only give his central character some fabulous dialogue to speak but some even better internal monologue. He paints with a broad brush in terms of action but his dialogue is scalpel sharp and drips with an acid sarcasm that comes across as ice cool.

Writing in his prime Chandler helped to define the classic American detective noir, building on what Dashiell Hammett had started some time earlier. Where Chandler innovates is in his sheer love of and mastery over language. Readers will often comment on the smart-cracking one liners but these are by no means his best work. What he is able to do exceptionally well and in a few deft sentences is to create a character, describe a scene and pass judgement on what he has witnessed. Nothing goes to waste and there is very little flab that could be whittled away.

Although Marlow swims in murky pools he is, remarkably, the moral centre of the universe. He earns his living helping to clear up the messes created by the rich and decadent, negotiating his way past incompetent or corrupt policemen, exposing pornographers and running rings around dumb thugs too slow to see past the ends of their shoulder pads. But despite being exposed to all this moral turpitude he does the decent thing and refuses to exploit his position.

Ultimately Marlow is both a caricature and a template for a real man. Women have every right to both love and hate him, his clients know they need him but that he despises them and he is loyal but, at the same time, indifferent. If you choose to read a Chandler novel you know exactly what you're going to get and it rarely disappoints. The Big Sleep gives you the Chandler universe in magnificent 3D and it's one hell of a ride.

 

Terry Potter

March 2016