I recently read "The Thin Man" for the first time and found
it pretty unmemorable--because of the style and the too-easy
characterizations. Somebody else commented on Hammett's style
now being considered "standard"
(sorry if I'm mischaracterizing what was said), but it just
felt ordinary to me. Maybe this isn't Hammett's finest
moment, but almost everything I've read by Chandler has
stayed with me much more vividly, even the lesser
efforts.
I wonder, too, about Chandler's "struggling" more than
Hammett for "an authentic American voice." What is an
authentic American voice, anyway? Marlowe *feels* American to
me--the combination of decency and cynicism, for one
thing--even though I don't think mid-century Angelenos really
talked like that.
Jennifer
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