I tried reading this novel a few years ago because of the pedigree and because I had access to it via Overdrive, but I couldn’t get into it. I didn’t really know much about it at the time, but I decided to give it another go because it was mentioned in Patton Oswalt’s memoir Silver Screen Fiend as the source material for Yojimbo and Sanjuro and of course Last Man Standing by Bruce Willis.
It’s also the basis of a whole quest line in Red Dead Redemption 2, which I recently played through, and I figured all these factors together meant I should read it.
I guess there was a reason why I put it aside earlier. It’s a first novel, and sometimes that’s perfectly fine, and other times it’s not. The issue I had with this book and with reflecting back on how it was being talked about it is that I think it gets credit for having a very interesting central conceit and famously influencing two good movies (the Kurosawa ones, not the Bruce Willis ones), but even the Kurosawa films based on this are not nearly as good as plenty of other Kurosawa films.
So I think it’s a book that exists within a narrative of influence and quality, but isn’t high quality on its own. It’s kind of a narrative mess. I found it to be often incoherent plot-wise and not carefully controlled in the way of other great crime novels. And because of the messiness of the plotting, the experience was hard to follow.
The conceit, like I said is great. A conman finds himself in a small town being fought over by rival interests and plays both sides. I also love the claustrophobia of small town crime syndicates in general. But alas.
(Photo:https://www.amazon.com/Red-Harvest-Dashiell-Hammett/dp/0679722610/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13DS6KNLYQ5EK&keywords=red+harvest+dashiell+hammett&qid=1551451455&s=gateway&sprefix=red+harvest%2Caps%2C335&sr=8-1)