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Title: The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and Selected Stories
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Genre: Noir
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Two novels and a handful of short stories by one of the noir mystery masters.
Thoughts: The problem with collections is always figuring how to weigh uneven ones. Here we have a handful of fairly good mystery short stories, one mess of a mystery novel, and one elegantly dark mystery/drama.
The stories and The Dain Curse all feature a nameless private detective as a narrator. The stories themselves are linked--the plots stand alone, but to really get the full effect, one must read all of them. And they're worth reading--stylish and stylized, this is where so many of the noir tropes come from. I'd never actually read a noir novel before, only the endless riffs on them that permeate contemporary culture. The language is hyperbolic, but somehow stops just short of ridiculousness. There's the femme fatales and the world-weary gumshoes, and betrayal and cynicism and Pyrrhic victories one might expect. They're a lot of fun, in a dark kind of way.
The Dain Curse, unfortunately, is a hot mess. Fun to read, but the plot really makes very little sense. Several big action pieces are strung together, with the flimsiest of motives at the end. The finale is rather unsatisfying.
Surprisingly, The Glass Key is barely a mystery. Instead, it's a story about a cog in a political machine who goes a bit rogue. The Continental Op at least appears on the side of the angels; this protagonist is quite a bit murkier. No one is a hero here. It's more subtle, as well--much goes unspoken. An excellent piece.
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Genre: Noir
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Two novels and a handful of short stories by one of the noir mystery masters.
Thoughts: The problem with collections is always figuring how to weigh uneven ones. Here we have a handful of fairly good mystery short stories, one mess of a mystery novel, and one elegantly dark mystery/drama.
The stories and The Dain Curse all feature a nameless private detective as a narrator. The stories themselves are linked--the plots stand alone, but to really get the full effect, one must read all of them. And they're worth reading--stylish and stylized, this is where so many of the noir tropes come from. I'd never actually read a noir novel before, only the endless riffs on them that permeate contemporary culture. The language is hyperbolic, but somehow stops just short of ridiculousness. There's the femme fatales and the world-weary gumshoes, and betrayal and cynicism and Pyrrhic victories one might expect. They're a lot of fun, in a dark kind of way.
The Dain Curse, unfortunately, is a hot mess. Fun to read, but the plot really makes very little sense. Several big action pieces are strung together, with the flimsiest of motives at the end. The finale is rather unsatisfying.
Surprisingly, The Glass Key is barely a mystery. Instead, it's a story about a cog in a political machine who goes a bit rogue. The Continental Op at least appears on the side of the angels; this protagonist is quite a bit murkier. No one is a hero here. It's more subtle, as well--much goes unspoken. An excellent piece.
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Date: 2013-12-20 02:41 am (UTC)From:While not a direct adaptation, the Coen brothers' Miller's Crossing is loosely based on The Glass Key.