World Famous Comics: The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
By: Dashiell Hammett Publisher: Vintage Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Vintage Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 480 Publication Date: July 17, 1989 Release Date: July 17, 1989
Product Description: Short, thick-bodied, mulishly stubborn, and indifferent to physical pain, Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op was the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives. He is also the hero of most of the nine stories in this volume. The Op's one enthusiasm is doing his job, and in The Big Knockover the jobs entail taking on a gang of modern-day freebooters, a vice-ridden hell's acre in the Arizona desert, and the bank job to end all bank jobs, along with such assorted grifters as Babe McCloor, Bluepoint Vance, Alphabet Shorty McCoy, and the Dis-and-Dat Kid.
San Francisco Op This is clearly the best writing about the person, place and environment of the "City." Hammett did all his great work in twelve years -- I know of no author this could be said of. Outstanding use of the street talk of the day. He never wrote as smooth as Raymond Chandler, yet Chandler admired Hammett a great deal.
This writing is amazing, authentic work.Some say Hemingway stole the brevity of Hammett
The epitome of hard-boiled I've been a fan of Hammet for quite some time and I really like the Thin Man and the Maltese Falcon but my favorite of his is the Continental Op. Here we have a hero whose name we are never told! He is the epitome of hard-boiled, a man who can dish it out as well as he can take it.
The Big Knockover is a nice collection of ten perfect short stories. The first, The Gutting of Couffignal, is the story of a small village under seige and has a neat twist. Fly Paper will keep you guessing.
GET IT- CRIME DOES NOT PAY Dashiel Hammett, along with Raymond Chandler, reinvented the detective genre in the 1930's and 1940's. They moved the genre away from the amateurish and simple parlor detectives that had previously dominated the genre to hard-boiled action characters who knew what was what and didn't mind taking a beating to get the bad guys. And along the way they produced some very memorable literary characters as well. Nick Charles, Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe are well known exemplars of the action detective. However, on the way to creating these literary works of art Hammett did journeyman's work at the detective genre in various pulp detective magazines. The Big Knockover series of stories is from that period.
The unnamed universal Continental Operative who is the central character of the stories is the prototype for Hammett's later named detectives. He has all the characteristics that mark a noir detective-tough, resourceful, undaunted, and incorruptible with a sense of honor to friend and foe alike that sets him apart from earlier detectives. Although the stories are mainly set in San Francisco the Op branches out to other locales in some of the stories but he keeps those same virtues. If you want mainly well-thought out stories that are also well-written this is for you. Additionally, and this may be as good a reason to read this book as the stories is the Introduction provided by Hammett's long time companion the playwright Lillian Hellman.
Classic Adventures of the Indomitable Continental Op. "The Big Knockover" is a collection of 10 short stories, 9 of which originally appeared in "Black Mask" or "Mystery Stories" magazines, 1923-1929, and feature Dashiell Hammett's famous hard-nosed, always unnamed Continental Op detective. Several of these stories find the Continental Op out of his usual element in far-flung or exotic locales. "The King Business" takes place in a fictional Balkan nation of Muravia, of all places, and involves a political coup. "Corkscrew" is so named after an Arizona desert town, complete with cowboys, where the Op has been sent to break up an illegal immigration operation. The Op's adventures with the customary mode of transportation -horses- provides some comic relief. "Dead Yellow Women" takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown, where the mysteries of this immigrant culture prove confusing for the very American detective. I was surprised to see a Hammett detective in these unusual environments, but was entertained to find that there are thugs and grifters everywhere in Hammett's stories. The Op is never really out of sorts. He may not speak the language, but he's always at home in the criminal underworld. "The Gutting of Couffignal", "Fly Paper", "The Scorched Face", and "The Gatewood Caper" are more conventional Hammett, revolving around the debauchery of lowlifes and the dirty laundry of the wealthy. "The Big Knockover", after which the book is named, and "$106,000 Blood Money" are a two-parter about a spectacular caper in which an army of 150 crooks hold up an entire San Francisco city block and its aftermath. "Tulip" is the odd story out. It is the beginning of an unfinished novel that Hammett started late in life. It is unlike any work that Hammett published. The story concerns two older men, both educated and literate, both with criminal pasts. One is a writer who is working on a book. The other consciously rejected the literate lifestyle many years before, but is always anxious to tell his own story. It isn't very good. The style is tortuous and difficult to follow, the opposite of Hammett's typical lean, direct prose. "Tulip" appears to be an almost ridiculously overt allegory of the author's inner struggles with the value of words versus actions and the meaning of telling stories.
"The Big Knockover" was edited by Dashiell Hammett's longtime companion, the playwright Lillian Hellman, who wrote the introduction to the book in 1965, 5 years after Hammett died. She affectionately describes how they met, their relationship, how he died, and provides some insight into Hammett's personality from someone who knew him well. It's worth reading. "The Big Knockover" is a solid collection of Hammett stories featuring the wry, indomitable Continental Op. Dashiell Hammett was one of the 20th century's best short story writers, and, apart from "Tulip", which is a curiosity, this is classic Hammett and well worth reading whether you are new to Hammett or already a fan.
A great writer flexes his muscles There are some great stories here. Let's discuss some of them in a minute. First, however . . .
During most of the 1920s and early 1930s, Dashiell Hammett was a compulsive writer and storyteller, possibly due to a personal need to make sense of his world and experiences. Later, he lost that compulsion. Following a brief prison term in the early 1950s (for his refusal to take part in the McCarthy-era witchhunts), he began to rediscover that earlier compulsion. Hence, the fragment of "Tulip," which he apparently intended as an semi-autobiographical novel. One wishes he could have lived long enough to complete more of it, at least.
Now to the meat of this short-story collection from his earlier days.
Hammett's most enduring character, the anonymous first-person narrating Continental Op, is the protagonist throughout. The stories vary widely, from the old-west (but not that old at the time of its writing) atmosphere of "Corkscrew" -- which would later serve as theme material for the novel "Red Harvest" -- to the comedy of "The Gatewood Caper"; there's the sinister undertones, interspersed with more comedic touches and a superb punchline at the end, of "Dead Yellow Women" as well as the total 'shaggy dog story' feel of "The Gutting of Couffignal" (in which everything apparently is intended to lead up to yet another punchline).
And then there's the title story itself, "The Big Knockover," perhaps the pre-eminent 'caper story' of all time: a carefully planned and executed bank robbery which falls awry in a trail of double-cross and deduction, yet which leaves its protagonist at the end to wryly remark (perhaps echoing Hammett's sentiments?): "What a life!"
Note: Subsequent editions of this collection sometimes include "$106,000 Blood Money," which Hammett ill-advisedly wrote as a sequel to "The Big Knockover." Good as this second tale may be, I believe it could have been written just as easily -- and to better effect -- as an independent story. (There is some evidence that Hammett at one point thought of combining the two as a novel.) I much prefer to leave "Knockover" on its own and let it end there, without the more-than-slightly unsatisfactory resolution of "$106,000 Blood Money."
Each story in this collection shines on its own and reveals facets of Hammett's innate genius.
Oh, yeah: There's also a reminiscince by playwright Lillian Hellman, which may or may not have any bearing upon the actual Dashiell Hammett. Decide for yourself.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
