The Glass Key

The Glass Key

By: Dashell Hammet

1931

  During my first degree I took a course in Film Noir. The cardinal motif that perpetuates through the genre is its style. These stories have a particular aesthetic that was dark with a morally reprehensible centre. These films and stories became popular in the U.S., arguably because of the anxiety people felt during and before the war. 

The Glass Key is a well known novel that taps into the anxiety people felt during this time. The characters are attempting to solve a murder that may or may or may not have been committed by a revered politician. Hammett appears to be tapping into the distrust and skepticism people felt for elected officials and their ability to manage an impending war.

While Ned uncovers the corruption and lies that caused the murder, the reader meets several forgettable characters that become conflated by their sameness and lack of identity. Many pulp stories have countless characters but few novels actually use this motif to formally reflect on on conventions of the genre. The best example would be The Big Sleep where countless characters die without their murders being solved. The superfluous unsolved murders in the The Big Sleep engage the reader in thinking critically about pulp novels which assists the genre in being understood as more than low art fantasy. The bottom line is that there are similar better pulp novels on the 1001 book list, but still important for its historical relevancy.

Grade:

B-