"I never liked this scene," I said. "Detective confronts murderer. Murderer produces gun, points same at detective. Murderer tells detective the whole sad story with the idea of shooting him at the end of it...Only murderer never does. Something always happens to prevent it. The gods don't like this scene either. They always manage to spoil it."
The only thing I thought was absent from the novel was a development of the Arthurian promise of the title. Maybe its in there but if so I missed it. "The Big Sleep" gets better the more you think about it, but once we see that there is an actual lady in an actual lake, "The Lady in the Lake" comes across as a bit hasty, even if it was based on a story of the same name.
...
Incidentally I'm still waiting for the Colin Bateman novels "The Big Sheep," "The Long Good Fry-Up," and that cross-over into classic 70's TV sitcom territory "The Brady in the Lake."
35 comments:
Off Topic (of course)
I really liked Ben Brantley's review of Spider Man: The Musical in the NYT
although he soft pedalled the criticism of his fellow New York Times columnist Paul (just call me Bono for tax reasons) Hewson.
Other critics did not:
http://broadwayworld.com/article/Review_Roundup_SPIDERMAN_on_Broadway_All_the_Reviews_20110207
here's a better link to those other Spidermen quotes
I always thought THE LADY IN THE LAKE was Chandler's most underrated novel. I like that he got out of LA, thought that it affected the tone and pacing a little, made it stick out a little. I don't consider it the equal of THE BIG SLEEP, THE LONG GOOD-BYE, or FAREWELL MY LOVELY, but it's clearly superior to THE LITTLE SISTER, and, probably THE HIGH WINDOW. (I say probably because it's been a long time since I re-read THW. Might be about time.)
I've been a Chandler fan for a long time. I've been re-reading Chandler, also. I read many of his books, years ago. I read them one after another, so they all sort of blended together for me. Now, I'm reading them, but starting another one only after I've read a different author.
The Lady in the Lake was really great, the best so far for me. It looks like The Big Sleep will be next.
William Faulkner wrote the screenplay for the movie version of The Big Sleep, which starred Humphrey Bogart. While I like the movie, I recall that it is a little jumbled compared to the book. Faulkner was the screenwriter for another Bogart film, To Have and Have Not, which was based on the Hemingway novel.
While we're on the subject of crime writing's greats, did you see this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/04/dashiell-hammett-unpublished-works-found ?
Postmortem pilfering and publication makes me nervous as a writer, but the idea of new Hammett short stories makes me salivate as a reader.
I think about how deeply I love Jimi Hendrix's recently released Valleys of Neptune, but how that love is tainted by the knowledge that it's in my hands because someone's exploiting a dead genius to make money.
While hedonistically indulging my aesthetic greed, I play into financial avarice. I hate that.
I see your point, Shullamuth, but really, what else are you going to to do with a dead genius? It's not like they're going to mind.
The first Chandler book I read was The Little Sister and I was so underwhelmed that I didn't read anything else by him for years.
I picked up Farewell, My Lovely at an airport a few years ago and was knocked out.
I still prefer Hammett, though, even if only for Nick and Nora
By chance, Roger Ebert just tweeted this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R9L8zCLDRTA#
Dana
I hate to say it but I agree with you The Little Sister is weak. Everybody can hit it out of the park every time but when you've read three brilliant Chandler novels in a road Sister comes as a disappointment.
Speedskater
Yeah I know that Faulkner's name is on the credits but how much writing he actually did is very questionable...
Billy Wilder told a few funny stories about Chandler's screenwriting attempts for him; but apparently he must have mastered the art because his splay for Strangers on a Train is a masterpiece.
Shulla
I hadnt heard about the hammett but I'm excited, more so than the prospect of reading a fourth or even fifth Stieg Larsson novel.
Seana
Unless, of course, they're not really dead, like Elvis.
Rob
Farewell My Lovely is a cracker I agree.
Re the Ebert, I wish that I could say that I'm in love with Margaret Atwood but oh man her recent novel about the flood and the monks and the trapeze artist was one of the most self indulgent vanity projects I've ever read. Its the kind of thing you can only do after thirty or forty years of people kissing your arse and telling you how brillant you are.
Right, as to Elvis, you've got to be careful about people like that. But I doubt he'd mind much all the same.
Our pal Peter R. has posted favorably about one of these lost Hammett tales, by the way.
Slate also had a piece up about Spiderman the Musical today. How can such an apparently terrible show get so much publicity?
As to Atwood, I liked her early stuff, but after forcing my way through Blind Assassin for my reading group, I have never been able to face her again.
