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Friday, June 28, 2013

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe

I'm in love with a dead author who wrote about an equally enticing 1940s-style detective.

I bought a collection of four Philip Marlowe stories and read one a night for four consecutive nights. I rushed to devour each tale and then saddened to see the final page. Now I'm trying to study each one. But it's hard. Because I keep getting sucked into the story.

His style is charismatic. Here are a few samples:
  1. USING NEGATIVES: ...with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearing of the foothills (p. 3, The Big Sleep).
  2. IRONY AND HUMOR: I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it (p. 3, The Big Sleep).
  3. UNIQUE: I was calling on four million dollars (p. 3, The Big Sleep).
  4. CHOICE WORDS: ...didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair (p. 3, The Big Sleep).
Notice the page numbers referenced above? All these gems came from one page of one book of Chandler's.

Wow.

And instead of kicking me out of his novels with his in-your-face style, it draws me closer. How is that?

I can only proffer one theory at the moment: sincerity. He wrote from such a depth of honesty that it has to resonate with his readers.

I want to do that.

Anyway, this is a short post today, but I hope you enjoy Raymond Chandler's words as much as I do.



Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

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