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    Thalia Book Club: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep
    Thalia Book Club: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep
    Thalia Book Club: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep
    Audiobook1 hour

    Thalia Book Club: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep

    Written by Raymond Chandler

    Narrated by Jonathan Lethem, Judith Freeman and Rich Cohen

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude) joins Judith Freeman and Rich Cohen in celebrating Raymond Chandler's classic detective novel, The Big Sleep.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSymphony Space
    Release dateFeb 11, 2009
    ISBN9781467663908
    Thalia Book Club: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep
    Author

    Raymond Chandler

    Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was best known as the creator of fictional detective Philip Marlowe. One of the most influential American authors of crime novels and stories, his books were considered classics of the genre, and many of them were turned into enormously popular Hollywood films, including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye.

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    Reviews for Thalia Book Club

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    • 5/5
      Another book for Crime Fiction! I really, really liked this one. Raymond Chandler has a hell of a style, and that's mostly why it gets five stars. The plot made me shrug a little, didn't impress me that much, and the characters were nigh on all insane. I followed the plot well enough, but not to the point where I could figure things out for myself. Guess I'm not detective material...

      Anyway, it gets five stars because the style kept on making me sit up and take notice, over and over again. I thought it was amazing. It's in first person, so all the imagery -- which seems pretty fresh to me, reading it now, years after it was published, and was probably even fresher back when it was first published -- adds to character as well. I should have noted down more of the lines I liked, but so many struck me.

      Getting a couple more of Raymond Chandler's books.

      I'm really glad I'm taking this Crime Fiction class.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I actually read Farewell, My Lovely (his second book) first, so I was a bit rearranged in Marlowe's timeline. But it doesn't really matter--Chandler hits it out of the park again.

      This time, Marlowe is assisting a millionaire invalid whose two daughters just can't seem to stay out of trouble. We have the shady dames, nogoodniks, twisty plots, and completely gorgeous language that are the Chandler hallmarks.

