The Big Sleep (1939)
Written by Raymond Chandler
First Published in the U.S. in 1939
Film Noir owes as much to hardboiled crime fiction as to the era which it is settled, the beginning/ending of the second world war, the economic resection and rationing, German immigrants coming to the US and bringing with them the poetry of light and shadows. Film Noir owes to German Expressionism a huge amount of its visual storytelling. But the setting and plot begins in the late 1930s with the rise of the more hardcore crime fiction, a reflection of the contrived times full of crime, darkness and economical despair.
Raymond Chandler begins to write because he needs to earn his living, after being fired, and The Big Sleep is his first fiction book to be published, a landmark that defined most of the hardboiled genre of crime fiction, the book that introduced us to the iconic private investigator Phillip Marlowe, portrayed in film as the eternal lonesome drifter Humphrey Bogart.
The novel is a hard read, full of twisted characters and a particularly difficult plot that unfolds in a clever narrative. The dialogue is full of the era’s characteristic slang and half-truths that don’t do much to explain who is the killer; as the plot enfolds you become as puzzled as ever and Chandler masters this technique using Marlowe’s wit and sarcasm. The Detective never seems to loose his game, even though he can get wrong, even though he is never the owner of the truth.
The plot opens right in your face as dying General Sternwood hires Marlowe to find out who is blackmailing him. Just moments after accepting the job, the detective meets the General’s two daughters and begins to get involved in their little secrets. Of course that the original mystery is just the boiling start to a huge conflict that involves gambling houses, love, blackmail and a missing ex-bootlegger that seems to be the key of the crime, but even this detail might not be the missing part of the puzzle, as there is too much that amounts to betrayal and crime.
The dialog is superb and the Los Angeles that Chandler writes is alive with its dark corners and shady roamers; there is no shame in describing the more sordid details of the crimes that fill the pages. Phillip Marlowe is the central figure that unites the bright side of the law with the darkest players, always seemingly in control of the situation and as hardboiled as ever. In fact, Marlowe is a rock, never forgetting his ethics, a different kind of romantic.
Even though is a really tough read, The Big Sleep is essential, a challenging plot that pretty much invents the Noir genre, if we can put it that way. It will provoke you with its twisting quirks, dry details and hard to swallow moments. It will take you to the darkest corners of the human mind at its most survival needs, and yes, literature does that to you.
On its darkest side, the book is probably too smart for everyone, but even that is not an excuse, the setting and atmosphere pretty much ask for it. So do us all a favour and read the book first, you’ll live under Marlowe’s shoes for a while. Who wouldn’t want that?
This is part of a two article series, first we see the book then we read the movie. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, stay tuned for the second-part were we dissect the movie (the Howard Hanks version).
Where to get it:
