The Big Sleep

Today’s post is on The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. It is 231 pages long and is published by Vintage Crime The cover is blue with Marlowe’s jaw in frame. There is mild foul language, mild sexuality, and mild violence in this book. The intended reader is someone who likes classic noir novels. The story is told from first person close following the main character. There Be Spoilers Ahead. 

From the back of the book- Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid....He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man.
This is the Code of the Private Eye as defined by Raymond Chandler in his 1944 essay 'The Simple Act of Murder.' Such a man was Philip Marlowe, private eye, an educated, heroic, streetwise, rugged individualist and the hero of Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep. This work established Chandler as the master of the 'hard-boiled' detective novel, and his articulate and literary style of writing won him a large audience, which ranged from the man in the street to the most sophisticated intellectual. 

Review- This novel is the definitive noir novel and Chandler is a brilliant writer. Everything about this book is amazing; from characters, the setting, the dialog, and the plot. It starts as a simple blackmail job, Marlowe is hired to discover who the blackmailer is and deal with him. Then everything just explodes from there. The dames, the gangsters, the missing husband, and everything in between. It sounds like it would be too much or over the top but it’s not. Everything about this novel is just perfect. I had a wonderful time listening to this novel and I am so looking forward to the next one. 

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.