Book 16 - Dashiell Hammett "The Maltese Falcon"

Dashiell Hammett "The Maltese Falcon" (Orion Books)




The Maltese Falcon is a classic. A definitive entry in the "Noir" or "Hard-Boiled" detective genre. Probably Hammet's most well-known work. I have very vague memories of watching Humphrey Bogart work his way through this mystery, but I haven't seen the film in ages and had forgotten enough that the book was still very fresh to me. Granted, I still plan to pull out the video and watch it again…soon. :)

Like Hammet's other works, this is a gritty crime novel with a less-than-perfect protagonist. Sam Spade is, to me at least, one of the most famous and most copied/satirized of the detective characters. Even before seeing the movie or reading this book, I had a good feel for who Sam Spade was (though I didn't know him by name) through various cartoons, TV shows and other movies with similar characters. I was surprised to find that this is Spade's only complete novel though he was apparently in a couple other short stories.

The mystery of the book starts out straightforward…Spade is hired to tail a man. That simple presence quickly takes turn after turn and pulls in numerous other shady characters and plots finally resulting in a global conspiracy of sorts.

I loved the simple, gritty, and straightforward language of the book. It helped set and maintain the tone throughout the novel. I loved Spade's hard and cynical view on life as well as his approach to investigating and solving this mystery. I also found it interesting that the book never let us get into Spade's head (or anyone else's head for that matter). As far as i could tell, we never had a "Spade thought this" moment. Thus, we were left having to try and deduce everyone's inner motivations and thoughts based on their actions and interactions. This made for a lot of fun and helped keep the resolution to the mystery at arm's length while at the same time seemingly presenting us with all of the information, we might need to solve the mystery.

The only problem I had with the book was that I didn't want it to end. Don't take that wrong…I was fully satisfied with the ending (which gave even more of an edge to Sam Spade). I just wanted more of the same. I'll definitely have to seek out the other Sam Spade stories and keep reading Hammett. Maltese Falcon is one of those classics that I'm glad I finally read. I'll have to go watch the movie now to see how true it is to the book and the tone/feel of the story. Even if you're not a fan of mysteries or detective stories…give this one a try.

Book 17 - Aldous Huxley "Crome Yellow"

Aldous Huxley "Crome Yellow" (Flamingo Modern Classics)







In 1921 twenty-seven-year-old Aldous Huxley published his first novel Crome Yellow, a novel that came to be much loved by Barbara Pym among others. Huxley is perhaps now best known for his novel Brave New World, a novel I read about twenty-five years ago – and can now (typically) remember nothing about. We are however reminded of that later forward looking novel by one of the characters Mr Scogan describing what he sees as the ‘impersonal generation.’

“An impersonal generation will take the place of Nature’s hideous system. In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world.”

Crome Yellow is one of those ‘modern comedies’ which emerged in England after the First World War, written by a new generation, a generation for whom the world was changing. Crome Yellow is a novel of ideas, and the society of the ‘bright young things’ of the 1920’s. Huxley satirises quite deliciously the changing fads and fashions enjoyed by this society.

“One entered the world, Denis pursued, having ready-made ideas about everything. One had a philosophy and tried to make life fit into it. One should have lived first and then made one’s philosophy to fit life…Life, facts, things were horribly complicated; ideas, even the most difficult of them, deceptively simple. In the world of ideas, everything was clear; in life all was obscure, embroiled. Was it surprising that one was miserable, horribly unhappy?”

The Crome of the title is a large country house with a long and colourful history. The house of Crome is famously modelled on Garsington Manor, home to Lady Ottaline Morrell, who frequently invited writers such as T S Eliot and Huxley himself to stay. Here Denis Stone a naïve young poet comes to stay for one of those lengthy country house parties of the times. Parties such as this of course allowed young people like Denis to enjoy a period of generous hospitality all at his host’s expense.

“Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay. Let us be
duly thankful for that, my dear Denis–duly thankful.”

Denis is certainly not alone; Henry Wimbush and his exotic wife Priscilla have been joined by a host of colourful guests. Each of these guests has agendas of their own and opinions they have every attention of sharing. There is Mr Scogan a cynical philosopher, Gombauld a modern young painter, the pompous journalistic Mr Barbecue- Smith and flirtatious Ivor arrives later. Jenny, whose partial deafness allows her a role as an observer of the rest, Anne who Denis falls for rather hard but who prefers Gombauld and Mary whose virginity has become a burden she feels she must rid herself of – but who? These characters are allegedly based upon some of those famous Bloomsbury figures who surrounded Lady Ottaline and her set –including Huxley himself and the artist Dora Carrington.

While Priscilla is obsessed with spiritualism, her husband Henry concerns himself with compiling a detailed history of Crome, extracts of which we are given – these stories within the story were my favourite bits.

There is very little of any plot as such – the book revolves mainly around the amorous goings on of one of two characters and the ideas, opinions and philosophies which the rest of the party take every opportunity to expound.

Crome Yellow is brilliantly imaged, wittily satirical and memorable. I think it took me a little while to settle into it when I first picked it up, so I suspect it would improve greatly upon reading again but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and so I’m very glad that I decided to read it.