All reviews copyright 1984-2023 Evelyn C. Leeper.
THE ANNOTATED BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler (annotations by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Dean Rizzuto):
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 10/06/23]
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago picking up a half dozen books at Second Time Books in Mount Laurel (NJ). One of them was THE ANNOTATED BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler (annotations by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Dean Rizzuto) (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, ISBN 978-0-804-16888-5), and it does annotations the right way. That is to say, the text is on the left page, the and the annotations on the right page facing it. (You may recall my complaining of an annotated edition where the text and the annotations did not stay in sync on the pages.) This synchronization naturally leads to blank spaces, either because some text has few annotations, or some text has extensive annotations. This edition often fills those space with illustrations: book covers, photographs of 1930s Los Angeles, short essays about private eyes, the detective genre, and so on. Since this is a large format trade paperback, the typeface is also very readable. The drawback is that this means the book weighs a pound and a half.
I have to say that Chandler was very kind to collectors. He wrote his Philip Marlowe books in alphabetical order, meaning one is not conflicted between alphabetical and Chronological shelving order. (This ordering fell apart with the posthumous Marlowe books write by other authors, PERCHANCE TO DREAM by Robert B. Parker, THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE by Benjamin Black, ONLY TO SLEEP by Lawrence Osborne, and THE GOODBYE COAST by Joe Ide.)
So THE BIG SLEEP was the first Philip Marlowe book written, and considered the best. (I have a fondness for THE LONG GOODBYE. though I can't say why. Interestingly, the two titles mean the same thing.) But the first six novels are all good, PLAYBACK is okay, and POODLE SPRINGS ... Well, the idea of marrying Marlowe off was a bad one to start with, and the fact that Chandler left the novel unfinished when he died may have been intentional.
Chandler is one of the great writers of private eye stories, THE BIG SLEEP is considered his best, and the annotations are both interesting and informative. If you haven't read THE BIG SLEEP yet, it might make sense to just read the book itself first, and then decide if you want to read the annotations. (Consider it similar to watching the movie before listening to the commentary.) But I wholeheartedly recommend this edition.
(And if you like Chandler's style, consider KAFKA'S COOKBOOK: A COMPLETE HISTORY OF WORLD LITERATURE IN 14 RECIPES and its "Lamb with Dill Sauce a la Raymond Chandler": "I needed a table at Maxim’s, a hundred bucks, and a gorgeous blonde; what I had was a leg of lamb and no clues. I took hold of the joint. It felt cold and damp, like a coroner’s handshake. I took out a knife and cut the lamb into pieces. Feeling the blade in my hand I sliced an onion, and before I knew what I was doing a carrot lay in pieces on the slab. None of them moved.")
KILLER IN THE RAIN by Raymond Chandler:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 03/08/24]
KILLER IN THE RAIN by Raymond Chandler (Pan, ISBN 978-0-330-26461-7) is a collection of eight early stories by Chandler that he held back from reprinting while he was alive (and may have wanted them permanently so, but once he was dead ...). Why? Because they were all early versions of major parts of his novels.
For example, "Killer in the Rain" and "The Curtain" were both incorporated (with name changes and some plot adjustments) in THE BIG SLEEP. FAREWELL, MY LOVELY used three stories: "The Man Who Liked Dogs", "Try the Girl", and "Mandarin Jade". And THE LADY IN THE LAKE incorporated "Bay City Blues", "The Lady in the Lake", and "No Crime in the Mountains".
In his introduction, Philip Durham analyzes how Chandler changed and merged various stories into a novel, along with noting what changes Chandler made, both in plot, and in the actual words (for example, the descriptions of the hothouse in "The Curtain" and THE BIG SLEEP).
To those familiar with the novels, the stories may appear rough and
incomplete, but they do provide insight as to how a writer can
develop a story. Among other things, none of the detectives in
these stories is named "Philip Marlowe". "John Dalmas" is the name
he used multiple times, but even as he was writing about John
Dalmas, he had created Philip Marlowe in THE BIG SLEEP. Taken in
conjunction with RAYMOND CHANDLER SPEAKING (see my review at
http://leepers.us/evelyn/reviews/chandler.htm#speaking
(There is also a 2001 American edition from Penguin, as well as an
older edition from Ballantine. I have to say that reading stories
in a British edition about ur-Philip-Marlowes in Los Angeles and
running into British spellings is a bit of a stumbling block. I
believe that the Durham introduction is standard across all the
editions, but I'm not sure.)
