Raymond Chandler

There is a popular genre of fiction, noir, that has made a comeback in recent years, showing up in books, movies, and TV. Noir is kind of hard to exactly define. It is characterized, as the name suggest, by a dark view, both in the physical location and the mindset.

These are urban tales of crime and suspense. Much of the story is set in gloomy, seedy parts of the city and a lot of the action takes place at night. Its inhabitants are the low lifes; drunks, addicts, hookers, conmen, thieves and worse. Their world has its own morality. Sometimes, folks from the better side of the tracks drift in, for various reasons, usually bad ones, and the interaction ultimately requires intervention by the hero of the tale who may be a cop, a bystander, or frequently, a private investigator. The PI is the traditional choice and Raymond Chandler created the best of the lot, Phillip Marlowe.

Marlowe is a loner, a brilliant man, a masterful chess player and a heavy drinker. He has his own moral code, not judging people who fall prey to humanity's weaknesses, until they harm the innocent. Then, he acts and will not stop until he figures out what is going on and sees justice done and his sense of justice does not always match society's. He has frequent interaction with cops, sometime cordial, often hostile and has been arrested a fair number of times for skirting the law. And, sometimes, he doesn't win, or at least he doesn't completely win. He has learned that in this world, sometimes you just have to settle for as much of a victory as you can get and, sometimes, you just lose. But, either way, you have to be true to yourself if you want to be able to live with yourself.

Marlowe's world is not a pretty one but it is a noble one. In our modern version of the noir-type stories, that nobility is often lacking and that's a shame.

Chandler was a fine writer. His prose simply sparkles on the page. And, unlike a lot of detective story writers, he doesn't try to wrap everything in a neat package. Often, he leaves end unraveled and hanging. He has been criticized for that, but I love it because that is the way life is.

My favorite Chandler novels are The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. If you don't have time to read them, at least find the film versions. Robert Mitchum starred in a great version of The Big Sleep. Robert Altman directed a wonderfully quirky version of The Long Goodbye starring Eliot Gould. But, if you have time, read the books.