      I would have loved to see Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s--with Chandler, I feel like I have. Read this one, too, people.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed this book as much as I expected, as a fan of the private detective novels. Requires a bit more keeping-track-of-events than your average mystery novel does nowadays, but keeping up with all the small twists is a part of the fun.
    • 5/5
      Chandler is a master of the mystery genre. He paints unforgettable word with so few words and a convoluted plot with unbelievable solutions.
    • 4/5
      Smooth, supple prose and a very likable character in Marlowe.
    • 1/5
      Not the book. A bunch of writers talking about the book and about L.A.
    • 4/5
      I had never read anything by Chandler before and as I listened to the audiobook I was attracted to the snappy dialogue and quick pace of the plot. This book from the 1930s has all of the characteristics that later became clichés of thehard-boiled detective genre, but they were new when Chandler wrote them.The book doesn't waste any time. There's no padding with detective angst, soul searching, romance or social commentary. It's all tight plot, snappy dialog and action. Every woman in the book is a femme fatale. Marlowe is constantly peeling a woman off of him. There's also blackmail, pornography, murders, missing persons, many bad guys and a lot of wrestling over guns. In fact, although this is a short book, it may have a little too much plot, but I enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, first published in 1939, is one of the more influential works in the modern mystery genre, and my first real foray into hardboiled crime fiction. I listened to this on audiobook read by Elliott Gould and enjoyed his narration very much. His reading emphasizes a charming innocence about the book; despite the explicit events of the plot, Chandler uses a blank for the F word, which becomes quite noticeable when you're listening to it rather than reading silently. I don't know why but I found this endearing somehow. I wonder if it says something unexpected about a genre known for its gritty plots and complex, conflicted characters. Hmm.The back cover touts Chandler's prose as "muscular" and I think that is the perfect description. It isn't graceful or elegant, and sometimes it's repetitive and too heavily laden with similes. But the similes are vivid and create a very distinct mood: dark, watchful, stoic. Detached.One idea I found striking is the underlying theme that all people are pretty much morally bankrupt, that everyone is either a monster or a victim, and all of us have made ethical compromises along the way. To put it another way, we all have ulterior motives and are on a downward spiral. This unrelenting cynicism is the Christian doctrine of the depravity of man, but without the hope of redemption. There are a few halfway-heroes in the story like Harry Jones and Mona Grant, little points of light on a dark noir background. But they are swallowed up quickly and we're alone in the dark again.Chandler describes the physical appearance of his characters in detail, but sometimes there is a lack of description I found tantalizing. For example, he presents the narrator Philip Marlowe as enigmatic, capable, cold, with never a hint of how the character became that way. What's his history? Often Marlowe gives a straight, emotionless description of a shocking event, completely leaving out any commentary on his personal response to the scene. He's like a machine, efficient and calculating. But he seems to do the right thing most of the time and it's hard to dislike him — the little we know of him, anyways.Because Marlowe narrates the story, we see all the other characters through his eyes. The allegations of misogyny directed at this book and others like it aren't entirely baseless. The women are all described elaborately in terms of their physical appearance and sex appeal; that is their primary identity, at least to Marlowe. Of the four female characters in this story, two are reprehensibly selfish and/or crazy, one is a rather pathetic opportunist, and the last is weak and willfully blind to the sins of her husband. No, they don't fare well, but no one really does in the noir world.Apparently The Big Sleep is just the first in a series featuring Philip Marlowe, and I think I'll look up the sequels. This is definitely not a genre for younger readers; the content, though not raunchy, can be somewhat explicit at times, and the events of the plot aren't G-rated. But for an excursion into a tone and style completely different from my usual reading and as an example of its genre, The Big Sleep is excellent. And there is a strange magnetism to the hopeless darkness of Marlowe's world. Maybe I want to keep reading to find out if redemption is ever possible; maybe I just want to know more about Marlowe's back story. In any case, this was a strong read and I can see why it has been so foundational to today's detective fiction.
    • 5/5
      Chandler's prose is brilliant and often delights, but his homophobia, presented as evidence when he was writing of Marlowe's intrinsic uprightness and morality, lands so wrong and is so jarring for me on this read that it might be the last read, at least of this particular book.
    • 1/5
      This is a recording of some people discussing Chandler. It's not a reading or performance of the book itself. There are a couple gleams of interesting info about Chandler, but it's mostly chaff of introductions, opinions and self exposition by the "readers."
    • 5/5
      This was a really interesting discussion, would recommend it to anyone who loves Chandler.
    • 4/5
      “Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.” Raymond Chandler was great at inventing one-liners. When he thought them up, he would write them in a notebook to be used at a later date in one of his books. He was also great at inventing the vernacular associated with the hard-boiled detective story.This book is a study in the seedy side of the human condition that permits a person to commit crimes of murder and black mail. It is seen through the eyes of a misanthrope detective whose moral compass guides the reader through the tangled web that is the story of Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s.I did not enjoy the plot but plot was not that important to Chandler. I did like the dialogue of the characters though it reads a little short and choppy. It seems the book could have been better with a little more work on the story. It was definitely style over story.It was fun watching the movie after reading the book. It made the movie that much more enjoyable. Bogart was great as Philip Marlowe. I think the book works better as a movie script.