THE LITTLE SISTER
by Raymond Chandler:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 12/01/2006]
I read THE LITTLE SISTER by Raymond Chandler (ISBN 0-394-75767-X)
because I had listened to the BBC adaptation. It turns out the
BBC kept a lot of Chandler's distinctive writing, but simplified
the end. (Of course, with Chandler many people would say the
attraction is the writing, not the plot.) It is ironic that
Chandler is so well known and influential, since he wrote only
seven novels and less than two dozen short stories. But they are
all classics.
THE LONG GOODYE
by Raymond Chandler:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 07/20/2012]
THE LONG GOODBYE by Raymond Chandler (ISBN 978-0-394-75768-1) is a
classic hard-boiled detective story to be read slowly so as to
savor Chandler's use of language: "I went out to the kitchen to
make coffee--yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot,
ruthless, depraved. The lifeblood of tired men."
Or, "Off to my left was an empty swimming pool, and nothing ever
looks emptier than an empty swimming pool."
One character talks about what the public wants from books: "I've
got five hundred pages of typescript here, well over a hundred
thousand words. My books run long. The public likes long books.
The damn fool public thinks if there's a lot of pages there must be
a lot of gold."
And there is Chandler's take on law enforcement:
"Would you kindly find me the section that says I have to
answer the questions?"
...
He said: "Every citizen has to co-operate with the police. In
all ways, even by physical action, and especially by answering
any questions of a non-incriminating nature the police think it
necessary to ask." His voice saying this was hard and bright
and smooth.
"It works out that way." I said. "Mostly by a process of
direct or indirect intimidation. In law no such obligation
exists. Nobody has to tell the police anything, any time,
anywhere."
[Of course, Marlowe ends up in the holding cells for three days,
which neatly sums up what was--and still is--the difference between
the law in theory and the law in practice.]
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 11/13/2020]
I recently watched the Robert Altman adaptation of THE LONG GOODBYE
by Raymond Chandler (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard ISBN 978-0-394-
75768-1). This is one of my favorite Chandler novels, because I
find the character of Terry Lennox fascinating. However, the film
leaves a lot to be desired.
First of all, though the book is set in the late 1940s, the film
appears to be set in a later period (based on clothing, hair
styles, etc.) However, the cars and the rates Marlowe quotes are
still of the 1940s.
In the books, Marlowe did not have a cat. In the film, he has a
cat. This seems a very un-Marlowe touch, especially since his work
often requires him to be away from home for long stretches. The
Marlowe of the film also has a cheese planer? Why on earth would
Marlowe own a cheese planer? And by this point in the novels,
Marlowe is living in a house, not an apartment.
The movie drops the whole first part of the book, where Marlowe
meets Terry Lennox, which leaves one wondering just how long
they've known each other, etc. Instead, it starts with Lennox
going to Mexico.
It also changes names, with Lenny Potts instead of Paul Marsden,
and Marty Augustine instead of Manny Menendez. The whole
relationship between Wade and the clinic is different. Oh, and
there was no naked scene in the book.
**SPOILER** But the biggest change is that the film changes the
ending, in particular, it changes who is guilty of what.
Unconscionable!
ONLY TO SLEEP
by Lawrence Osborne:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 10/13/23]
Last week I commented on THE ANNOTATED BIG SLEEP and Raymond
Chandler, so it's only fair to continue with another Philip Marlowe
novel, albeit not by Raymond Chandler.
ONLY TO SLEEP by Lawrence Osborne (Hogarth, ISBN 978-1-5247-5961-2)
is an authorized Philip Marlowe novel, the third to be written by
an author than Raymond Chandler (in English--Hiber Conteris wrote
EL DIEZ POR CIENTO DE VIDA, which was later translated into English
by Deborah Bergmann as TEN PERCENT OF LIFE). There was also a
volume of short stories for Chandler's centennial. And I count
POODLE SPRINGS as a Chandler novel, though it was finished by
Robert B. Parker.
Alas, Lawrence Osborne is no Raymond Chandler.
Chandler is known for his similes and metaphors. Osborne's fall
flat; "It was a movement as leisurely as that of a conga line at
the end of a party" cannot compete with "the great fat solid
Pacific trudging into shore like a scrubwoman going home..."
