A review by ohnoflora
The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

5.0

It is deeply misogynistic, homophobic, and probably racist too. It is preoccupied by masculinity (let's be real, white masculinity) as the Ideal, everything else being a fractured (and therefore suspect) imitation. And yet, and yet, the joy of that prose, the clarity of those images. The incessant rain (still not enough to wash away the filth and degeneracy of LA), the thunder in the foothills sounding a constant warning, the dark and dingy rooms with sticky floors, the clink of ice, the smell of cordite. A tired man, jaded but not quite ready to give up the hope of finding some kind of good in the world, whatever that means...but not surprised when he doesn't find it.