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The Big Sleep: A review


Noir, in french, means black. When applied to movies, film-noir means a movie with black shades. The stories are gritty, the characters are amoral or downright evil, the protagonist is slick, street-trained and a cynic. Strictly speaking, Film-noir does not only refer to a genre of movies, it also refers to movies of a certain era. So a proper definition of film-noir would be movies with darker shades released in 1940s and 50s.

Noir has been a popular genre and The Big Sleep occupies a special place in the genre. Perhaps, the movie itself is more popular than the book. I love mystery thrillers and this book was always on my to-read list. When the perfect opportunity arrived, I didn't blink twice and read the first chapter. And I was hooked.

The big sleep is about Phillip Marlowe. Marlowe is a private detective who is hired by General Sternwood who wants to shake off someone who is trying to blackmail him. As he goes about trying to complete the task assigned to him, A murder happens. Marlowe is pulled into a quagmire where he meets evil assassins, sleazy businessmen, and a host of people blackmailing each other. The story is pretty complicated and an attempt to explain to the plot would be to give it away. So I will refrain, but I would like to talk about few things which caught my attention.

Perhaps the coolest thing about the book is the personality of Marlowe. The book is narrated in first person POV and Marlowe is excellent as a narrator. His dialogues are humorous, sharp and often tinged with sarcasm. Chandler makes some excellent usage of metaphors throughout the book. Sample: Dead men are heavier than broken hearts. cool, eh?

Perhaps the one thing I didn't like about the book was the unnecessary description of every place Marlowe is visiting. Lengthy descriptions of places, especially in a thriller, bore me and add little to the enjoyment of the storyline. Instead, Chandler could have described the character's psychological state or their behavior. Who wants to know where every pot and pan is when there's a sinister character in the foreground?

Overall, I would say it's a highly enjoyable book and a strongly recommended for suspense-thriller fans. 

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