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Title: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett ISBN: 0-679-72264-5 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 July, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.54 (81 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: None Better
Comment: Why should anyone read THE MALTESE FALCON?
The classic Bogart flick is a near-perfect redition of Dashiell Hammett's tough-guy dialogue. Director John Huston cast the film so well, that it's impossible to imagine the characters any other way. And in all its twists and turns, the movie captures every nuance of Hammett's plot, and even adds to the mix.
So, again: Why should anyone read THE MALTESE FALCON? The same reason why the movie is so watchable time after time; If you haven't read it, you don't know how good it is, and if you have read it, it's so good, you can't wait to read it again.
In THE MALTESE FALCON, Hammett nails every element of the detective genre so precisely, so superbly, that it's a wonder anyone ever tried to write another detective novel after him. There are simply none better, a detective novel that goes beyond its pulp roots, and enters the realm of 'capital L' Literature.
The plot, for those three people who are unaware, is as follows; Detective Sam Spade has unwittingly become a pawn in a bizarre game of chess. After his partner Miles is killed, he finds himself immersed in a convoluted plot involving a double-dealing moll, a sly fat man, a creepy small man, and a treasured statue of a bird that, if it exists, is worth unimaginable riches. But Spade is unwilling to be used in such a fashion, and starts to set himself up as a player in the scheme, all the while trying madly to figure out exactly what he should do.
I have always believed, in the best of the genre, that the actual plot comes second to the characters, and FALCON is no exception. Hammett's Spade is a remarkable resourceful character, living by a code that even he may not truly believe in. The characters of Gutman, Cairo, Brigid, and Wilmar are by turns despicable, evil, comical, and touching. Spade may be the driving force, but Hammett knows that Heaven is in the details; not one minor character is spared his sharp eye for character and ear for dialogue.
But Hammett does not skimp on the plot, either. He is well aware of what Alfred Hitchcock named the 'MacGuffin"; the one object that motivates the characters. It doesn't matter whether or not the reader believes in it, it is only important that the characters believe. Hammett knows this, and uses the bird to unmask the evils that men do, the depths to which people will sink for greed, Spade included. They morally descend into murder, betrayal, and a surprising amount of sex (that the movie simply could not show, considering the age it was made in).
But why is THE MALTESE FALCON so good? There are many other sterling examples out there, from Raymond Chander's FAREWELL MY LOVELY (a favorite of mine), to Walter Mosley's WHITE BUTTERFLY. But FALCON has that one elusive quality that will keep a reader coming back for more. I wish I knew what that was. I personally believe it is Hammett's understanding of the human condition, of the many contradictions that make up an individual. To use Spade as an example, Hammett has created a character who is cruel, and hard-headed, and greedy, and self-serving. Only a man who knows what a person is capable of could ever attempt to make someone like that the hero.
P.S. Incidentally, unlike the otherwise perfect casting in the movie, Spade does not resemble Humphrey Bogart in the slightest. He is a tall, hulking figure, with thinning blond hair and sharp, angular features, often described as a 'blond Satan'. But it is remarkable that, despite this, Bogart's portrayal is so note-perfect that you can't help but picture him anyway.
Rating: 5
Summary: Stands the Test of Time
Comment: I highly recommend this book.
It is just fun to read! And, if you think about it, how many 70-year-old novels can you say that about? About 110 pages in I thought "Damn, this is like Hemingway being entertaining!" And what I meant was this: the prose style is as tight, Hammett's imagination as realized and intense, as Hemingway's was (if not moreso) in his "The Sun Also Rises" which was published just three years earlier. There's not a wasted sentence in "The Maltese Falcon." And the cartoonish characters which it was apparently criticized for when it was first published (Spade, Effie Perine, O'Shaughnessy, Cairo, Gutman, and the mysterious Russian Kemidov!) are part of what make this so readable in 2002. They're fun! Goofy, sure -- but fun and vivid and perfectly drawn as any other characters in any other novel I've read from that period. Hammett was reinventing the detective genre and if you are capable of seeing that kind'a thing when you read fiction, you will see it here.