    • 3/5
      This book features probably the most famous American fictional detective, Philip Marlowe. The story is quite tightly plotted and there are some good set piece scenes, but I can't say it appealed to me. I didn't a feel a connection to any of the main characters, though I felt sorry for the dying General Sternwood. This was the first Marlowe novel, yet he has no background and doesn't emerge as a rounded character. Not sure if I would try any of the other novels featuring this character.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic story with awesome craftmanship. Highly descriptive scenes and characters. Philip Marlowe is the archetypal tough, serious, wisecracking, seen-everything ex-cop, yet honest with his own set of inviolable principles. The story begins as Marlow consults with California oil millionaire who is pathetically frail and disabled. He is unable to curb or protect his two daughters, in their twenties, and is being blackmailed due to their gambling and involvement in pornography. Having seen the movie w/ Bogart and Bacall, I'd say the book was much better. The complex plot and interactions were not as comprehensibly laid out in the film. Nevertheless, seeing the movie first helped to set the scene for reading the book. A-1 classy writing. Unlike Hammett, Chandler manages to be gritty without being too grisly.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. Great descriptions, juicy similes. This is really the book that defined the hard-boiled detective fiction genre as we know it.
    • 4/5
      "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts."First published in 1939 'The Big Sleep' is Raymond Chandler's first book of his detective noir series featuring Los Angeles Private Investigator 'Phillip Marlowe' and sees our hero working for the wealthy 'Sternwood' family. Wheelchair-bound old man Sternwood, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and employs Marlowe to make the problem go away but it isn't long before dead bodies begin to turn.The novel is set during the 1930's Depression and in many respects is a victim of its time, Chandler portrays a heavy cynicism towards American society at the time and the corruption he saw there."As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where it's going out of style"There isn't a lot of character development. Marlowe isn't a particularly likeable character; he has a somewhat warped sense of duty and morals; he's a misogynist and a homophobe. Meanwhile the female characters are little more than stereotypical femme fatales, easy on the eye but hazardous to be around, most aren't even named, simply referred to as blonde, 'Silver Wig' or some other similar epithet. Virtually every scene starts with a character smoking.However, despite the murder being solved pretty quickly, there being few plot twists and the story is written in the first person so you know that Marlowe will survive no matter what predicament he finds himself. Yet I still found this a compelling read. There is a certain simple elegance to the prose, and it's packed with some great one liners.By modern standards this book would be seen as pretty tame, but I still believe that it deserves to be widely read, not least because its often regarded as the template for much of today's crime novel genre. I could probably have rated it higher, but I wanted to leave myself some wriggle room in case any of the later books are even better.
    • 4/5
      A classic from 1939, made into a Bogart/Bacall movie in 1946, featuring private detective Philip Marlowe. I had never read one of these in my life. It was a real hoot. Philip Marlowe's always got the deadpan response, whether he's facing down a hot tomato or a Luger. Then the plot got too convoluted for me.
    • 5/5
      The Big Sleep (1939) (Marlowe #1) by Raymond Chandler. The first and very possibly the best of the seven Philip Marlowe novels. With this book Mr. Chandler took modern mystery fiction in a direction it had not yet seen. Here the hero is not a brilliant mind, pondering the clues to a mystery, smoking a pipe, discussing the case with a close comrade, or any of the other tropes that came before. Here is Marlowe, a singular being faced with his own limitations and ambitions. He has a past but that doesn’t matter very much. There is a future for him but he won’t dwell on that either. Instead he takes his moral code and goes out to slay the evil dragon, or perhaps only protect the beautiful dame in the case.When a rich man hires Marlowe to help with with family matters it is the start of a steep incline, throwing Marloe, and us, into a swirl of a mystery that even the author couldn’t figure out. But that is no matter as we are here for the scenery of the story, the display of characters and the unwavering dedication of Marlow himself.With this one book, to say nothing of the others, Mr. Chandler rewrote the story of the mystery, and all authors who followed him down this road owe him a debt that can only be repaid by writing honestly about their characters and their actions and fitting both into the reality of the world.
    • 4/5
      A hard boiled classic that introduces Philip Marlowe as the knight out to save two damsels in distress. The opening hallway description of the Knight tells a lot about Marlowe's character. If you've seen the movie there is still lots to enjoy here as the details are finely drawn.
    • 5/5
      Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is employed by General Sternwood to deal with some debts belonging to his youngest daughter Carmen.
      Brilliant, well-written, great crime story. Another re-read
    • 5/5
      This book is killer from start to finish. Raymnond Chandler is able to combine super-tight and coherent plotting (even as said plot gets more and more complicated as twists and double-crosses pile upon one another) with some truly beautiful and vibrant prose. Philip Marlowe, the protagonist and first-person narrator, clearly possesses a detective's eye for detail, and Chandler's penchant for layering in details of dress and habit, bawdy slang, and colorful and systematic descriptions of Los Angeles in the 1930s truly transport you to another time and place.

