The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

"You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell."

Raymond Chandler is considered to be one of the founders of the "hard-boiled" genre, setting the stage for several generations of crime writers. This book was fun to read and knowing that it was one of the first of its kind, it's even more impressive. The novel has been adapted into film twice (1946, 1978) with the first staring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall - so you know it was a pretty big deal. Bogart of course plays Philip Marlowe, one of the more memorable characters I've read in while. He lives in a corrupt world that driven him to become cynical; he's hard-drinking lady killer who also happens to be a private detective. Chandler himself admitted to the unbelievability of Marlowe's character when he wrote, “The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man would not be a private detective.”

I do not think this unbelievability took away from the novel as whole. In fact, it is this lead character and the overall atmosphere of the novel that carries it. The atmosphere is gorgeous and descriptive and everything has that old Hollywood vibe. Although the novel takes place in LA, the setting is less concerned with the city as it is with its immediate surroundings; lavish mansions overlooking the Hollywood hills, clubs that look swanky by night and seedy by day, and of course Marlowe's own dingy office. Added bonus: I did not predict the ending before it was revealed, which made it even more fun.
 
I will say that I had to pay careful attention to the plot throughout, as it changes often, taking more turns than any other 250 page novel I've read. If I lost concentration for even a page I had to go back and reread it, because you better believe something happened to change the direction of the storyline. Aside from the somewhat confusing plot, I have no complaints. Among his other novels, Chandler wrote a total of seven Philip Marlowe titles. The Big Sleep was the first, and I definitely plan to read more.

Publisher: Vintage Crime, 1939

Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet

Oh where to begin. I should start by telling you how I came across this title. Ben at Dead End Follies is hosting a year-long reading challenge called Smooth Criminals that I'm taking part in. The challenge focuses on literary crime fiction and one of the categories is to read a work by a writer who did time. Upon googling authors who spent time in prison I stumbled across 10 Literary Geniuses Who Went To Jail. Upon further Googling I found that not only did genet go to prison, but he wrote one of his novels, Our Lady of the Flowers, while he was in there:

"Jean Genet's first, and arguably greatest, novel was written while he was in prison. As Sartre recounts in his introduction, Genet penned this work on the brown paper which inmates were supposed to use to fold bags as a form of occupational therapy. The masterpiece he managed to produce under those difficult conditions is a lyrical portrait of the criminal underground of Paris and the thieves, murderers and pimps who occupied it. Genet approached this world through his protagonist, Divine, a male transvestite prostitute. In the world of Our Lady of the Flowers, moral conventions are turned on their head. Sinners are portrayed as saints and when evil is not celebrated outright, it is at least viewed with a benign indifference. Whether one finds Genet's work shocking or thrilling, the novel remains almost as revolutionary today as when it was first published in 1943 in a limited edition, thanks to the help of one its earliest admirers, Jean Cocteau."

I thought this all sounded quite interesting and unlike anything I've ever read. A male transvestite prostitute as the protagonist? Thieves, murderers, and pimps? I'm in. So I bought the novel at Half Price Books and even after reading a few pages I knew I'd been right - this was unlike any other book I've read before. To start, the prose is shockingly beautiful. It reads like a poem, lyrical and rhythmic. Since I read a translated edition I can only assume that the original French edition read even more handsomely, but kudos to the translator.

Now, describing the plot is where is gets a little sticky. It's not straightforward in the least. It is dreamlike and almost follows a stream of conscious, but not exactly 100% of the time. It seems to come and go; we read Genet's thoughts as he lets himself succumb to them on the one hand, building his own fantasies through the stories of Divine, but the work as a whole seems to speak to the isolation of oneself and the gift of our freedom of thought once it's removed from the hustle bustle of the everyday. It highlights the possibilities of fantasy and our ability to create magic when hurling our thoughts full-force ahead.

The whole world is dying of of panicky fright. Five million young men of all tongues will die by the cannon that erects and discharges. But where I am I can muse in comfort at the lovely dead of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Anyhow, that doesn't really sum up much. The novel is actually quite erotic as Genet's thoughts often tend toward the sexual. Much of it is a meditation on masturbation; an act I can only assume occurs often in prison. This is a novel about passion and intimacy; there are some raunchy bits but they are written so tastefully. It makes sense why Genet may focus on these ideas while in prison, deprived of any sort of physical sexual activity, he chose to write about it as a means of fulfillment and a means of escape. That's how I understand it at least.

This one definitely begs for a reread because there are so many ideas to digest and consider. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking to read something a little different,with ideas that may be a little outside or his or her comfort zone. I'd also push this on anyone who has a passion for eloquently written verse-like language.

Publisher: Grove Press, 1951

Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

I am not doing well, I think. Or maybe just O.K. I know they are writing reports. But I am not allowed to see. If one of these was a woman I would do better, I feel. They believe you, they are not always watching you. Eye contact has always been my downfall.

