Pulp Fiction

                                                                 The Maltese Falcon.

            The Maltese Falcon, written by Dashiell Hammett is essentially about a detective whose partner dies after taking a job from a woman under the alias Mrs. Wonderly. Throughout the investigation, you follow detective Sam Spade as he unwraps the mystery of The Maltese Falcon.

            Though I’ve never read a mystery pulp fiction novel before, I found it quite exciting when I bought the audio book for it. The reader did a plethora of different voices for the characters, making identifying them that much easier. I found the wording of the novel much different than that of today’s fiction.  The author describes the way the faces look throughout the whole book. Also, the author points out how they move and how they speak. These help picture the characters much more clearly in their emotions and actions.

The relationships between all the characters were odd in some parts. Spade treats the women as delicate, dull-minded creatures. He kisses them all freely and without consequences. The women aren’t much better than the men, either. They are annoying and shrill. They seem to be so needy of the men and badger them whenever something goes wrong. Although, this stereotype isn’t as strong today, I still see these prejudices often. I suppose that’s just the way they were. The roles of the men were made to emulate a gun wielding tough guy who doesn’t crack under the beauty of a woman. A woman’s role was to have the ability to have that over a man. This is still true today.

It was explained earlier in the course that novels such as these weren’t considered literary pieces. Although “The Maltese Falcon” wasn’t one of the best written pieces I’ve read. Though, I found it to be well written and enjoyable nonetheless. Spades investigation seemed a little tedious and over explanatory at times but altogether I found the book informative and gripping with detail.

The novel was an overall good story, although I knew that woman was no good to begin with. She lied too much; you knew that she had much more to tell from the beginning. Still, I liked how it came together at the end. Spade became the hero I wanted him to be and not the crook like we thought during the climax. I give this story 4 out of 5 stars. J