Ah, the Maltese Falcon. Recommended, but then I have an obvious weakness for "femme fatales and scheming and double-crosses and cool one-liners". :)
I personally think Chandler is the better writer, (The Big Sleep is basically *the* noir story, even though my favourite of him is the bitter and vicious The Long Goodbye, followed by the reckoning with Hollywood that is The Little Sister), but the Maltese Falcon has its place too, definitely.
The reason this still is worth reading, even if you've read and seen other works of the Noir genre, is IMO the Flitcraft parable. It's in one short scene the entire genre summarised, basically the heart of this and any noir story, and offers the key to Spade's character (and in other ways to Brigid's, because she fails to understand what Spade is telling her). It's a quite remarkable piece on its own, beyond the murder/mystery aspect of the story.
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I personally think Chandler is the better writer, (The Big Sleep is basically *the* noir story, even though my favourite of him is the bitter and vicious The Long Goodbye, followed by the reckoning with Hollywood that is The Little Sister), but the Maltese Falcon has its place too, definitely.
The reason this still is worth reading, even if you've read and seen other works of the Noir genre, is IMO the Flitcraft parable. It's in one short scene the entire genre summarised, basically the heart of this and any noir story, and offers the key to Spade's character (and in other ways to Brigid's, because she fails to understand what Spade is telling her). It's a quite remarkable piece on its own, beyond the murder/mystery aspect of the story.
- Sesc