Chandler is known for his gritty Los Angeles setting (as well as
Bay City). Osborne sets his novel in a series of small towns in
Mexico. Chandler's Philip Marlowe is between 23 and 36 years old.
Osborne's is 72. The one thing Osborne seemed to carry over was
that Marlowe discovers a body.
ONLY TO SLEEP is okay as a mystery novel, I suppose, but it is not
a Philip Marlowe novel.
(Oddly, most of the reviews I've read like the prose, but think the
plot is weak.)
PLAYBACK
by Raymond Chandler:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 09/26/2008]
PLAYBACK by Raymond Chandler (ISBN-13 978-0-394-75766-7, ISBN-10
0-394-75766-1) is the seventh and last Philip Marlowe novel.
Written in 1958, well after the other six (THE BIG SLEEP, FAREWELL
MY LOVELY, THE HIGH WINDOW, THE LADY OF THE LAKE, THE LITTLE
SISTER, and THE LONG GOODBYE--and, yes, he wrote them all in
alphabetical order!), it is, alas, a pale shadow of Chandler's
peak. It is remarkable to realize that Chandler's reputation is
based on such a small number of novels, but then Jane Austen only
wrote six novels and Oscar Wilde's reputation as a dramatist is
based on nine plays, of which only five have achieved classic
status.
POODLE SPRINGS
by Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 08/09/2013]
POODLE SPRINGS by Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker (ISBN
978-0-425-12343-0) was Chandler's last novel, finished after his death
by Parker. It has the somewhat convoluted plot that one expects
from Chandler, but frankly, having Marlowe married to Linda Loring
(from THE LONG GOODBYE) is a misstep on someone's part. It may
give Marlowe additional connections to the people involved in his
latest case, but that just emphasizes the artificiality of it all.
The writing is Chandleresque, but it lacks that spark that
Chandler's best works have.
RAYMOND CHANDLER SPEAKING
by Raymond Chandler:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 10/27/23]
RAYMOND CHANDLER SPEAKING by Raymond Chandler (edited by Dorothy
Gardiner and Katherine Sorley Walker) (Books for Libraries Press,
ISBN 0-8369-5622-2) is a collection of some of Chandler's letters
(and a few articles) on various topics, including the mystery
novel, writing, the film world, publishing, cats, famous crimes,
his own writing, and himself. Not everything he says is accurate
(in 1949 he said that science fiction was a flash in the pan), but
it is all worth reading--well, except maybe for the cat chapter.
A lot of the letters are only a paragraph or so. You do find out
that a lot of the novels had several title changes before Chandler
and his publishers settled on the final title. (In the case of THE
HIGH WINDOW, in the United States the film reverted to an earlier
working title of THE BRASHER DOUBLOON, though it stayed as THE HIGH
WINDOW in the UK.) As I noted e few weeks ago, it is very
convenient that the Raymond Chandler "Philip Marlowe" novels were
published in alphabetical order, but this was clearly accidental.
Some of the key essays are the eight-page "Casual Notes on the
Mystery Novel" and the eight-page "Writers in Hollywood", and one
of the key letters is a five-page description of Philip
Marlowe--his background and his personality (the sort of thing that
for a television series would be in the "Bible").
TEN PERCENT OF LIFE
by Hiber Conteris (translated by Deborah Bergmann):
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 11/03/23]
TEN PERCENT OF LIFE by Hiber Conteris (translated by Deborah
Bergmann) (Fireside, ISBN 0-670-63419-44) is a 1985 Uruguayan
Philip Marlowe novel, though not set in the "Philip Marlowe
universe". In TEN PERCENT OF LIFE, Philip Marlowe is a private
detective who gets involved with the case of the murder of Raymond
Chandler's literary agent Yensid Andress. This Marlowe, a real
person in the Raymond Chandler universe, seems to have been a model
for the private eye in this Chandler's novels. And this Chandler
seems to have taken the names of real people (in his universe) and
applied them to characters in his novels, who have, however, no
resemblance to the characters with those names in his novels. For
example, "Velma Valento" is the ex-wife of Andress in this universe.
In support of all this homage, Conteris provides a quiz at the end
asking the reader to identify where all the names, locations,
events, etc., came from in Chandler's works and life. (This is a
book that cries out for an annotated version!)
