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The Little Sister
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Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Raymond Chandler
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $10.36
You Save: $ 2.59 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Raymond Chandler
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
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The Little Sister Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780394757674
ISBN: 039475767X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 256
Publication Date: 1988-08-12
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1988-08-12
Studio: Vintage
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780394757674
ISBN: 039475767X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 256
Publication Date: 1988-08-12
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1988-08-12
Studio: Vintage
Editorial Review of The Little Sister
A movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.
Customer Reviews of The Little Sister
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: You talk too much (with regards to George Thorogood)
Review: Originally published in 1949.
Remembering that cliches were once fresh when first spoken or written, Chandler is responsible for a bunch in this book.
But the real knock on this book is too much dialogue to explain the action, instead of action scenes driving the story forward.
The poorest effort I've read so far from Chandler. Instead start with his best known The Long Goodbye, or try this excellent collection of short stories: The Simple Art of Murder. For a lesser known classic, go with the well-turned Trouble Is My Business.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Simply brilliant writing
Review: I'm not a fan of thrillers or mysteries. I'm only a casual fan of 'Noire'. Chandler's "The Little Sister" is probably one of the most intense books written in any genre. This is a book of moods: incredible evocations of a time and place and feeling that I have never encountered before. If you aspire to be a writer simply reading this book will teach you a hundred things that can make your writing brilliant. From a small dim shack where a suicide has taken place to a lavish mansion where a vamp waits in a darkened salon--the moods and atmospheres Chandler creates are shimmering and electric. This is a must read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A rare mystery: starts weak, ends strong
Review: The Little Sister is a fine place to start for the new Chandler fan. Its plot is not overly complicated like some reviewers have said (It is easier to follow, say, than Farewell, My Lovely). But its main drag may be the opening half, which is just another retread of the same scenes fans of the genre have encountered many times in Red Wind, Trouble is My Business, The Big Sleep, and even Dashil Hammett's Maltese Falcon: the flirtatious woman with a problem, the surly hotel detective, and the sudden discovery of macabre corpses with all the answers on their dead tongues.
It's not that these noir tropes should be totally abandoned, but in Sister they are trotted out with a laziness that made me nervous I was reading The Great Book of Mystery Cliches. The leads are cardboard and have flat lines, the sideline characters are at best sketches and at worst (Dolores Gonzales) grossly caricatured stereotypes.
But the second half of the book, starting with Marlowe meeting the head of the studio, Mr. Oppenheimer, then through to the scene at the doctor's office and beyond reaches a new level. The cliches stick, but they are delivered with more humor, more terror, more vitality. And it helps that the writing is much improved. When Marlowe awakens from being drugged he describes the anxiety of opening his eyes: "A big black gorilla with a big black paw had his big black paw over my face and was trying to push it through the back of my neck. I pushed back."
Or this zinger to a dirty movie star: "I was born rich." "Yeah," I said. "You were born with a Cadillac in your mouth..."
I don't know what happened in the writing of this novel (though I've heard it was quickly published without edits) but there is a marked difference in quality from start to finish, and refreshingly it's a reverse of the usual order.
If it's your first dive into Chandler, the above complaints won't nag, though I can't imagine many people would pick this one up over the more readily recognizable novels. (The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye are just darn good titles, while The Little Sister is about as sexy as, well, your little sister.)
If you're looking for more Chandler, don't be turned off by criticisms that it's loose on focus or weak compared to his best. It's a solid novel that breaks free of the norm at the most critical moments.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: WATCH OUT-THIS AIN'T DOROTHY FROM KANSAS
Review: Phillip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's classic noir hard-boiled private detective forever literarily associated with Los Angeles and its means streets is right at home here in his search for the inevitable 'missing person'-this time-a missing brother being looked for by his sister from Kansas. But she ain't no Dorothy and the plot thickens from there. There is plenty of sparse but functional dialogue, physical action and a couple of plot twists, particularly as we get a glance at the seedy side of those above-mentioned mean streets of Los Angeles. More so than earlier Marlowe adventures Chandler here gives his take on the changes in his former quiet little town of L.A. as a result of the double infusion of Hollywood hyp and war production during World War II. The gangsters naturally followed the money and the fame. Oh, and maybe they just came for the sun.
Marlowe is older and 'wiser' here but he still has that funny habit of tilting after windmills. He is at the beginning of a 'mid-life' crisis in this story. But what is a guy to do when there is a Hollywood movie star damsel in distress to rescue and the frame is on. And little Ms. Kansas is there to gum up the works. Besides he has cut a couple of corners in his pursuit of justice and the cops are mad. Damn, you know he has got to square things up. How does this this work compare with the other Marlowe volumes? Give me those background oil derricks churning out the Stearnwood wealth while looking for Rusty Regan in Big Sleep or the run down stucco flats in pursue of Moose's Velma in Farewell, My Lovely any day. Nevertheless here, as always with Chandler, you get high literature in a plebian package. Read on.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Luxurious language in a languid tale of sibling death
Review: Marlowe is on the prowl again, when the petite sibling of the title arrives at his dingy office with a crisp new twenty and a sob-story about a brother who has vanished. The holier-than-thou attitude and the pouting lips pique Marlowe's interest, and he soon finds himself looking for the truth among the sordid sorority of Hollywood elite. As always, Chander is the master of the poetic line and the brilliant image...the English language has never been served so well. The plot? Well, I must admit that I'm still a bit unclear about exactly what happened and why, however, I loved the book anyway. I know that Chandler is a "languager" not a "plotter," and I relish the words he chooses. A great book by an American master!
