"Men have been shot for practically nothing." Philip Marlowe

Have you ever heard of this book? I hadn't, either. But apparently it was a very popular first book in a series of books about the detective, Philip Marlowe, written in the 40's. This first one was published in 1939 and was made into a movie in 1946 starring Humphery Bogart and Lauren Bacall. So I guess it's kind of a big deal. (I also read somewhere that the movie "The Big Lebowski" is loosly based on it as well, or at least on the series about Marlowe by Raymond Chandler. I've never seen that one either.)

My senior year of college I took a class that was dedicated to the study of the mystery novel. It was my final English major class, and we read several mystery novels and learned about the development and history of them, starting with Edgar Allen Poe, who pioneered the genre, and culminating in Dicken's The Mystery of Edwid Drood, his last novel which he didn't even finish because he died. (Which is a really horrible thing to happen for a mystery novel. How do you know who did it?!? But inspires interesting discussion because everyone has a different idea about the ending.) We didn't make it in the the time of Chandler's writing, but I wish we had because I have a confession to make--I don't know what is so great about this novel.

It's interesting, to be sure. The writing is very cryptic and it leaves you feeling like the author/narrator knows something that you don't, and you want to find out but he's not going to tell you. He's pretty funny as well--when a woman in the novel says to him, "You're really tall" his response is "I didn't mean to be." There is humor, very dry and sarcastic, which must have been new at the time it was published. I feel like my experience with this book is tainted because I've read so many other mysteries (which is funny since it's not my favorite genre) and this one was nothing special. But it must have had some sort of significance or influence on all those other one's I've read. I just don't know what that influence is.

The title, The Big Sleep, is referring to death. Marlowe comments at the very end, "What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell." Which is kind of a blunt way to look at death. Even if it is true.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading this one, but I also wouldn't not recommend it. Maybe it's just not my type of book. I enjoyed reading it, even if I don't see it's greatness. I can see how someone like Janet Evanovich was could have been influenced by Chandler. And maybe that's why, to me, this book is nothing new. But I guess the egg had to come before the chicken, right? Or did it?