Anyway, Conteris also confuses things with changes of both tense
and point of view. (I assume that Bergmann has retained the
original tenses and points of view.) He starts out on the present
tense, then switches to the past. He has some chapters third
person limited point of view of Charles Morton, others as first
person point of view as Marlowe, still others as third person
omniscient. Several chapters consist of long speeches/monologues
by several authors, including Chandler, with most of Chandler's
words coming from Chandler's essays, letters, and other writings.
As far as I can tell, Bergmann seems to have gone back to the
original Chandler, rather than translating what I assume was
Spanish in Conteris's novel back into English. (It seems obvious,
but I've seen examples of a double layer of translation. They're
not pretty.)
Which is to say, even before you consider the convoluted plot, TEN
PERCENT OF LIFE is just as confusing as any Chandler novel.
(Yes, "Yensid" is "Disney" backwards. And "Andress" is an anagram
of Sanders; George Sanders played the detective in the 1942 film
FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, which was based on THE HIGH WINDOW even though
the detective was not called Philip Marlowe.)
THE SECOND MURDERER
by Denise Mina:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 10/20/23]
THE SECOND MURDERER by Denise Mina (Mulholland Books, ISBN
978-0-316-26564-5) is the latest of the new Philip Marlowe novels.
Two weeks ago I talked about THE BIG SLEEP, Raymond Chandler's
first Marlowe novel. Last week I reviewed ONLY TO SLEEP (by
Lawrence Osborne), one of the post-Chandler Marlowe novels. (And
next week, if USPS comes through, I hope to cover TEN PERCENT OF
LIFE, a translation of Hiber Conteris's EL DIEZ POR CIENTO DE VIDA,
a Spanish Marlowe novel.)
As should be clear is that the Chandler estate has not done what
the Ian Fleming estate did, and settle on a single author to
continue the series. For Bond, (the British) John Gardner wrote
fourteen novels. When he retired, Raymond Benson was chosen and
wrote six more novels. The Robert B. Parker estate did the same
with both Jesse Stone and Spenser. Whether this is because
Chandler's estate hasn't found the "perfect" author yet, or doesn't
want any one author to overshadow Chandler, or what, isn't clear.
In any case, of the seven post-Chandler novels, only POODLE SPRINGS
and PERCHANCE TO DREAM have the same author, Robert B. Parker.
The first of these had been partially written by Chandler when
Parker took over, and the second is a sequel to THE BIG SLEEP
(hence set in an already created world with already created
characters). The next, THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE by John Banville, is
a sequel to THE LONG GOODBYE. Then came ONLY TO SLEEP by Lawrence
Osborne, set in 1988 Mexico, and THE GOODBYE COAST by Joe Ide, a
"re-imagining" of Marlowe in 2022 Los Angeles.
Mina returns to the original time of Marlowe, and to Los Angeles.
Marlowe starts out with a missing person case, but of course it
ends up with murder, because what is a Philip Marlowe novel without
Marlowe finding a body? The plot is complicated, with various
twists and turns, because what is a Philip Marlowe novel ... Well,
you get the idea. Mina even has a character for FAREWELL, MY
LOVELY, though one could not really call this a sequel.
Mina has added some elements missing from Chandler's novels,
reflecting more of the diversity of the Los Angeles of the time.
Chandler tended to show that diversity only in his minor
characters (even the one major Mexican character turns out to be an
Anglo); Mina brings them out of the shadows. This is not to say
Marlowe (or anyone else) is "woke", but they do have to deal with
these people rather than just dismiss them.
All in all, I found this more satisfying than ONLY TO SLEEP.
THE BEST OF S. J. PERELMAN
by S. J. Perelman:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 10/27/23]
Every once in a while, things break for me instead of against me.
A typical sequence os that I keep something for fifty years without
ever using it, decide to get rid of it (and do so), and a month
later discover I want it for some reason. One example would be the
ancient-Greek-themed necklace I had since high school and discarded
right before we decided to go on a trip to Greece and I could have
worn it. This time, though, we had a copy of THE BEST OF S. J.
PERELMAN (Modern Library, no ISBN) for decades, but pulled in in
the latest book purge and took it to the used book store last
month. But the store turned it down and while it was sitting in
the garage, and then I ran across a reference in RAYMOND CHANDLER
SPEAKING to a parody of a Raymond Chandler story which was included
in it. Bingo!
I got up slowly and went over to the bookshelves. I took down
the bound copy of the California Code. I held it out to
Dayton.
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