The Maltese Falcon

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett

It took me years to finish reading this book. Hammett wrote it around 1929. Sam Spade evolved from an earlier character Hammett referred to as THE CONTINENTAL OP, the subject of numerous pulp fiction short stories.

The Story: Sam Spade and his detective partner Miles Archer are hired to tail a gigolo, to learn where he lives. Archer is then murdered, as is the gigolo. Sam has been fucking Archer's wife, Iva, and she now wants to marry Sam. The cops think Sam killed Archer to get the wife.

A man named Cairo then appears and wants Sam to find a statuette known as The Maltese Falcon. Cairo offers $5000 for the job. The woman who hired Sam to track the gigolo then comes back, under a different name, and reveals how she is after The Maltese Falcon, too. The gigolo business was a hoax, the gigolo was really another seeker of the Falcon.

And it goes round and round and up and down for the rest of the book till all is revealed at the end.

Raymond Chandler came along in 1939 with THE BIG SLEEP and Philip Marlowe. Chandler took Hammett's wine and made brandy of it. Marlowe is a custom made coach upon the Sam Spade chassis. Both characters are alcoholics and like women for one reason. Spade patronizes them, and Marlowe saves them.

From where I sit THE MALTESE FALCON has one redeeming quality, its place in the evolution of noir. Chandler was better than Hammett but Hammett was much better than anyone else till Chandler came along.

 

[karaline]

So, I read a book recently called The Eighth day of the Week by Marek Hłasko.

Its about a young couple trying and failing to have sex it spans a time period of few days during the cold war in Warsaw, it captured the unrelenting bleak tedium of 20th century communist Poland in a way that was both incredibly cynical and heartrendingly poignant. Unlike the Maltese Falcon, its only about 100 pages long

The young author was heralded the world over when it was first published for being Poland's 'angry young man' but he was quickly ostracised by Polish authorities for "dabbling decadently in literary carrion". He died when he was 35, some believe he committed suicide.

I found it to be a fascinating read and I'm not sure why, but I think you might like it too James. It might be quite hard to get hold of over there in the states, it hasn't been published in Britain since 1994, and I don't think there is a digital edition available.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

So, I read a book recently called The Eighth day of the Week by Marek Hłasko.

Its about a young couple trying and failing to have sex it spans a time period of few weeks during the cold war in Warsaw, it captured the unrelenting bleak tedium of 20th century communist Poland in a way that was both incredibly cynical and heartrendingly poignant. Unlike the Maltese Falcon, its only about 100 pages long

The young author was heralded the world over when it was first published for being Poland's 'angry young man' but he was quickly ostracised by Polish authorities for "dabbling decadently in literary carrion". He died when he was 35, some believe he committed suicide.

I found it to be a fascinating read and I'm not sure why, but I think you might like it too James. It might be quite hard to get hold of over there in the states, it hasn't been published in Britain since 1994, and I don't think there is a digital edition available.

Amazon has plenty of used copies! Thanks for the tip.

 

[karaline]

Amazon has plenty of used copies! Thanks for the tip.

let me know what you think if you get round to reading it

 

[49greg]

I don't know about the literary merits of the Falcon, but after seeing the movie version with Bogart I looked for and eventually found a used paperback and loved that even more than the movie. Some of the dialog in the book went straight into the movie.

I read most of Chandlers Marlowe stories some time ago, and you're right, he's better than Hammett, but not by much in my opinion. On the other hand the only book of Hammett's that I have read is the Maltese Falcon. I do have a Kindle edition of Continental Op stories, but haven't tried them yet.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't know about the literary merits of the Falcon, but after seeing the movie version with Bogart I looked for and eventually found a used paperback and loved that even more than the movie. Some of the dialog in the book went straight into the movie.

I read most of Chandlers Marlowe stories some time ago, and you're right, he's better than Hammett, but not by much in my opinion. On the other hand the only book of Hammett's that I have read is the Maltese Falcon. I do have a Kindle edition of Continental Op stories, but haven't tried them yet.

Hammett has one story I like, its called THE SCORCHED PHOTO, I think. The Continental Op is the principal character. Rich women from around San Francisco are vanishing by the bus load or killing themselves, and the Continental Op is on the case.

I've read most of the popular writers, and it seems to me all the leading male characters are based on Sam Spade.