In class one of the first things we talked about was the hard boiled detective vs. the Sherlock Holmes-esque detective style.  It became fairly clear that Ned Beaumont was not much like Sherlock, and I think that might be one of the reasons I found the book to be so interesting.  Putting my knowledge of the movie completely aside, when I was reading the book, I don’t ever think I had that feeling in the back of my mind that Ned Beaumont would definitely solve the crime.  His gambling addiction, coupled with a few other characteristics I witnessed about him, always left me with a slight sense of “wow, maybe he won’t be able to do it.”  I don’t think that element is necessarily present in most crime novels, and I’ve read quite a few of them.  There always seems to be some underlying meaning to solving the crime that drives the protagonist detective not to rest until the case is solved.  In other detective-esque novels I felt like nothing other than the detective actually being killed by another character would stop him (or her) from solving the case.  With Ned Beaumont, he actually tries to kill himself.  He takes Jeff’s beating without giving up information on Paul, however the act of trying to end his own life kind of signified to me that finding out who killed Taylor Henry wasn’t exactly the driving force behind his actions.  I’m finding it kind of hard to express my thought process on that issue, I hope it made sense.

            I thought the book was fairly unique in many ways.  I have to respect any book that has me caring about a protagonist that I really know very little about.  I thought the use of his full name was a pretty brilliant way to keep Ned Beaumont at a distance.  Other characters were called by their first or last names, or in the case of Opal, by a nickname.  I think the use of Ned’s full name all the time provided an element of formality and detachment.  Coupled with the Conradian (is that even a word?) style of Hammett’s writing, not really knowing what the characters are thinking and feeling, kept us at arms length from even the protagonist.  Yet, Hammett’s writing style was still able to get me to care about Ned Beaumont, as well as Paul Madvig.  I think that’s an awesome thing, and I have great respect for Hammett’s writing because of that.

            I have much more to say regarding the book as well as the movie, unfortunately I have currently run out of time… I will post again later, though!