Raymond Chandler

[*michaelsean*]

I read pretty many books. A lot f historical fiction by average authors, and some modern day serials like Alex Delaware, Virgil Flowers, Jack Reacher, and Ben Hope. The guys who write these are fine authors, but the chasm between them and the really good writers is huge. The way of using words is night and day.

Every once in a while I leave my usual and try some classics. I went with Chandler. I read the first and now I’m reading Farewell My Lovely.

“I could have driven about in those curving twisting streets for hours without making any more yardage than an angleworm in a bait can.”

After being knocked out:

“I straightened up and wobbled a little. I felt like an amputated leg.”

Who think of this stuff? These books are loaded with these kinds of similes and metaphors. The story is almost secondary to the writing. The same thing happens when I read Dickens. You think, how do they come up with phrasing the way they do?

I will say that the racial epithets used, even by the protagonist, are a little shocking.

[fredtoast]

Chandler gets lumped in with a lot of those old crime noir writers, but he is a really great writer. I just read "The Long Goodbye" recently. "Farewell My Lovely" is next on my list for Chandler, but I just finished a couple of Elmore Leonard books. I will probably read some thing from a different genre before going back to more crime dramas.

[*michaelsean*]

(01-21-2020, 02:23 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Chandler gets lumped in with a lot of those old crime noir writers, but he is a really great writer.  I just read "The Long Goodbye" recently.  "Farewell My Lovely" is next on my list for Chandler, but I just finished a couple of Elmore Leonard books. I will probably read some thing from a different genre before going back to more crime dramas.

Yeah he's in a different league from a lot of those other guys.  Stories may be similar, but the writing is superior.  I should say from what I have read.  I'm fairly new to this genre.

[*michaelsean*]

I finished all the books through "The Long Goodbye". I'll say the weakest was "The Little Sister".

I don't know if it's part of the genre, but it seems every PI does everything they can do to talk somebody out of hiring them, and seem loathe to take money half the time.

I think I know whose writing style Jonathan Kellerman employs in his Alex Delaware series. Both in LA, and both extremely descriptive of their surroundings. Marlowe and Delaware know every tree, bush, flower, house style, material, wood, metal, color, and article of clothing there is to know. It's absurd in a way, but I like it.