I highly recommend "The Maltese Falcon."
Stacey
Rating: 5
Summary: One of Hammett's Best. Masterpiece of the Genre.
Comment: "The Maltese Falcon" is one of Dashiell Hammett's most popular novels and one of his best. It originally appeared in serial form in "Black Mask" magazine, 1929-1930. The stories in Hammett's novels are typically a mite uninteresting and the characters a little underwritten. Readers don't complain, because story and characters were never the point. They are the vehicle for Hammett's delicious hard-boiled language and biting social commentaries. Published in 1930, "The Maltese Falcon" is a noir masterpiece that offers the best of both worlds. It's full of the blunt talk and pervasive cynicism that typify the genre. But "The Maltese Falcon" also gives us an intricate story and better-drawn characters than is customary in Hammett's work, and it's his sexiest novel as well.
Our detective is Sam Spade, a San Francisco private investigator who, with his partner Miles Archer, owns his own agency. Sam's a man in his thirties who has been around, seen every side of the law, and come away unimpressed. He's hardened; he's practical; he only cares that he come out on top of each case he investigates, and richer than when he started. One day a striking woman walks into his office distraught over her younger sister who has run off with a ne'er-do-well. Sam doesn't believe her story, but he believes her money. He takes the case, and his partner Miles is murdered as a result. To make matters worse, Sam is suspected of murdering the man who was suspected of Miles' murder. So he's left with little choice other than to track down his mysterious client and solve both crimes. Sam's trying to extricate himself from this mess only leads him into an ever-widening web of deceit. A Greek named Joel Cairo, a ruthless international fence named Gutman, and the various identities of Sam's lovely and seductive client are all after something which they will stop at nothing to get. Sam must find out what it is and where it is before the police conveniently pin everything on him.
The novel's sinuous story and trio of well-drawn characters elevate "The Maltese Falcon" from good entertaining noir to just plain good writing. Sam Spade, his client Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and her enemy Joel Cairo are almost three-dimensional characters. Hammett reveals more of their manners and personalities than he usually does for his characters. And I think it's enough. If these characters were completely flushed out, it would take some of the edge off the story. I'm sure that the last thing Dashiell Hammett wanted to do was write a character study.
Noir is by its nature cynical, but Hammett's cynicism is more audacious than most. It seems that in every novel he finds a new way to smack the reader in the face. I've often wondered if he developed his stories around that purpose. In any case, it's what I love about Hammett's work, and "The Maltese Falcon" excels in its cynicism as well as its story. This time the shocker is the book's attitude toward love: Our hero doesn't hesitate to sell someone that he loves down the river out of pride. He admits it, and he admits that he'll regret it....for a while. Money might have made a difference. He admits that too. "What of it?" says Sam. The last chapter of "The Maltese Falcon" is Dashiell Hammett in full force. I recommend reading it twice.
There's no question that if you don't like bold-faced cynicism you won't like Dashiell Hammett's books. If you do like it, Hammett can't be beat. I'm admittedly difficult to please when it comes to fiction, even noir fiction. I nitpick about Hammett's work, which I like, and which any fan of the Unsentimental will like. For all of Hammett's ability to rattle readers by throwing basic moral assumptions back in their faces, and for all of his ability to entertain, his writing is rarely perfect. But "The Maltese Falcon" is nearly so. It's got sex, violence, story, characters, hard-boiled dialogue (but not as many great one-liners as some other of Hammett's novels), and relentless cynicism. "The Maltese Falcon" is a brilliant and very readable work of noir fiction that fans of unceremonious detectives won't want to miss. And it's a great American novel that I would recommend to anyone.
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Title: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler ISBN: 0394758285 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 July, 1988 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett ISBN: 0679722637 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain ISBN: 0679723250 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Double Indemnity by James M. Cain ISBN: 0679723226 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler ISBN: 0394758277 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 July, 1988 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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