The annotations do an excellent job in highlighting recurring motiffs in Chandler's work, putting the novel in context of Chandler's life and career and the "hard boiled" genre in general, and linking the action to the actual geography of Los Angeles. One thing I did not realize was how much Chandler lifted from his short stories; it is tempting to view the novel as loosely-knit collection of stand-alone stories but the annotations show that the novel is greater than the sum of its parts. Although the annotators give Chandler a pass for it for mirroring the complexity of real life, I found the torturous plotting to be fairly annoying. I would be interested to read annotated versions of Chandler's other novels, although I suspect this one has exhausted most of the insights to be had. ( )

Well, this was delightful, which is not usually how one would describe noir, but I have BIG love for The Big Sleep, both the book and the movie. I grew up watching Humphrey Bogart bring characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe to life, and even now whenever I read Hammett and Chandler, it is Bogart's voice I hear in my head narrating the story. I love the darkness and the grittiness found in these pages, but also the clever use of dialogue and the language that is a world of its own. I love how Chandler makes the city a living breathing thing - a device that has been much copied by his admirers. When I heard that there was an annotated edition coming out for the first time ever, I immediately pre-ordered it. What a treat. The editors did a brilliant job of deciding what to highlight and also of choosing the book's layout. The original text is on the lefthand page and the notes are on the facing righthand page, making it so easy and enjoyable to read the story and the notes in tandem. And the size of the book is perfect - an oversized paperback that stays open without one having to fight or break the spine. I wasn't sure what they would choose to include, but I hoped for discussion on how the novel and the movie compared. I got this and so much more - maps and photos of the city of Los Angeles from Chandler's time, comparisons between the book and the movie with discussion about why certain things were changed, definitions and origins of the slang that is used throughout the text, and excerpts from the original pulp stories that Chandler used to piece together the novel - he stole the best bits from stories he previously sold to magazines to give us some of the most memorable moments of the novel, changing names and some content to gift us with an even better version. And I laughed out loud when I read that during the making of the movie they queried Chandler about who actually killed Owen Taylor - the movie is one you have to watch several times to wrap your head around the plot, which, to me, is part of its charm. Anyway, Chandler responded that he had no idea. I LOVE this! All this to say that the annotated edition met and exceeded my expectations - highly recommended to anyone with an appreciation of and/or a fascination with noir. ( )

I will be re-reading this. ( )