Raymond Chandler vs. Mary Higgins Clark
Published March 17, 2005
I have recently become a fan of the mystery genre in literature. I have been working my way through the classic authors: Hammett, Chandler, Cain and even Christie and Doyle. I am much enjoying my travels with the great detectives. Periodically, I also pick up a contemporary mystery to see how they fair. Recently I finished a classic, Chandler's The High Window, and a not-so-classic, Mary Higgins Clark's All Around This Town. These two books were very similar and yet vastly different in quality. I found Chandler's "The High Window" to be very good and Clark's "All Around the Town" to be quite awful. So here I will try to describe why I liked one and not the other.
I say they are both similar and they are. Both involve murders and the subsequent investigations to solve them. Yet in terms of how they are written and how they get to the solution is vastly different.
As always Chandler writes in the first person from the perspective of his classic detective, Phillip Marlowe. Clark writes in the third person. As a reader of "The High Window" you only know as much as Marlowe does. We see the world threw his eyes, follow his clues and do not know who the culprit is until the very end. Or at least I didn't. Which is not all that odd for me since I tend to let mysteries take me where they want without spending a lot of time trying to determine who the culprit is before I am given the final solution. But Chandler never points the reader in a specific way to misdirect. You meet new and often suspicious characters throughout the story, but never see what they are doing when they are not with Marlowe. This leads to a more realistic story. You read along with the one man and thus are him in a sense. You are given no special insight into what is happening.
Clark writes in a nearly all knowing third person. As a reader you learn information that not any one character knows. Several times you are misdirected into believing one person or another committed the crime only to be later led to believe you were mistaken. This happens until the final few pages when SURPRISE it wasn't who you thought. I literally groaned in disbelief when given several plot points. The general story involves a kidnapping, the kidnappee who later develops multiple personality disorder, and some villains who are also televangelists. All three are plot points that are so clichéd and over used it makes me ill. While Chandler writes different and interesting characters who act realistically, if often brutal, Clark writes cardboard characters with stock personalities and then manipulates them to rush the reader along to a final pinnacle.
My biggest objection is one that I find hard to define. I want to say that both writers give ample details about their characters and settings, but Chandler gives the right details where Clark gives the wrong ones. To better reveal this I have chosen two selections from the books below.
Mat Brewster is an American stumbling as an ex-pat through the streets of Shanghai. He is helped by his lovely wife and an enormous piles of bootleg DVDs. He is chronicling his adventures in the Shanghai Diaries and musing on pop culture at The Midnight Cafe.
- Raymond Chandler vs. Mary Higgins Clark
- Published: March 17, 2005
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- Writer: Mat Brewster
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Yes, it isn't that hard to see how the 'bad guys' fit in. It was an easy read and did what it was intended to do. Kill a couple of hours and bring a little entertainment into my life.
Not that if I attempted to write a crime novel it would be any better than All Around the Town. But when I read the classics, most of the new stuff pales in comparison.
Anyone read Michael Chabons new one? It's supposed to be in the classic noir style.
Chandler is great--have you read The Long Goodbye yet? that's the motherlode!
and Hammett is even better!
I have read all of Chandlers works,this
includes the pre marlowe collections of
short stories featuring Johnny Dalmas,
the Marlowe prototype. The best of these
being(IMO) "The Simple Art Of Murder",
but "Trouble Is My Business" is cool as
can be too.
Of his better known books I think that
"Farewell My Lovely" is my personal fave
out of the bunch."The Big Sleep,The Long
Goodbye and The High Window" being right
up there vying for 1st,2nd and 3rd fave
respectively.
I just re-read "The Little Sister" some
short time back and I feel it is every
bit as good as the aforementioned books.
The "L.S" always seems to get overlooked
for consideration though when it comes
to discusion of Big ray's scant written
output. Maybe it's because it was never
adapted for cinema? At least it has not
been to my knowledge anyway.
One mo'thang: Ray has an uncredited non-
speaking cameo in "Double Indemniity".
He is briefly shown sitting outside of
Fred MacMurray's office. A bespectacled,
rather owlish looking intense man.Blink
and you'll miss it.
Peace Love & Fedoras,
HW
Read the omnibus a long time ago. Thought Sleep, Farewell, and Goodbye were good, the others crap. Afraid to reread them because others say they don't hold up when you're older.
I once read a compilation of stories from Black Mask, and what struck me was not just that Hammet anc Chandler were the best, but they were they only writers who seemed even minimally competent. I suspect that there are a lot more quality detective writers nowadays.
If you're interested in this this stuff, you also might want to check out Paul Caine's "Fast One," considered the hardest-boiled of the hardboiled detective novels: minimalist prose, many extremely short scenes. Somebody should make a movie with a hardcore soundtrack. If I remember correctly, the author also wrote "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
I've read the Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The Lady in the Lake, The High Window, The Long Goodbye and am currently reading The Little Sister. I've only been reading the classics for the last year or two and I'm currently 28, so I'm not sure what you mean by "when you're older" but I'm loving them.
Postman was written by James M Cain, an excellent author in his own right, and one who writes from the point of view of the criminal rather than the detective.
I've read all of Hammett's novels and am working on his short story collection "Nightmare Town."
I suspect you're right, godoggo, when you say there are good detective writers out there these days. I just haven't found any. Until I finnish the classics, I'm not all that worried about finding them. I'll have to check out "Fast One" thanks for the reccomendation.
Oops. Different Caine.
I've read two books by Paul Cain.One was
a collection called "Seven Slayers" that
was culled from his writings for Black
Mask.The other was Fast One which I did
truly enjoy thoroughly. Definitely,the
guy was way underrated.I'm currently re-
reading Hammett's "The Continental Op",
which I think is the best thing that he
wrote.
Thank you for resurrecting this thread, HW.
I also wanted to mention that Ellroy's White Jazz (which I've glanced through, not read, though I read three of his early books, and thought they were pretty good) uses a prose style very reminiscent of Fast One, although I don't think there was any concious influence (he claims to have pared the prose down to the bone after his publisher balked at a manuscript that was, if memory serves [hopefully better than before] 2500 pages, give or take a few) - he also claims to have read just about every noir novel ever written during his caddy days).
The other big name contemporary noir guy I guess is Walter Mosley, whom I haven't read. Both his and Ellroy's best-known work is set during the classic noir period.
You probably know a lot of this already, but what the hey.
OK, one more before I catch the last jeepney to slumberland: Martin Amis' wonderful collection of literary criticism, The War Against Cliche, contained an encomiastic (actual word - you can look it up!) piece on Elmore Leonard, whom I haven't read either, but if Amis loves him, who needs my opinion?
And...now... I'm...getting...very...
No, thanks for your comments godoggo. Very interesting stuff. I'll have to remember this post when I get in a position to pick up some of those books.
You liked White jazz eh,godogogo ? After
the trilogy(Black Dahlia,LA Confidential
& Big Nowhere),I think that White Jazz &
American Tabloid were kind of a letdown.
The stories were OK but the trilogy was
just so good that anything following it
was going to come up short IMO.
No fault of Ellroys by the way. I liked
the pacing of White Jazz and I thought
that it had almost a "beat" feel to it.
Whether that was intentional,I dunno. Or
perhaps it was in the editing that you'd
mentioned that caused it to read as it
did.
Yeah, I like the Mosley stuff I've read
but I've only had the chance to read his
"Devil In a Blue Dress" & "Black Betty".
Easy Rawlins is a great reluctant anti-
hero.So typical, but he's a good enough
writer to be able to make it work for
him without coming across as cliched.
The film adaptation of "Devil In A Blue
Dress" was good too .Stayed pretty close
to the book if I remember right. You're
right that Ellroy and Mosely are the two
top contemporary writers of "Roman Noir"
around these days.If there is anyone who
is doing anything close to what they are
I'd like to find them.
the little sister was filmed title was simply marlowe.LEAD WAS PLAYED BY james garner. bruce lee had a cameo as a goon who busts up his office!
Good piece, Matt. You might enjoy my recent interview with Mrs. Clark.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/26861)
I read All Around the Town, and you're right, it's not that great. But if you think about the main story, then the main culprits make a lot of sense.