      Speaking of which, I will say that this book is truly a product of its time. Its chock full of misogyny and homophobia, and not just on the edges; the hero Philip Marlowe is definitely way out of line with modern (2019) attitudes, and I doubt the author Chandler is playing "Devil's Advocate" here. If you are sensitive about that kind of thing this book probably won't be for you... But if you can see it as taking a fairly unvarnished look at the culture, attitudes, and morals of another time then I would highly recommend this book.
    • 3/5
      I’m not sure if I’ve read this book before. I know I’ve seen the film several times. Which meant some details were familiar but some weren’t and I couldn’t work out if I remembered them from the movie. The Big Sleep is Chandler’s first novel and its plot is as convoluted as any of the later ones, if not more so. Marlowe is hired to investigate a blackmail demand received by a wealthy retired general, but there proves to be more to the case. The general’s youngest daughter has been photographed nude, and the husband of the older daughter disappeared some weeks before and the general is keen to learn his whereabouts. The relationship between Marlowe and the older daughter generates sparks in the novel, but apparently Bogart and Bacall were much more so during the film shoot so they recut the movie to forefront their relationship at the expense of the plot. There are apparently two cuts of the film, one more faithful to the book, the other more of a Bogart-Bacall star vehicle. I’ve no idea which I’ve seen, the latter I suspect. The book at least has the canonical plot, and while it’s not Chandler’s best, it does demonstrate his style was pretty much fully formed from the start. It does not read like a novel written by someone finding their way.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Read it before; reading it again. Just almost perfect!
    • 5/5
      Forever emulated, never equalled.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable, stylish, and somewhat convoluted noir. Really great narration by Elliott Gould in the audiobook.
    • 5/5
      A Book of Detective Fiction*If you have seen the Humphrey Bogart version of The Big Sleep, reading the book will clarify all the odd points of the movie that didn't quite make sense. It will also take you in a different direction than the movie plot line (although it hews close enough to be recognizable as the same story) and surprise you with the quality of Raymond Chandler's writing. Gone is any relationship between Marlowe and the elder Sternwood daughter (ignoring a brief session of kissing that bears no resemblance to romance). The motive for the murder of Joe Brody is much clearer, and you will understand its nebulous quality in the film by remembering the censorship laws in place in 1940's Hollywood that prevented multiple seedy aspects of the novel from finding their way on screen. The book also provides a background of police corruption in Los Angeles that sheds light on some - but not all - of Marlowe's deductions. His linking of the younger Sternwood daughter to the disappearance of the elder daughter's husband is still too conveniently made, but the book's denouement neatly wraps up the story (while leaving the door open for a follow-on novel) and reads more like the end of The Great Gatsby than The Friends of Eddie Coyle.Chandler main literary device is simile, and he is masterful with it. In the opening scene of Marlowe meeting General Sternwood, he plants an impression of decay and vice in the reader's mind through comparisons to green aquarium water, dead men's fingers and prostitutes. He also lays the groundwork for Marlowe as the under-informed outsider walking into a dangerous trap with a reference to a boiled New England dinner. Chandler has the perfect simile for most of his characters and uses them sparingly but so effectively that the character can be easily understood without the cheap descriptions usually found in crime fiction. The Big Sleep is a satisfying, fast paced tale well worth the read regardless of your knowledge of the movie or feelings about "hard-boiled" detective fiction. * - I've had to set my themed reading list aside for now, as I'm taking a couple literature classes this summer through a state program that provides free tuition for Texas residents over 55. This novel is assigned for my Modern and Contemporary British Literature class that's focused on detective fiction.
    • 4/5
      Chandler moves fast and we see glimpses of his greatness in this novel. Chandler is known for witty banter and interesting simile and metaphor, highlighting the post depression era like nobody else. His stories give us a peak back in time of Hollywood and Los Angeles during and after WWII. Phillip Marlow is a private eye tough with a heart of gold. He has a personal code that he lives by, even though his is reluctant to admit it even to himself. He's one of the good ones, and this first story sets that tone well. It's a pretty simple plot, stop a guy from blackmailing an elderly general with two bratty but beautiful girls. Marlow sees plenty of action and the case turns sour, but of course he's barely one step ahead of everyone. Highly recommended for style and glimpse into history.
    • 4/5
      Really hard-boiled and funny, this book is stodgy and still fluffy. The protagonist, Philip Marlowe, is a detective who is hired by an old, decrepit man who has two young, mischievous daughters who are surrounded by mysterious circumstances and a web of lies.

      This is extremely well-written, and the dialogue is superb. Marlowe is a sublime character with a lot of jagged edges, constantly under threat but always merely picking up 25 dollars a day, plus expenses (of which most are for whiskey).

      A shining, exciting and polished example of detective noir at its best and most simple.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful crime noir, excellent characters, story moves at a good pace. I do love the movie version and I love the book as well. I kept envisioning Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall while I was reading it. A beautiful work of art.