Seana
Could be the big names involved: Julie Taymor who until now obviously has been able to do no wrong, Bono, The Edge etc...
But probably its the money. 65 million dollars is a lot of money to spend on a Broadway show.
I made a conscious decision about two years ago to ignore every box office Top 10 list I encountered and not to read any stories about how much a film cost (either how cheap or how expensive). I decided that how much money something made or cost to make was no longer going to be relevant in whether I chose to see that film or not. In general it has worked out well.
I made an exception for Spiderman because its a play not a film and because of the schadenfreude involved seeing that creep Bono being taken down a peg or two.
I forgot to say that I really want to read the Big Sheep. Bateman should write it. Look what sheep did for Murakami.
I'm too naive about the film world to even notice the money aspect. However in the book world I'm a bit more attuned, and in general, I'd say the big marketing strategies would be a warning flag for me against thinking I had to read the book. I've read a few anyway, of course.
Hey now, let's be nice to Peggy (what we Canadians call Margaret Atwood), she also claims to love Elmore Leonard and I've been trying to get a blurb out of her for years.
And there's often this kind of piling on of negative reviews, remember Ishtar and Heaven's Gate (or am I just showing my age ;)
John, I have to say that having heard her on our local radio station guy interview her not too long ago, I don't think I would like her. I know that I should probably be defending her and Taymor, as a woman, I mean, but apparently hubris is a cross-gender phenomenon.
I think the attraction of Spiderman the Musical being to a great extent hoping to see something terrible happen, I would advise the actors and crew to abandon ship sooner, not later.
John
I think Heavens Gate has been somewhat rehabilitated, no? Certainly when I watched it I thought it was fine.
As for the Attwood, have you read that book? Its completely bonkers. She probably should have read some JG Ballard before attempting a novel like that.
Seana
At least no one has actually died, you've got to give them that.
Yet.
Knock on wood.
I think Chandler got a bit too cranky in "The Little Sister." The book sounded too much like Chandler complaining about L.A. He could complain well, but too much can bog a book down.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana: the lost Hammett story I posted about ("Night Shade") is not one of the current batch of soon-to-be-unlost tales. It was published in book a few years ago in a Hammett collection called Lost Stories.
It's no shock, really, that these stories turn up occasionally. They were ephemera when published, and old magazines, papers and manuscripts have a way of hanging around unnoticed.
When will Bateman write The Maltese Firkin?
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Yes excellent point. There are many ways to do misanthropy without it becoming static and dull.
As long as they don't attempt to "finish" an unpublished work, like they did with Poodle Springs, I'm for publishing new works. Poodle Springs made me hate Parker, whereas, I only had mild disdain for him before.
No, Adrian, I didn't read The year of the Flood but I read Oryx and Crake and had the same reaction - she should have read some JG Ballard. She has said that she read a lot of sci fi before writing those books but I have a feeling she didn't read much Ballard or John Brunner or Thomas Disch. Maybe not even Ursula Leguin or Kate Willhelm. Wait a minute, maybe she didn't read that much at all ;)
Oh yes, forgot to mention, I agree Heaven's Gate has been rehabilitated, that's why I see this stuff as trendy piling on. How many of these critics are saying what they truly believe and how many are going for the pithy quote and an easy target - easy because so many others have already piled on?
Or, you know, it may just be bad. It certainly sounds like a dumb idea for a musical, but to me almost every musical sounds like a dumb idea (except my idea for Levittown the musical ;)
Sing it, John!
I thought Peggy was best when she wasn't doing science fiction themes at all, but just talking about women's lives. Feminist consciousness raising kind of stuff that might seem a bit dated now, but was effective at the time.
John
When I read the jacket I thought it was going to be a comic novel (the trapeze artist was the clue there), alas it wasnt. Its not like she's tone deaf to sci-fi - The Handmaid's Tale was excellent.
Lew
Jesus Poodle Springs...even the title was a disaster.
Seana
I was amused to read this week that Ariana Huffington got her start by writing a right wing reactionary response to The Female Eunuch. I wasnt surprised to read that she's been heavily influenced by New Age thinking.
Ariana has swung a long way in the other direction. Wonder if AOL will swing her back the other way...
Speaking of book covers Adrian, have you seen this fella?
http://newcover.tumblr.com/
Not sure Ariana has swung too far to the left. She's hopped on the Waiting for Superman bandwagon, big time.
Matt
Very nice work. I havent read those books yet they have been rec'd to me by many people.
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