Customer Reviews

The Thin Man

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Forget those movies. They took a grimly funny novel about a group of predatory monsters and turned it into a series of light comedies. As splendid as William Powell and Myrna Loy are, they cannot hold a candle to the Nick and Nora portrayed in this novel.

Hammett did not write a novel about a sophisticated couple who genteelly solve a murder while pouring cocktails and trading quips. He wrote a dark novel about an ex-detective who has married a wildly wealthy woman, and wants to spend the rest of his life managing her money. He is only faintly connected to the murders, having known the victim and his family briefly several years before, and wants nothing to do with the whole business. He is continually dragged in, however, and very nearly becomes a victim himself. Even a cursory reading of the novel should demonstrate that Hammett was up to much more than a series of one-liners with detective interruptions. Why else would Hammett, one of the most economical of authors, bring the novel to a halt to include a case history of Alfred Packer, the only American convicted of the crime of cannibalism?

There is much more here than Hollywood, or anyone else that I know of, has yet realized.

I believe it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who once said, "Hammett is one of those good writers ruined by Hollywood." This book shows Fitzgerald's quote in action.

Don't misunderstand me, 'The Thin Man' is an excellent story. It's amuzing, tense, and contains possibly Hammett's most memorable characters, but it's also a complete departure from his previous novels. In a way, 'The Thin Man' is a farewell. Here we have a once hard-boiled detective, Nick Charles, who has settled down with his wise-cracking wife, Nora, and doesn't want anything to do with his previous work. Instead, Nick drinks, and drinks, and drinks, and goes to parties, and hosts parties, and the like. Whenever anyone questions Nick over the case that he's rumored to be working, Nick simply claims that he doesn't want anything to do with being a detective and leaves it at that.

This being Hammett's final novel, I believe that it an all too valid assumption that Hammett was using the character of Nick to symbolize himself and his own mentality. To connect this with Fitzgerald's comment, following the publication of 'The Thin Man', some movie studio handed Hammett a check for something like $40,000 for use of the characters, cementing his literary decrepitude, and he never worked again.

But it is a good read, very good, and while I would have liked to have given it the full five stars, i've chosen to remain with four, as 'The Thin Man' just doesn't compare with many of Hammett's other classics.

This is one of the best crime novels ever written because it transcends the genre so beautifully, you won't even care about the mystery plot. The characters make it biting, strong and unforgettable, freaks and weirdos alike... Nick and Nora Charles are 2 of the most perfect literary creations in all of fiction. Hollywood cleaned them up a little and made them classy social lushes, but in their original written form, they're cynical, world weary wise acres. Their heavy drinking only adds to the book's appeal. Dashielle dedicated it to his long time love Lillian Hellman, as she, in turn, dedicated a few of her plays to him. The Maltese Falcon is the most famous of Hammett's works, The Daine Curse, his most complicated, Red Harvest, his most violent, The Glass Key, his most bitter. But the Thin Man is the most entertaining. You'll feel like reading it with a bottle of booze at your side.

Boy, these reviews are all over the place, aren't they! Well, they at least give you the plot so I don't have to. Here are some quick comments:

There is so much going on in this book that most people miss much of it the first time (as these reviews show), especially if they don't know Hammett's life. As noted, Hammett modeled Nick and Nora on himself and his paramour, budding playwright Lillian Hellman, so it's interesting to see how he dealt in fiction with their relationship and his ultimate failure to cope with success.

Yet, "The Thin Man" works - and works well - as a straight, hard-boiled detective novel, too (which is why none of the characters are particularly likeable). Also, Nora, one of the few, strong female detectives of the pulp magazine era, has inspired countless woman (including Myrna Loy) through the decades.

Hammett's sparse style of writing, which many critics (including myself) think Hemingway merely popularized, revolutionized American literature. Each of Hammett's words had to do its part. Similarly, unlike those of earlier detective novels, Hammett's characters committed murder and other mayhem for actual reasons! The notion greatly affected Chandler, Macdonald, and all the others who toiled in the garden Hammett created. His books are all classics of American literature.

Some of these reviewers have made too much of the "alcoholism" in the book. Fact is, a certain, large segment of society in the `30s - products of Prohibition - did (or wanted to) drink the way the book's characters do and thought nothing of it. Basically, everybody drank in those days. Even the President of the United States had a bootlegger.

To my mind, an alcoholic is a person who drinks because he or she _has_ to; these characters drink because they _want_ to. Those revisionist Puritan reviewers just don't understand the context of the drinking in "The Thin Man".

Speaking of Puritans, the city of Boston banned "The Thin Man" upon release (thereby greatly increasing its sales) because Nora asks Nick if he got an erection while wrestling with one of the female characters. The word - heard without reaction on TV and in the movies these days - was simply too much for the city fathers. ("Just a little one" Nick answered, if memory serves.) The movie producers could not chance a similar ban on the movie so they cut a lot of the dark humor out of it but introduced Hammett to a lot of people over the world. The problems come when the viewers don't realize the book and the movies are two very different animals.

I would love to see "The Thin Man" made into a movie now - when the producers would respect the work while employing fantastic production values. I'm sure they would remember that Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" did not succeed as a movie until the third try when new producer John Huston wisely utilized most of Hammett's cutting but sparkling dialogue.

Hammett wrote five novels and, while they share similar traits, each one is different from the others and each one is an American classic. "The Thin Man" sees an older, wiser, possibly drunker, Hammett playfully poking fun at himself, Hellman, and the genre he mostly created while staying within the confines of that genre - a difficult trick. "The Thin Man", the most commercially successful of the five, can stand proudly next to its brothers. You'll enjoy it!

My first Dashiell Hammett book and after reading it I decided I'm hooked on his writing. The plot is tight no doubt, but the ending especially left me thoroughly impressed at the skillful crafting of the story. That aside, the playful banter between Nick and Nora Charles amused, and surely the dry wit of Nick will elicit a chuckle. Add to the whole mix a bunch of crazy characters like the Wynant family who can't seem to talk straight, and you get an absorbing whodunnit with a generous dose of humour.

The Thin Man is a mystery solving the case of Julia Wolf's murder. Nick Charles, a retired detective, and his wife Nora find clues while helping a young girl named Dorothy through problems with her abusive mother and crazy suspect of a dad. As the story unfolds the situation turns out to be more complex than a single murder. There are many twists involving many characters that make the murder hard to solve.
The characters are well-developed with depth and realistic personalities. Detective Charles sarcastic wit makes him a fun character through which to sift through all the information to solve the murder.
Nevertheless the detail of information sifted through in the book can also make parts of the book a slow read. The author goes on large tangents that seem to detract from the story. For example at a party at the beginning of the book Nick is asked about cannibalism in America by a suspects child, Nick hands him a book which is then quoted at great length. Perhaps the author includes this to keep the reader guessing as to its relevance or as a device to show what people may do under extreme circumstances. Either way these side stories make the book drag at parts.
Despite being slow in certain sections the character development and the way the author highlights the relevant pieces of information to solve the mystery is satisfying. If the mystery is like walking through a forest to identify which trees are needed to guide the reader through to the far side of the forest, the author describes in detail too many of the trees. Yet, at the end, it is fun when the detective highlights and connects the facts that are part of the mystery.

The Thin Man is a wonderful novel. Written in the classic Hammett style, the story is full of twists and turns of the interaction of well defined, recognizable characters.
The central characters are Nick and Nora Charles. Nick has been a history as a successful private detective. Nora is a wealthy socialite. Together they are an intriguing and fun couple, who are forced into investigating the circumstance surrounding the mysterious death of a secretary and the unexplained disappearance of an eccentric,wealthy scientist.
The story is so well crafted that everyone becomes a serious suspect and you are left chasing after each individual motive, trying to "figure it out" before the Charles' do.
This novel is a classic from start to finish.

If you have never watched the classic Black and White movie from the 1930's, THE THIN MAN, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, you have missed out on a treasure, although the book was better and more in-depth.
The movie mirrors the book the closest of any I have seen. The reason, Dashiell Hammett was there to keep it true to the novel. Many of the delightful lines are directly out of the book!
This is a grand and classic detective tale.

The last of Dashiell Hammett's novels was "The Thin Man," and what a last novel it is. A hard-edged whodunnit, Hammett's writing had become very polished and his characters even more intricate by the time he wrote this, and while it's not the best he had written, it's a solid example of his work.

Nick Charles was a rough'n'tough detective... until he married wealthy socialite Nora. Now he's retired early, drinks a lot, and has no apparent wish to come into contact with his messy past life. Enter Dorothy Wynant, daughter of weird (and possibly insane) inventor Clyde Wynant. As it happens, Wynant's secretary/mistress has just been murdered, and was found dying by his ex-wife Mimi.

Nick keeps insisting that he doesn't want to detect, but somehow he gets sucked into it anyway when a gangster (ex-boyfriend of the murdered woman) invades his home and nearly kills him. Dorothy keeps popping up and pleading for help and protection; Charles' old flame Mimi is acting oddly; and her husband has some secrets of his own. Despite Nick's aversion to detective work, he and Nora set out to unravel the mystery surrounding the Thin Man. (Wynant, for your information)

Hammett's cynical attitude was a huge part of his writing, but there's a new dimension to it in "Thin Man." Charles spends a lot of time trying to distance himself from his detective past, and in a way it feels like Hammett was distancing himself from his detective novels. Was Nick's dissatisfaction a sign of Hammett's? Quite possibly.

But many of the things about "Thin Man" are vintage Hammett: lying waifs, men in disguise, lots of lying and booze. Almost everyone is sociopathic, and Nick and Nora aren't exactly what one would call "heroes." However, the dialogue is sharp and witty and the action is slickly exciting. Best of all, Hammett's writing had evolved a bit from his minimalist style; here he describes things like Mimi snarling in a bit more detail.

Nick is the quintessential Hammett anti-hero (cynical, tough, and more than a little obnoxious), except here he's a bit weathered and tired out. Sam Spade and the Continental Op were on top of their games, but he's past his. Nora comes across as a little perkier but as tough in her own way. The crazy Wynant family, like manipulative mom Mimi and freaky son Gilbert, serves as a nice source of conflict.

"The Thin Man" wasn't the best thing Hammett ever wrote, but it's still a solid mystery read. Pass the martinis.

I love Hammett's fat detective from Red Harvest, etc. but I think this is a wonderful story. The characterizations are razor sharp, the pacing incredible, and there are no false notes, for me at least, through many readings. In a fairly short novel with dozens of characters and settings this is remarkable. The Maltese Falcon is at the top of the genre, but I would put this one just behind. Great fun!

This may be a "detective novel," but that's the least of it. The Thin Man is a statement of the good life, and included are plenty of style and sexiness. Nick and Nora Charles are the greatest, most reasonably decadent couple and the final, best commentary on the American high life that was thrown into such relief by the foil of Prohibition. Sure, there's a murder mystery, but there's also raw roast beef and onions, plenty of onions, from an all-night deli, washed down with perpetual scotch and soda. ... Dashiell Hammett wrote Nick Charles in order to be Dashiell Hammett: drunk, yes, but so what? Once great, always great, as long as you leave a legacy that people admire.