The position of Raymond Chandler in the pantheon of American
letters has long been subject to much debate. Naturally imbued with
a literary sensibility Chandler helped to revolutionise the crime
genre, bringing to it a colourful, hard edged vernacular allied to
a modern social commentary. Through the figure of private eye,
Philip Marlowe, Chandler created a contemporary knight errant whose
not so picturesque adventures trudging the mean streets of Los
Angeles helped to vividly define the moral dilemmas of a dark,
uncertain post-war world. And yet - can The Big Sleep, Farewell, My
Lovely and Lady in the Lake be considered 'literature'? Author
Anthony Fowles - who freely admits to writing half-adozen
'sub-Chandlerian' thrillers - brings to the discussion both the
detached eye of the professional critic and the sympathetic
understanding of the practitioner. It is a background which allows
Fowles to make a balanced, finely-nuanced contribution to the
ongoing Chandler debate, refusing to relegate the noir master to
the wilderness of 'genre writer' but equally avoiding outlandish
claims of literary pre-eminence. In circumventing the pitfalls and
simplicities of 'either/or', Fowles places Chandler's achievements
in a fully-realised context, enabling the reader to appreciate more
deeply the peculiar strengths and limitations of the prose lyricist
of the American mid-century.
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