My apologies in advance, but this is an "on the one hand/on the other
hand" review. On the one hand, for anyone who loves Raymond Chandler
and Philip Marlowe, as I do, it is great to have a new story featuring
the "Galahad of the Gutter", even if Chandler only wrote the first three
chapters. And Robert B. Parker ( of Spenser fame) does a competent
job of completing the story.
On the other hand, despite the exception of Dashiell Hammett's The Thin
Man, I think that the modern trend of giving private eyes buddies and girlfriends
has been a catastrophic development for the hard boiled novel. The
very essence of these novels, epitomized in The Maltese Falcon, Ross MacDonald's
Lew Archer series and the other Philip Marlowe stories, is the independence
and accompanying vulnerability of the detectives. So this Marlowe
story, which finds him married to a wealthy heiress and comfortably ensconced
in Poodle Springs (a thinly veiled Pal Springs), is disappointing evidence
that even a master of the genre was drifting in this direction when he
died.
The mystery here is vintage Chandler, with blackmail, pornography, polygamy
and the like and when the focus turns to Marlowe working on the case it
is quite good. But the scenes between him and his wife, particularly
the tensions between them as a result of his insistence on a return to
detecting, bring the story to a screeching halt every time it builds up
a head of steam.
The result is a very mixed bag and an extremely tentative recommendation--an
airplane book.
(Reviewed:12-Dec-99)
Grade: (C)
Websites:
See also:
Raymond Chandler (
2 books reviewed)
Private Eyes
Book-related and General Links:
-DISCUSSION
GROUP: Re: RARA-AVIS: Hard-Boiled vs Noir & Poodle Springs
-ESSAY:
Stalking Raymond Chandler's Spirit By TOM STOPPARD
-Crime
Writers (David King)
-Philip
Marlowe Created by Raymond Chandler (Thrilling Detective)
-Shamus:
A Tribute to Philip Marlowe
-Robert
B. Parker and Raymond Chandler (from Shamus)
-BIBLIO:
Robert B. Parker
-Robert
B. Parker (Mostly Fiction)
-ROBERT
B. PARKER (Stop, You're Killing Me!)
-Robert
B. Parker's Complete Bookshelf With Reviews and Reader Comments
(Oxford Books)
CHANDLER:
-BIO:
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) (kirjasto)
-ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITANNICA: Your search: "raymond chandler"
-FEATURED
AUTHORS: NY Times Book Review
-Raymond
Chandler's Ten Commandments For the Detective Novel (Thrilling Detective)
-Raymond
Chandler (1888-1959) (Bohemian Ink)
-BIBLIO:
Raymond Thornton Chandler
-Raymond
Chandler
-The
Raymond Chandler Website: scholarship and information about Raymond
Chandler
-Trouble
is my Business: A Raymond Chandler Tribute
-Crime
Writers (David King)
-Philip
Marlowe Created by Raymond Chandler (Thrilling Detective)
-Shamus:
A Tribute to Philip Marlowe
-Robert
B. Parker and Raymond Chandler (from Shamus)
-Raymond
Chandler (David J. King)
-Raymond
Chandler (Rara-Avis)
-Raymond
Chandler (1888 - 1959) (History of Mystery)
-Raymond
Chandler's Los Angeles
-AMAZON
LINKED BIBLIO: Big Bill's Raymond Chandler (UK) Stuff!
-ESSAY:
Stalking Raymond Chandler's Spirit By TOM STOPPARD
-ESSAY:
An Introduction to the Big Sleep (The Raymond Chandler Website)
-ESSAY:
45 Calibrations of Raymond Chandler (Peter Straub, Conjunctions)
-ESSAY:
RAYMOND CHANDLER, A MASTER LETTER - WRITER, TOO (EDWIN McDOWELL, NY
Times)
-ESSAY:
[ CLOTHES IN CHARACTER ] ; PULP FASHION (DANA THOMAS, NY Times Book
Review)
-ESSAY:
FOR SHAMUSES AND GUMSHOES (JAN BENZEL, NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
Raymond Chandler and His Followers (A Guide to Classic Mystery and
Detection Home Page)
-READING
GROUP GUIDE : The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (Random House)
-REVIEW:
of the Big Sleep (ISAAC ANDERSON , NY Times, February 12, 1939)
-REVIEW:
of RAYMOND CHANDLER Stories and Early Novels & RAYMOND CHANDLER Later
Novels (Robert B. Parker, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Joyce Carol Oates: The Simple Art of Murder, NY Review of Books
Stories and Early Novels
by Raymond Chandler
Later Novels and Other Writings
by Raymond Chandler
-REVIEW:
of The Big Sleep (Mystery Guide)
-REVIEW:
of SELECTED LETTERS OF RAYMOND CHANDLER Edited by Frank MacShane (Larry
McMurtry, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of POODLE SPRINGS By Raymond Chandler and Robert B.Parker (Ed McBain,
NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of PERCHANCE TO DREAM Robert B. Parker's Sequel to Raymond Chandler's
"The Big Sleep." By Robert B. Parker (Martin Amis, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW
: of The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Non-Fiction Edited
by Tom Hiney and Frank MacShane (Robert McCrum , books unlimited)
-REVIEW
: of Raymond Chandler: A biography by Tom Hiney (Kevin Macdonald
, books unlimited)
-REVIEW:
of Raymond Chandler: A Biography By Tom Hiney (R. W. B. LEWIS, NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of Raymond Chandler by Tom Hiney (Anthony LeJeune, National Review)
-REVIEW:
of Raymond Chandler: A Biography By Tom Hiney (Allen Barra, MetroActive)
-REVIEW:
of Raymond Chandler A Biography by Tom Hiney ( Martin Edwards, Tangled
Web)
-REVIEW:
of Raymond Chandler A Biography by Tom Hiney (YVONNE CRITTENDEN --
Toronto Sun)
FILM
-REVIEW
: "The Big Sleep" Humphrey Bogart and Howard Hawks get Raymond Chandler
so right, who cares if the plot doesn't square? (Michael Sragow, Salon)
GENERAL
-African American
Mystery Page
-Black
Street Fiction
-Crime
Writers (David King)
-Dangerous
Dames: A Timeline of Some of the Major Female Eyes (Thrilling Detectives)
-Edgar
Award: Best First Novel
-Film
Noir and Pulp Fiction
-A
Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection
-Gumshoe
Site
-Hardboiled
: online reference site for all things noir
-Hardboiled
Heaven
-Hard Boiled
Noir Webring
-Martin's
Film Noir Page
-Mysterious
Home Page
-MysteryNet.com:
The Online Mystery Network
-Mystery
Net Awards Page
-No
Night Sweats
-RARA-AVIS
: mailing list devoted to the discussion of hardboiled (and noir) fiction
-The
Reader's Corner presents Female Sleuths
-Thrilling
Detective Website
-Twists,
Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang
-Women
of Mystery (Bookaholic)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
