Craig Clarke reviewed this book in Ex Libris Reviews last month, causing me to
reflect. I reflected that although I’d heard of Nick and Nora Charles,
I’d never read a book or seen a movie in which they appeared. I
reflected that although I’d heard of Dashiell Hammett, I’d never read
anything by him. And I reflected that I’d been completely unaware that
Hammett was responsible for Nick and Nora Charles, having associated him with
mean streets and gumshoes and Humphrey Bogart. Clearly this was
something to look into, and so I procured a copy of The Thin Man
forthwith. And I read it.

And I enjoyed it.

But good grief, fish don’t drink as much as these folks.
It’s like some witty, urbane game of quarters. You get home from the
theater: take a drink. Some one comes to your hotel room: Take a drink.
Your visitor takes a drink: take a drink. You get up in the morning:
take a drink. Someone gets murdered: take a drink. Go out to a
speakeasy patronized by underworld types: take a drink for each one. But
sip them slowly, because the speakeasy’s liquor is lousy.
You’re feeling a little tight: take a drink. You’re not feeling tight
enough: take a drink. Make a witty non-answer to an impertinent question:
take a drink. Hear yet another all-too-plausible tale from Mimi
Jorgenson that you don’t believe: take two drinks.

It’s all well-written, mind you; and it’s fascinating to watch Nick’s
behavior change as he gets drunk. He doesn’t get loud angry drunk; he
doesn’t slur his words or get sentimental, or any of the other cliched
drunken behaviors; but there’s a definite sense that the inhibitions
are lifting, that he’s not watching himself so carefully, that he might
be saying a little more, saying it just a little louder, that he might
not care quite as much about consequences.

The other characterizations are good, too. I especially enjoyed disliking
Mimi Jorgenson, one of the most poisonous, duplicitous female characters
I’ve ever come across. The only character I can compare her too is the
lady in the movie The Maltese Falcon. Go figure.

Some time I’m going to have to re-read this to figure out just how Hammett did
it.