Raymond Chandler – Michael A. Kahn

Flipping Edmund Wilson the Bird: When Does a Work of Literature Qualify as–egads!–a Mystery?

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Michael Kahn

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of one of the leading literary critics of his time, Edmund Wilson. While many of his readers, especially in academia, admire him as the author of such influential works as To the Finland Station (1940) and Patriotic Gore (1962), for this humble scribe, whose books are…

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Literary Foreplay: How the Pros Get You in the Mood!

Posted on March 3, 2022March 3, 2022 by Michael Kahn

While out in Phoenix last week I had the pleasure of spending a delightful afternoon with two of my book publishing heroes: Barbara Peters and Rob Rosenwald, the founders of Poison Pen Press. While sipping Rob’s amazing limoncello, which he creates with fruit from the lemon tree in their backyard, our conversation drifted, as you…

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Jay Gatsby and Notorious B.I.G.: A Match Made in Baseball Heaven

Posted on May 8, 2021May 10, 2021 by Michael Kahn

Ah, baseball season has arrived! And with it, the joy of the walk-up song. For the true baseball fans among us, name a favorite player and you can name his walk-up song. Same for your team’s closer (whose walk-up song is known as the “entrance song”). Including even those greats who’ve retired. What Yankees fan, when…

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The Magical Lure of the Intimate Voice

Posted on December 18, 2017December 21, 2017 by Michael Kahn

I have written here and elsewhere of the power of a great opening line. If you can imagine a bookstore as a crowded singles bar with each book hoping to get lucky, that first sentence essentially functions as the author’s pick-up line. Sure, a sexy book jacket helps, since it will increase your chances of…

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Bringing Up the Rear: The Literary Mic Drop

Posted on February 23, 2017February 23, 2017 by Michael Kahn

Many years ago, my agent offered me the following advice: “The most important sentence of your novel is the first one. The second most important sentence is the last one.” There certainly have been vivid, memorable first lines, many of which we can quote by heart–from “Call me Ishmael” in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick to “It was a bright…

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From Hard-Boiled Mysteries to Film Noir to the World

Posted on June 16, 2016June 20, 2016 by Michael Kahn

Earlier this month, the St Louis Jewish Film Festival asked me to introduce the screening of Fire Birds, an Israeli murder mystery set in Tel Aviv (with English subtitles). To prepare my introductory remarks, I watched the film. Somewhere toward the middle of the movie, I had my epiphany. “Thank you, Mr. Hammett,” I said….

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The Big Lebowski Meets The Big Sleep

Posted on August 15, 2015May 25, 2016 by Michael Kahn

The other night I settled down to watch “The Big Lebowski,” a terrific Coen brothers film that features three of my favorite actors (Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, and Steve Buscemi) playing three of my favorite characters (the Dude, Walter Sobchek, and Donny Kerabatsos). I’d last watched the movie about ten years ago. If you’d asked…

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A Real Time Machine

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Michael Kahn

For the first time in my writing career, I had to step into a time machine in order to write my next novel, The Sirena Quest. Let me explain. Most novels, from those on the bestseller list to the classics, are written in the author’s “now.” In the same way that Gone Girl takes place…

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Who Tells the Story: From the Bible to Marlowe

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Michael Kahn

Who will tell the story? Every author must answer that question before typing “Chapter One” at the top of that first page. Not who will write the story. That’s the author’s job. But who will tell it? Who will serve as the narrator? One common answer is known as Third Person Omniscient. That’s where the…

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My 5 Favorite Narrators (Part 3)

Posted on October 23, 2013May 25, 2016 by Michael Kahn

In my last post, I discussed the 2nd of my 5 favorite narrators, Raymond Chandler’s private eye, Philip Marlowe. As I now turn to #3, it’s worth noting his surprising overlap with #2. In several important ways, Chandler’s The Big Sleep, set in the Los Angeles of the 1930s, is similar to Joseph Conrad’s brilliant novella, The…

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