Review Summary: You talk too much (with regards to George Thorogood)
Review: Originally published in 1949.
Remembering that cliches were once fresh when first spoken or written, Chandler is responsible for a bunch in this book.
But the real knock on this book is too much dialogue to explain the action, instead of action scenes driving the story forward.
The poorest effort I've read so far from Chandler. Instead start with his best known The Long Goodbye, or try this excellent collection of short stories: The Simple Art of Murder. For a lesser known classic, go with the well-turned Trouble Is My Business.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Simply brilliant writing
Review: I'm not a fan of thrillers or mysteries. I'm only a casual fan of 'Noire'. Chandler's "The Little Sister" is probably one of the most intense books written in any genre. This is a book of moods: incredible evocations of a time and place and feeling that I have never encountered before. If you aspire to be a writer simply reading this book will teach you a hundred things that can make your writing brilliant. From a small dim shack where a suicide has taken place to a lavish mansion where a vamp waits in a darkened salon--the moods and atmospheres Chandler creates are shimmering and electric. This is a must read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A rare mystery: starts weak, ends strong
Review: The Little Sister is a fine place to start for the new Chandler fan. Its plot is not overly complicated like some reviewers have said (It is easier to follow, say, than Farewell, My Lovely). But its main drag may be the opening half, which is just another retread of the same scenes fans of the genre have encountered many times in Red Wind, Trouble is My Business, The Big Sleep, and even Dashil Hammett's Maltese Falcon: the flirtatious woman with a problem, the surly hotel detective, and the sudden discovery of macabre corpses with all the answers on their dead tongues.
It's not that these noir tropes should be totally abandoned, but in Sister they are trotted out with a laziness that made me nervous I was reading The Great Book of Mystery Cliches. The leads are cardboard and have flat lines, the sideline characters are at best sketches and at worst (Dolores Gonzales) grossly caricatured stereotypes.
But the second half of the book, starting with Marlowe meeting the head of the studio, Mr. Oppenheimer, then through to the scene at the doctor's office and beyond reaches a new level. The cliches stick, but they are delivered with more humor, more terror, more vitality. And it helps that the writing is much improved. When Marlowe awakens from being drugged he describes the anxiety of opening his eyes: "A big black gorilla with a big black paw had his big black paw over my face and was trying to push it through the back of my neck. I pushed back."
Or this zinger to a dirty movie star: "I was born rich." "Yeah," I said. "You were born with a Cadillac in your mouth..."
I don't know what happened in the writing of this novel (though I've heard it was quickly published without edits) but there is a marked difference in quality from start to finish, and refreshingly it's a reverse of the usual order.
If it's your first dive into Chandler, the above complaints won't nag, though I can't imagine many people would pick this one up over the more readily recognizable novels. (The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye are just darn good titles, while The Little Sister is about as sexy as, well, your little sister.)
If you're looking for more Chandler, don't be turned off by criticisms that it's loose on focus or weak compared to his best. It's a solid novel that breaks free of the norm at the most critical moments.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: WATCH OUT-THIS AIN'T DOROTHY FROM KANSAS
Review: Phillip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's classic noir hard-boiled private detective forever literarily associated with Los Angeles and its means streets is right at home here in his search for the inevitable 'missing person'-this time-a missing brother being looked for by his sister from Kansas. But she ain't no Dorothy and the plot thickens from there. There is plenty of sparse but functional dialogue, physical action and a couple of plot twists, particularly as we get a glance at the seedy side of those above-mentioned mean streets of Los Angeles. More so than earlier Marlowe adventures Chandler here gives his take on the changes in his former quiet little town of L.A. as a result of the double infusion of Hollywood hyp and war production during World War II. The gangsters naturally followed the money and the fame. Oh, and maybe they just came for the sun.
Marlowe is older and 'wiser' here but he still has that funny habit of tilting after windmills. He is at the beginning of a 'mid-life' crisis in this story. But what is a guy to do when there is a Hollywood movie star damsel in distress to rescue and the frame is on. And little Ms. Kansas is there to gum up the works. Besides he has cut a couple of corners in his pursuit of justice and the cops are mad. Damn, you know he has got to square things up. How does this this work compare with the other Marlowe volumes? Give me those background oil derricks churning out the Stearnwood wealth while looking for Rusty Regan in Big Sleep or the run down stucco flats in pursue of Moose's Velma in Farewell, My Lovely any day. Nevertheless here, as always with Chandler, you get high literature in a plebian package. Read on.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Luxurious language in a languid tale of sibling death
Review: Marlowe is on the prowl again, when the petite sibling of the title arrives at his dingy office with a crisp new twenty and a sob-story about a brother who has vanished. The holier-than-thou attitude and the pouting lips pique Marlowe's interest, and he soon finds himself looking for the truth among the sordid sorority of Hollywood elite. As always, Chander is the master of the poetic line and the brilliant image...the English language has never been served so well. The plot? Well, I must admit that I'm still a bit unclear about exactly what happened and why, however, I loved the book anyway. I know that Chandler is a "languager" not a "plotter," and I relish the words he chooses. A great book by an American master!