This book is not your typical Joyce Carol Oates. Zombie follows Quinton, a psychopath interested in building his own zombie that can function as his personal slave. He aims to make this zombie by lobotomizing a human, thereby leaving an empty shell of a man that Quinton and do with as he likes. According to Quinton, his zombie will enjoy anything his "master" will do to him, simply because he is the master. Echos of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the real-life serial killer Jeffery Dahmer are found throughout the plot. The novella is told in a first-person narrative to bring the reader into the mind of this functioning sociopath. Don't let the petite, soft-spoken image of Joyce Carol Oates fool you; she can get down and dirty. I had no idea she has this in her. We are talking anal raping and ice picks to the face. Needless to say I wasn't able to read this book while eating lunch.

However, the novella isn't sick for the sake of being sick. Rather, it reveals the inner workings of the mind of a sociopath. It explores the way he interacts with others through manipulation, how he depersonalizes his victims, and how his understanding of the outside world is so different from that of a sane human. Oates also seems to be critiquing American medicine and some of its older, cruel practices of drugging and prodding at its mentally unstable patients, creating a form of zombies themselves.

A true ZOMBIE would be mine forever. He would obey every command & whim. Saying "Yes, Master" & "No, Master." He would kneel before me lifting his eyes to me saying, "I love you, Master. There is no one but you, Master." & so it would come to pass, & so it would be. For a true ZOMBIE could not say a thing that was not, only a thing thatwas. His eyes would be open & clear but there would be nothing inside them seeing. & nothing behind themthinking. Nothing passing judgment.

While I did enjoy the book, I have to say I don't prefer it to the other works of hers I've read. Because our narrator was a crazy nut, the prose felt jagged, crude and rushed. Much of the book read as the passage above and while it was fitting to the story as a whole,  I did miss the eloquent, rich writing of which Oates is a master. However, I am now more aware of her diverse talents as an author and appreciate her that much more. If I were to put this next to another first-person psychopath killer novel, I'd chose The Killer Inside Me. It's disturbing and bizarre, but above all, memorable.

I read this for the Smooth Criminals reading challenge, hosted by Ben at Dead End Follies.

Publisher: Dutton Books, 1995

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain

The Postman Always Rings Twice is one of the first American classic crime noir novels. I probably wouldn't have picked this book up as soon as I did if it weren't for the Smooth Criminal challenge. I wouldn't say classic American crime is something I gravitate toward all that often, which is one of the main reasons I joined this challenge - to expand my reading horizons! Even though this was published in 1934, the novel reads like it could have been written within the last decade. Frank, a onetime criminal and longtime drifter, finds himself in a suburb of LA and takes a job at a roadside diner, on account of the Greek owner's knockout of a wife, Cora. (Even though she has dark hair, she's not Mexican you guys.) Frank and Cora are quickly drawn to each other and decide they must get rid of the "greasy" Greek in hopes of living happily ever after. What follows is a series of events that go from bad to worse. 

This book is known for its violence and eroticism, and was even banned in Boston upon its publication. I rather enjoyed the bits of sexual violence Cain included - they weren't over the top (by today's standards, anyway) but proved to be just enough to keep my interest piqued. And the end! Let's just say I was quite satisfied. The novel as a whole examines the animal instincts of man and the amoral nature of human kind.

From the beginning the title of this novel intrigued me and I was eager to find its reference within the text. I thought it may reference some sort of secret code between Frank and Cora, something that would help them to sneak around the Greek in the first half of the novel. To my disappointment, neither a postman nor a man ringing twice appears, or is even alluded to. After a quick google search I discovered there doesn't seem to be a definitive reason for the title. There are speculations that it referenced an actual murder case, but Cain apparently himself noted it came from a conversation he had with a screenwriter friend. 

I'm still not certain what exactly constitutes a book as noir, but having read a few I'm starting to get a better idea. Postman is a slim novel that I enjoyed reading. Overall the book is well-paced, brutal, and altogether thrilling. 

I read this book for the Smooth Criminals challenge, fulfilling a noir classic.

Publisher: Vintage, 1934

Smooth Criminals: A Reading Challenge

Ben over at Dead End Follies is hosting the Smooth Criminals Reading Challenge: it includes eight different categories, all related to crime, in an effort to bridge the gap between literary and crime. I think it's a great project and since there are so many acclaimed novels in this genre that I am unfamiliar with, I signed up right away.

After much deliberation, my choices for each category are as follows:

1. Hardboiled Classic: Raymond Chandler/ The Big Sleep

2. Noir Classic: James M. Cain/ The Postman Always Rings Twice

3. Prison Book: Margaret Atwood/ Alias Grace

4. Book written by a writer who did time: Jean Genet/ Our Lady of the Flowers

5. Book with psychopath protagonist: Joyce Carol Oates/ Zombie

6. Gothic Novel: Shirley Jackson/ We Have Always Lived in a Castle

7. Classic where the plot revolves around a crime: Richard Wright / Native Son

8. The "Why the hell am I doing this to myself?" book: Fyodor Dostoyevsky/ Crime and Punishment

If you are interested in a challenge that may help you diversify your reading diet, head over to Dead End Follies to read the rules and sign up.