‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler

My Recommendation!

If you enjoy reading crime fiction or are just looking for something a little different and exciting to read then this is the perfect novel!

The Big Sleep is the first in the crime fiction series following private detective Philip Marlowe. The narrative follows Marlowe around the backstreets of the city to solve the mystery of Rusty Reagan’s disappearance, along the way encountering gangsters and unsolved murders, which all interlink with one another.

The novel brings forward contemporary issues and topics that readers today can understand such as, wealth and poverty, love and desire and the corruption of a society just coming out of The Great Depression. Chandler uses these issues, interlaced through the themes of corruption and chivalry, to depict a society that he experienced as the development of Los Angles becomes the winding city of hope and opportunity. The uncovering of the city’s dark foundations of exploitation of the oil rich land in order to gain wealth gives light to the reality of the unattainable American Dream in which everyone is looking for.

As the novel begins to draw its conclusion the symbol of death and decay expresses Chandlers views towards the ending of a depression within the American economy. However, it is still there, shown through the neglected oil fields, to serve as a constant reminder of the consequences of greed in a progressive and materialistic society. Whenever there is progress there is always loss and sacrifice (Walter Benjamin – The Angel of History)

This is the novel which started my obsession with crime fiction, there isn’t a dull moment while following the narrative. I would love to know your opinions of the novel and the crime fiction genre so please leave a comment!

- Mary

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References:

Walter Benjamin, ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’ (1940) in Illuminations(London: Pimlico, 1999). P.248