literature | The Book Haven

The maltese falcon Dashiell Hammett.

The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the mother of all noir novels, has been immortalized by the classic Humphrey Bogart flick. If you have seen the movie but haven’t read the book, you are missing more than you can imagine.

The Story

The Maltese Falcon features Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett’s self-serving San Francisco detective. When Sam’s partner is murdered, the cops put the blame on the detective. Things get super complicated when a gorgeous woman begs for Sam’s help, bad guys demand a payoff from Sam, and a mystery develops around a priceless gold statuette of a falcon.

The Style

The coolest thing about the book is Sam Spade himself. He talks, fights, and flirts with inimitable style. Hammett’s style is pretty much straight forward and without too much description. The focus is more on action; the story is high on murder, betrayal, and sex. The plot, as you may guess, is highly intelligent and intricate.

The Maltese Falcon is a solid proof of the fact that even pulp/crime fiction can be a classic. It stands the test of time and the plot makes as much sense today as it did in 1930. For most readers, The Maltese Falcon will be even more appealing than even Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and Farewell, my Lovely.

Similar Books:

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Solomon’s Vineyard by Jonathan Latimer

Continue reading →

So you screwed up, huh? Couldn’t win a simple Nobel Prize? What’s the explanation dude? Well, you can’t explain, of course. Even if you could, you won’t because if you do, you are not “worth the prize”. So let me explain.

The case of a pulp fella: You’ve won a trillion hearts, but you haven’t won the right minds. Your vampires and time machines just didn’t conjure up the right image. The Nobel Committee and their pet penguins hate you. Ask H.G Wells or Anne Rice. Be serious boyo.

Are you an idealistic moron? Alfred Nobel clearly stated in his will that the Prize, in the field of literature, should be awarded to someone ‘who shall have produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency…”. Accordingly, the esteemed Nobel Committee feels pretty uncomfortable dealing with volatile items. So being the author of Lolita would automatically disqualify someone even if he is the best non-native English writer ever. Feeling itchy Mr. Nobokov?

Anna Karenina was one of the greatest novels ever written, but it was out of the track. Tolstoy’s faith in anarchism and contempt for organized authority did not make him a suitable contender for the prize. Same was the case with Emile Zola and Mark Twain.

P for Politics: It is widely believed that Anton Chekhov was denied Nobel Prize because of Sweden’s historic antipathy towards Russia. Graham Greene was rejected in favour of Swedish authors Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson, who were a part of the jury. Salman Rushdie will possibly leave the good old earth without winning a Noble because he is a bad boy condemned by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. W. H. Auden was out of consideration because he suggested Dag Hammarskjöld, 1961 Peace Prize winner, was homosexual — a comment that didn’t go down well with the Nobel Committee. In the intricate spider web of politics, you ought to play by the rules of the game.

Found and lost: The sole honor goes to Mr. Jean- Paul Sartre who flushed the Nobel Prize down the toilet, so that someone could sell it on ebay. Mr. Sartre wanted to be an experimental jerk, but a Nobel Prize would transform him “into an institution” and make him an insufferable bore. Boris Pasternak had the wisdom to accept the prize, but had to give up under pressure from the USSR, his homeland.

OMG: J.R.R. Tolkien, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, was rejected due to his “second rate prose”.

Do you think the Nobel Prize in literature is a big joke? Can you really compare books written in different languages? How much difference can translation make?

Among the greats who never won a Nobel Prize: