Sun 23 Jan 2011
Reviewed by Allen J. Hubin: BYRON PREISS, Editor – Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
Allen J. Hubin
BYRON PREISS, Editor – Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration. Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, 1988. Softcover editions: Perigee Press, 1990; ibooks, 1999. [Note that the latter adds a new introduction, two new stories, and a map of Philip Marlowe’s Los Angeles.]
Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration may be the only anthology I choose to list in my Crime Fiction Bibliography. Chandler was born in 1888, created Philip Marlowe, and the world — at least the crime fiction world — has never been the same. So some of the current top practitioners here pay tribute to both.
Marlowe stars in all twenty-three stories, set explicitly in years from 1935 to 1959, and they resonate not so much with Chandler’s writing style (which most of the authors don’t try to imitate) as with the times and places, with the ambiance of the private eye on the Chandlerian mean streets.
Some stories are distinctly more effective than others, but in the main this is quite enjoyable. And at the end, in “The Pencil,” Chandler himself shows us all how it should be done.
January 24th, 2011 at 6:12 am
I agree with Hubin’s judgment that this is an enjoyable anthology. Some of the stories are misfires but in the main this idea was an interesting success. If Chandler is one of your favorite authors, then this book is a must read.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Chandler fans might also enjoy reading a flawed (it calls him the “inventor of noir”) but interesting article about him at Hollywood Patch (1/22/11).
http://hollywood.patch.com/articles/do-you-know-your-raymond-chandler
January 24th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Walker
I’ve never read the book, though it’s one of the few that I bought in hardcover as soon as it came out. Of course I’ve browsed through it and maybe read a story or two, but I shelved it away and for whatever reason, nevr gotten back to it.
So I’m dependent on both Al’s comments and yours. I like what Al said, though, that the authors in this anthology didn’t try to imitate Chandler, but to invoke the same sense of time and place that he did.
Michael
Thanks for the link. Chandler never goes out of the news, does he? He’s established himself as one of the few mystery writers whose reputation is going to last far longer than his lifetime, and there aren’t many you can say that about.
As for him being the “inventor of noir,” that does stretch things a little, doesn’t it? I also think the meaning of the word noir now encompasses so much that it almost doesn’t mean anything any more.
— Steve
January 24th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
This was generally superior to the Holmes anthology from Preiss, with interesting, if not always successful stories.
Hector Contreras did a novel length Chandler pastiche in TEN PERCENT OF LIFE, and as in this didn’t imitate Chandler so much as complement him.