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Trouble Is My Business

2001-10-07 03:21:00+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Phil and Bill got me reading some Raymond Chandler, in the form of Trouble Is My Business[Wiki], four Philip Marlowe novellas. Chandler is weird because I keep thinking "wow, this is really cool writing", but have trouble finding any one-liners, because it all blends into the total story so well. A sample:

The girl tilted her head and poured half a tumbler of whiskey down her throat. She sighed, said, "Goddam," in a casual voice, and curled up on a davenport. It took all of the davenport. She had plenty of legs. her gilded toenails winked at me from the shadowy corner where she kept herself quiet from then on.

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#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:32:56+00 by: forge

If you decide to try one of the novels, I suggest "The Big Sleep". Although all were good it's my favorite. It was also made into a great movie with Bogart and Bacall. The DVD has two different versions and an interesting documentary about how that came about.

Sometimes I can't help grinning at Chandler's language. In the hands of a lesser writer it would be corny, but he pulls it off.