Chandler's "Red Wind"

Here's a quick round-up of some really good blog posts on Raymond Chandler's "Red Wind."

stryker says:

Chandler's use of shadows to make his characters mysterious is done with great care and perfect timing. A good example of this would be on page 1556 when John Dalmus gets back from the police station and tries to get into his apartment building and hears a low quiet voice say, "Please". Dalmus states that he knew the voice so he got into her car. This is perfect timing because you now have a picture in your head of this tall beautiful women who you thought you knew but now she is doing something out of the ordinary. You think you have her pinned down as a loose woman but this appearance makes you wonder what she is really up to.

Octavius says:

One thing that I noticed about this piece is how Dalmas, who is a character, is also the narrator. I have read plenty of novels and never really paid attention to this very important detail. I think that reading and analyzing poetry has really paid off. The first thing I do when I read is automatically try to analyze what the author is trying to say, how he is saying it, and what it is he means by it. Another thing that I can attribute to reading poetry is the way that my mind wants to recreate what I read, giving it my own twist.

And finally, George lays out Dalmas's character:

Even though the story is very interesting, what interests me the most was Damas character. Like I mentioned in the beginning, Damas was a man that displayed courage and sensitivity. Damas showed courage in various occasions throughout the story. For example, when the murder left, he was the first to go after him and take the license plate numbers. He investigated Lola, Miss Kolchenko, and Mr Frank.

He encountered death when Mr Tessilore threatened him and during all these events, there is no sign that Damas ever carried a weapon or a friend with him. It shows tremendous courage to go after a murder, especially when we consider that Damas was not acquainted with any of the subjects that he dealed with.

Damas also showed sensitivity during the story. He did his best to cover up Lola since she had saved his life. He wasn't going to take this act for granted, and actually helped her out in may ways.

And here's Joan Didion, one of my favorite writers, talking about the Santa Ana winds, which play a large-if-mysterious role in "Red Wind":

I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air. To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior.