Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon has been pulled out of the hat for our celebration of Noir Christmas. This strikes me as an excellent choice. It was probably the most nominated book this month, it gives us an excellent excuse to enjoy the Humphrey Bogart film over the festive period, and no gumshoe is more celebrated than the hard-boiled wisecracking detective Sam Spade.
The hat’s decision comes agrees with many judgments – Robert McCrum recently selected the 1929 novel as one of his 100 best of all time. Not many people seem to have objected to the choice on that thread, but it will be interesting to see what kind of discussion it provokes here. For the moment, I’m in no position to comment because I haven’t read it. Which makes me all the more intrigued and eager. Not least because I’ve just seen the first paragraph:
“Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down – from high flat temples – in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.”
How’s that for starters?
And if that’s whetted your appetite, I’m happy to say that we have 10 copies of Hammett’s classic to give away to the first 10 readers in the UK to post “I want a copy please” – along with a nice, constructive comment relevant to the book – in the comments section below. if you’re lucky enough to to be one of the first 10 to comment, don’t forget to email Laura Kemp (laura.kemp@theguardian.com), as we can’t track you down ourselves. Be nice to her, too.
In the meantime, all comments, suggestions for potential topics for discussion and opinions on Dashiell Hammett and the meaning of noir will be gratefully received.
