I finished up Hammett's novels last month with THE THIN MAN.
I had expected a tough but somewhat lighthearted comedy, but
it didn't strike me like that at all. Instead, the tone
seemed more in line with writers of the Lost Generation.
Drunken celebration and apathetic nihilism serves as a thin
veneer over a moral crisis bordering on hysteria.
The couple Nick and Nora are on vacation in New York City
over the Christmas holiday when a murder occurs. Although
those around him expect him to actively work the case, Nick
refuses. Nick has married rich a few years back and is
retired from detective work. He spends a few brief moments a
week tending to financial details, and spends the rest of his
time drinking and socializing. Hammett goes to great pains in
the plot to bring Nick in contact with all the people he
needs to question without having him appear to actively
pursue the case.
A common use for an author's oeuvre is as psychological
fodder to explore his state of mind. I am uncomfortable with
this approach because it leads literature down a deadend
alley ending at the author's psyche (rather than being a
sweeping rumination on the state of mankind), but it is hard
not to compare Nick's situation with Hammett's.
Willeford found THE THIN MAN bad to the point of unreadable.
My reaction was not nearly so negative. In its own subtle
way, it is just as dramatic as RED HARVEST. For all the witty
repartee, it is a sad book about a once great detective who
no longer believes in the cause, who no longer gives a
damn.
There were a few things I didn't like about the book. Hammett
is too heavy-handed with his build-up of Nick's history. Nick
was a great detective. Nice was a war hero. Nick was
respected by cops and crooks alike. I realize that Hammett
has to build up Nick's past to effectively show how far he
has fallen, but he overdid it.
The other thing I didn't like is that a detective story is
simply not a very good vehicle for portraying the
self-destructive apathy that Nick carries like a consuming
disease. It is a tired tradition that the private detective
shows little interest in taking the case, but he eventually
is drawn into it and struggles fiercely to see it to the end.
There is no transformation like this in THE THIN MAN. Nick
remains apathetic to the end, and even though Hammett does a
decent job of using coincidence and convenience to parade the
suspects before Nick, Nick's hardcore apathy and the mystery
plot mix like oil and water.
miker
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