Here’s something for the arch-Hammett fan to track down — a close to 400 pager all about The Maltese Falcon, going at it chapter by chapter.
Published in 2012.
It’s in Japanese, but if you’re dedicated at working translation programs. . . .
You’ll get some hints about where and what to translate from the extensive section of notes, which tag the English language refs, lines from the novel, lines from the sources.
The reason I know about it is because the author, Koichi Suwabe, showed up out of the blue for the last anyone-can-show-up walk for October 29 — he brought along a copy and put his John Hancock in it for me in Burritt alley. Told me he’d used my tour book as a ref, and sure enough, I found various bits in English from the tour in the notes.
Very cool. You get the sense you’re getting someplace when you’re quoted in another language.
The book itself is really attractive, a solid little hardback in dustjacket, and my copy has an additional banner wrapper on it — with a Maltese cross and a pic of Hammett. Ribbon bookmark, of course.
A quite satisfying way to close out 40 Years on the Mean Streets.
