I picked this book up from a second hand shop for next to nothing. I have to admit, I knew very little about the novel, or Raymond Chandler, other than the guy in You keeps referencing his work.
Turns out, it's a pretty big deal. Two movie adaptations, a radio play and a stage production have been based off of this book. The Big Lebowski is loosely based around it (its right there in the name, Big Sleep/Big Lebowski). It's a regular feature on those top 100 books of the century lists. The influence of this book is so huge, once you start looking it pops up all over the place. Sometimes, when something is so influential and is copied dozens of times, the original can seem a bit stale. It feels like you have read it before, because you are so used to the copycats and the books that take inspiration from the book you are reading.
Happily, that isn't the case here. At first, I thought this was another run of the mill crime/detective novel in 1930's Hollywood, with lots of smoking and rain and hats. The Big Sleep has loads of all of those things. It's basically all smoking and rain and hats. But, in between all the smoking, the plot is so complex and slippery the book becomes absolutely gripping. Nothing is really clear until the last 2 pages, and even within the last 5 things were still going on that surprised me. Raymond Chandler has squeezed so many turns into this 200 page novel it felt like I had spent two hours stuck on the magic roundabout in Hemel Hempstead. (Its a roundabout with 5 mini roundabouts around it)
For me, this book was immensely enjoyable because of how stylised Chandler's writing is. It's written just like those guys would have spoken in the old films- you end up imagining the story in black and white. Full of old fashioned, film noir slang, it reads like classic Hollywood.
I'd recommend this book, unconditionally. Who doesnt love a proper detective story? It's got a maverick detective and proper sleazy bad guys, and rackets going on all over LA. Check it out!
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