La gran dormida (1939)

I thought the story was good, but I will never be a fan of the style of dialogue. All of the men talk like they are a tough guy and the women mostly sound clueless. So I haven't become one of the legion of Philip Marlowe fans. ( )

The book that made trenchcoat detectives classy. Though some of the slang is a little obscure, the quality of Chandler's writing makes his novels timeless classics. Often imitated, never bettered. ( )

I'm reading some Stout, some Hammett, and some Chandler all close together, and it's interesting to note the comparisons. Hammett is more minimal, short on ornate physical descriptions of things. Chandler by contrast attends more to how environments are presented; he embroiders the scene a bit more. Stout lies somewhere in the middle and is a little more overtly funny or witty (beyond the wisecracks all three sprinkle throughout their books).

This was a fine, quick read. I enjoyed it but wasn't affected by it. ( )

A gritty, hard-boiled detective story. This book is, in my mind, the anthesis to the "cozy mystery". The prose is terse, the imagery vivid, dark, and often bleak. For example...

"A nasty building. A building in which the smell of stale cigar butts would be the cleanest odor."

Some of the descriptions are from the time period, so they seem dated to us but are in keeping with the time and enrich the experience for me. e.g. "A Chicago overcoat" was a coffin.

Chandler defined the hard-boiled detective with his creation of the character, Philip Marlowe. A man, not easily likeable, but a man with his own code of ethics that he adheres to no matter the cost. ( )

Elliot Gould is a good narrator for this story. ( )