The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep is a crime novel set in Los Angeles and is the first book featuring Raymond Chandler’s private detective Philip Marlowe. The head of a wealthy family is being blackmailed because his daughters are wild and get themselves into situations that they shouldn’t. Marlowe is asked to get the blackmailer to stop what he is doing. When he gets to the blackmailer’s house he hears gunshots and goes inside to find him dead. From the start Marlowe constantly finds himself in the wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) place at the wrong / right time. This leads him into the seedy world of gangsters, gambling and pornography.

The reason I read this book was because I’d sort of seen the film. I say sort of because I was sick at the time and so kept falling asleep in the cinema. So I thought I’d read the book to find out what I’d missed. However, the film is quite different from the book. As the film was made in 1946 there were probably more restrictions on what they could show than there is today. For example, in the book there is some nudity. There is none whatsoever in the film. In a way the film only used some of the book and changed the end to fit what they’d done with the screenplay.

If you were wondering what order to view or read these in, I would recommend watching the film first and then reading the book to fill in the gaps and plot holes where they’ve had to change the story. If you did it the other way around the inaccuracies may frustrate you somewhat.

We then have the fact that it is written in the first person. I don’t know if Humphrey Bogart had an influence on this but I found it difficult to get into the story. The film is done in a sort of film noir style and the book is the same. This made me feel that the book would be better read in an American accent to properly get into it. Unfortunately I can’t do an American accent so I couldn’t help feeling I was missing out. I’d be interested to hear an audio version of the book to compare the two, or even a cast of people reading the book. The person playing Marlowe would narrate it and the others join in when it cuts to the action.

I didn’t find myself drawn in to the book as much as I had hoped. It does have some nice similes and metaphors but apart from that the writing style is fairly average. It would be interesting to read another Raymond Chandler book where I could go into it with no expectations. The Big Sleep isn’t bad, just not what I was expecting. The plot was different from your average crime novel too, as the detective accidentally finds himself investigating murders when to begin with it was just a simple blackmail case. I can’t help but feel it’s an easier read for Americans or people who know America well, which I don’t.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.