Red Harvest

"Red Harvest" is an early novel by Dashiell Hammett published in 1929. The protagonist is an unnamed private detective operating in a fictional town in the Western United States. The novel is of medium length and is mostly an easy read. The most problematic aspect of the novel for me was keeping track of the numerous characters. The novel has a definite "Pulp Noir Detective" feel to it.Personally I enjoyed the opportunity to compare and contrast this novel to that of modern private detective authors and stories. One of my personal favorite modern authors of detective fiction is Sue Grafton. In hr first novel "A is for Alibi" her protagonist encounters a pet dog named Dashiell. I am quite sure that is an acknowledgement of Dashiell Hammett.The story itself has a tough, cynical feel to it. There is a good deal of violence that seeemd to me to, at times, approach open warfare. That was the most unrealistic aspect of the story to me.As in numerous works of American Fiction from this period there are ethnic terms used that are no longer considered acceptable. The one I noted repeated more than once is a dated term about individuals of Italian Heritage. I do not believe in censorship but I do not wish anyone to be caught by an unpleasant surprise if one chooses to read this novel. There is also a slang term used to describe a person suffering from tuberculosis. Dashiell Hammett suffered from tuberculosis so I speculate he felt the term was acceptable to himself.In summary I enjoyed this novel and am glad that I read it. It has a definite Pulp Noir feel to it. It is mostly an easy read except for the numerous characters that I occasionally became confused about. I intend to re read some works by Dashiell Hammett in the future such as "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man". Thank You...

The Continental Op who is the narrator of the novel doesn't even give a name. If you know the author's history, he was probably basing it on his experiences with the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Butte, Montana. Anyway, the Op is sent to Personville which was pronounced Poisonville somewhere near Utah.The setting is curious to me. When you first start reading, you keep asking yourself why the Op stays in this corruptive village in the middle of nowhere. It's a mining town but it's filled with plenty of corruption. Everybody is corrupt even the narrator. The stories here were told in a serialized style for pulp fiction magazines for entertainment value.Is there literary value in pulp fiction, you bet there is with Dashiell Hammett who was the king of pulp fiction of his time period. He was a troubled author with alcohol problems, health, and his own demons of war and experiences as a Pinkerton detective. He was really trying to redefine the mystery detective genre.Unlike Sherlock Holmes, Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot, Op is unique in his voice. He's not necessarily evil nor good but shady and complicated. His character is never really defined nor do we do much about his character's history and background. He stays to clean up Personville.True to style, Hammett's writing includes plenty of references to alcohol during the prohibition time period which this book was written in the first place. It was published in 1926 at the height of prohibition where alcohol consumption and distribution was largely forbidden. Well, corruption ran rampant anyway.That's the morality tale here about corruption in a small town or any town over alcohol, power, money, etc. The characters here are thinly veiled and just mere caricatures of society's depiction of the time period. We don't feel sympathy towards anybody in this novel nor do we root for anybody even Op.I was assigned to read this novel for my 20th Century American history class in college about the 1920s. At times, I struggled with all the murders, crimes, motives, and explanations regarding the novel. I do now understand a lot more about the 1920s. Personville seemed more like Poisonville after all with blood, poison, manipulation, lies, treachery, even in the small towns.

It wasn't bad, but I had been expecting more. While I think it's unfair to compare this to Hammet's later works, I have to admit that, having already read the Maltese Falcon, I had expected something on the same level, and this one just wasn't. Add in what I had heard about this being the inspiration for popular films like Yojimbo and A Fistfull of Dollars, and it becomes clear why I was a little disappointed.With that said, it was still a decent read. It started out with a lot of potential, and I remember thinking "ooh this is gonna be good". The scene was built up pretty nicely, and there were a few good one-liners. Some of the characters were pretty interesting such as Elihu Wilson or Chief Noonan, but some were kind of bland and hard to keep track of. In general there were too many characters and I found myself having trouble remembering who minor characters like MacSwain, Dan Rolff, and Bill Quint were.It got pretty slow in the middle and it took me a surprisingly long time to get through despite the short page count. The last quarter of the book picked up again and it's where most of the action happened. Fortunately the positive ending made me forget about some of the slowness in the middle. While not the best mystery novel, it was a solid 4.

Esta novela me mantiene al borde del asiento. Realmente buena.

Red harvest, which is widely considered an iconic entry into hardboiled noir novels has managed to stand the test of time, but barely so.The pace in this book is never slacking, the Op lands in poison(person)ville & before you get to page two, you are sucked into its wild world. Hammett throws his detective into a psychopath's wet dream of a place in poisonville. Corrupt cops, tycoons, gangsters, femme fatales, seductress everything that is now a common trope is utilized & although there are many flaws.The plot is a revolving door of characters, who rarely expand beyond their stereotypical roles. Op, working for continetal leads you into story, but even the title character has little to no dimension. Plot armor for Op is another glaring flaw, which could have been avoided if there was subtlety introduced into hammet's approach. However, it still works as this seems like exactly what hammett was going for & although it feels amateur it doesn't hold back the fun of reading this classic.In case you are diving into hammett, as I did after being introduced to Chandler. Then Hammett is no Chandler, the dialogues lack the wit & plot is not enticing to keep you occupied. Hammett's red harvest excels as a working man's hard boiled detective novel, with enough gut punches to keep you reeling & some more.

Excellent, good story and well despicted characters, mistery, easy to read... What else do you want in a black novel?...

Ammetto di avere una predilezione per Chandler, ma Hammet rappresenta un maestro indiscusso del genere e questo romanzo ne è la prova

j' attendais plus de ce livre qui a fait la gloire de D. Hammett. On comprend bien que le continental op dérape par dégoût del' atmosphère de "poisonville" et participe à l' exacerbation des conflits mais l' action, brute, qu' on peut apprécier plus dans d' autres opus, n' est pas soutenue par une analyse psychologique suffisamment fine des motivationsBien meilleur souvenir de "the big knockover" et d' autres