I took a class a year or two ago on the "Hard-Boiled Detective"--and, funnily enough, the professor who ran the class, an expert on the genre, absolutely hates this book. Evidently, he was forced to put it on the reading list by the head of the English department.
I don't know if it's his opinion rubbing off on me, but while I enjoyed this book to a certain extent, I definitely prefer Chandler's The Long Goodbye--I think it's just better written.
It's hard for me to get past the fact that the Falcon itself, the very thing the book is named for, is really just an overwrought MacGuffin, and in the end it isn't even real. (My reaction: "Okay, so, what was the point of this exercise?")
Although, I have to say, I certainly didn't hate this book. I still have a copy of it somewhere. And looking at it simply as a "classic," I'm glad I read it.
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Date: 2011-02-11 01:34 pm (UTC)I took a class a year or two ago on the "Hard-Boiled Detective"--and, funnily enough, the professor who ran the class, an expert on the genre, absolutely hates this book. Evidently, he was forced to put it on the reading list by the head of the English department.
I don't know if it's his opinion rubbing off on me, but while I enjoyed this book to a certain extent, I definitely prefer Chandler's The Long Goodbye--I think it's just better written.
It's hard for me to get past the fact that the Falcon itself, the very thing the book is named for, is really just an overwrought MacGuffin, and in the end it isn't even real. (My reaction: "Okay, so, what was the point of this exercise?")
Although, I have to say, I certainly didn't hate this book. I still have a copy of it somewhere. And looking at it simply as a "classic," I'm glad I read it.