The Big Sleep (Classic bestseller) Kindle Edition

You might like this classic crime story if you like complex mysteries where all the characters have hidden agendas. Private investigator Phillip Marlowe is hired by wealthy, dying Gen. Sternwood to find out who is trying to get him to pay off the gambling debts of his youngest daughter, Carmen. Sternwood has received a letter from an Arthur Geiger asking for the money. He presents the letter to Marlowe when they meet. This isn’t the first time Carmen has gotten into trouble, requiring her father to bail her out. After Marlowe meets Carmen, he doesn’t think it will be the last time either. The girl is wild and acts on every impulse. Marlowe is pulled aside by Vivian, Sternwood’s older daughter, as he is leaving. Vivian wants to know if her father has hired him to find Rusty, Vivian’s husband, who disappeared a month previously. Marlowe is caught off guard but doesn’t show it. He now knows that far more is going on with this family than he thought.Marlowe leaves the mansion pondering unanswered questions but knows his priority is to stop the man threatening the General over Carmen’s gambling debts. Marlowe identifies the man as the owner of a rare book shop. He confronts Geiger later that night and walks into a murder scene. Geiger is dead, and Carmen is nude and drugged, curled up in a chair. A camera is nearby with no film in it. It’s not long before Marlowe discovers that Geiger is using Carmen for pornographic pictures. The problem with Geiger is taken care of. But who killed Geiger and why?Having never read anything by Raymond Chandler, I wanted to try one of his best crime novels. The story was well-written in the tough-guy vernacular of the time (the 1940s), and the characters were engaging. The scene where Marlowe meets Carmen for the first time is priceless. What I didn’t like so much was the convoluted storyline that introduced character after character with questionable motives. Red herrings were abundant. There were so many; I had to take notes to keep them straight. My advice would be to pick this one up only if you’re a huge fan of 40s era noir and love puzzles, the more complex, the better.

My review here is a drop in the bucket compared with the great number of them all. Also, book reviews at Amazon are often hits and misses and often do not contain what I want to know. I prefer not to discuss the synopsis. There are tons of synopses all over the web and so you can find those anywhere. Again, I simply don't feel they belong in a book review. I want to know other things.If you've not read anything by Raymond Chandler, then the first thing that you'll notice is his descriptive writing. I love it! Take a simple phone booth call, "I dropped my nickel and dialed his number just for fun." There are too many great lines to count, but another of my favorites is, "A few tentative raindrops splashed down on the sidewalk and made spots as large as nickels." I can almost hear Humphrey Bogart reading the book to me.The film is best known for its confusion, but the book irons those issues straight out. What is really interesting to me is how the then-modern world saw itself. They refer to old fashioned values as Victorian. Homosexuality was out there in a kind of don't ask don't tell way, much like the 80s, actually. However, they were not afraid to notice it. In fact, one man goes both ways in the book! Casual sex did exist, despite what the Hollywood Hays Code wanted everyone to believe. However, I see a lot of misinformed folks making statements about this. City life was different than small-town life. A small town in California is incredibly different than a small town in other parts of the country. Morals are only what a community makes them to be. They shouldn't be forced on anyone and this book actually kind of leads you to that kind of understanding. Morals are personal, not law. Too many confuse that these days.The steady paced reader could finish this book in less than 7 hours, without any breaks. However, I didn't read it at a steady pace, unless you call crawling along a steady pace and in a way that's really what it was. I liked to savor his words. Raymond Chandler is a descriptive genius. Now there comes a problem too. When there is too much of it, it kind of sounds overdone. There were only a couple of times though that I saw this problem. I have to admit that his craft was interesting because he normally balanced it with interesting dialog with a lot of sarcasm. "... you have to hold your teeth clamped around Hollywood to keep from chewing on stray blondes."The slanguage is fascinating. If you've never read anything like this before, you're sure to learn a whole bunch of new slang. For example, a police badge is called a "buzzer" and I think "buttons" was police, which is probably referring to their uniforms if I even had that right but you get the idea.The story is actually two of them. There is a link between them but this easily could have been broken up into two novellas. If I had to make a complaint, it would be the very ending. I think more explanation of someone's intention is necessary but I think that's only an error of time and science. In that day, health and the psyche were still in the early stages and many things they believed then are not necessarily how it worked. I know that sounds cryptic but it's the best way I can describe it without spoiling a single thing.All in all, it's simply a fantastic book! I think even those who don't like mysteries would enjoy it because of its prose alone. If you're easily offended though, stay away. This is not a book for those kinds of pansy people, which I think Chandler would call them today. This is about what people were like and the morals that they had. It is to be enjoyed, not scorned.

So che dovrei recensire il libro, però mi prendo un attimo la libertà di criticare l'operare del corriere.Quindi tralasciando il contenuto del libro stesso che sarà sicuramente buono; non capisco cosa diavolo passi nella testa del corriere quando butta a terra il pacco senza nemmeno citofonare, in questo caso anche in balia dell'urina e dei denti del mio cane.Posso capire lo stress lavorativo sopratutto di questi tempi sopratutto per lavori come questo. Ma ritengo abbastanza antipatico gestire così i pacchi, questa è ben la seconda volta che succede. Per fortuna il libro è stato salvato in tempo ma il pacco era in mille pezzi.Non so, sarà uno dei vantaggi nel non pagare la spedizione con Prime.EDIT dopo il Servizio Clienti:Sono stato ascoltato e la situazione si è risolta tutto nel tempo di una giornata grazie al Servizio Clienti Amazon.it. Anche in questo caso voglio lasciarlo per iscritto, cambio anche il numero di stelle.

No hay mucho que objetar, tiene todo lo que esperas de un clásico. Lo recomiendo para cualquier persona que le gusta la novela negra.

"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler is a classic, vintage private eye yarn, the precursor to many similar to come. It is an excellent read.

Remarquable roman noir, considérablement plus clair que le légendaire film cryptique qui en a été tiré. Peut être le meilleur ouvrage de Chandler, et le plus élégamment écrit. De très nombreuses répliques du film sont exactement tirées du roman, et ce sont le plus souvent des répliques de légende. Par ailleurs le livre est un peu plus cru que le film, car sans doute on ne pouvait rien montrer à l' époque dans un film, et cela ajoute à la vraissemblance du livre par rapport au film. Un must pour qui veut découvrir Chandler ou qui veut comprendre enfin tous les détails du film....

Also a good read. I was exhausted. Philip Marlowe grabs you as a character. Should have reaad it years ago.