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Friday, August 06, 2010
the beginning is the end
Title: The Thin Man
Author: Dashiell Hammett
The more I find of Hammett and Chandler, the more I like them. They bear little resemblance to today's mystery novels, but still built the foundation for them. The hard-nosed tough-guy investigator? The weird twists? Hammett and Chandler. Sadly, while newer books show great improvements in technology and investigative techniques, they've lost some of the qualities that made the older books so great, like Chandler's descriptions, and the matter-of-fact badassery of both authors. What's more, you can reasonably assume that Hammett's stuff is pretty accurate, because he was a Pinkerton man for many years (and served in two World Wars).
The Thin Man of the book's title is an inventor, and despite being the title character, we don't actually see him until the book is nearly over. Letters are received, notes passed, but he has no direct contact with the reader for several chapters. Meanwhile, his secretary is murdered, a suspect takes a shot at Nick Charles (among Hammett's most popular characters, Nick and Nora Charles debut in this book, which takes place several years after Nick has retired from sleuthing), his entire family turns out to be a bunch of loons, and his lawyer calmly manages his business affairs, contacting the Thin Man through newspaper ads while he goes on the lam as the police's number one suspect in the secretary's death.
Nick and Nora deserve their fame. Despite a July-November marriage, they have a great rapport. Nora is not quite a full partner in Nick's investigation, but she often has ideas that inspire him to make the necessary connections, and backs him up well by tending to several minor crises along the way. They seem to almost have the sort of telepathy developed only after decades of marriage. There is also an entertaining ease with which they handle the more bizarre events of the book. When a gunman appears in their hotel room, Nick carefully calculates, and cold-cocks his wife to the side to get her away from the line of fire before receiving a grazing wound and taking out the gunman. When she comes around, Nora is upset that Nick hit her so hard not because it hurt, but because she missed all the action. Later, when five men beat the hell out of someone coming to accost Nick in a bar, she drunkenly tells him, "I love you, Nicky, because you smell nice, and you know such interesting people."
Hammett is full of sly, dark humor that would make the book worth reading even if the story were dull--and it isn't--and the characters boring--and they aren't. The caper is only convoluted enough to work, stays believable, and tracks well. Long live the greats.Labels: mystery/detective, noir
posted by reyn at
1:00 PM
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