The Glass Key across cultures
The beauty of Hammett´s The Glass Key is in the multiple possible readings of the details. While I was reading this book after discussing the homosexual hints in the movie I was hard-pressed not to think of José Donoso´s El Lugar Sin Límites. Donoso´s book is a Chilean Novel from the late 60´s that was also made into a movie. The title of his book can be literally translated as “the place without limits”. In both books the characters are forced, by choice or setting to wear a certain “mask” that makes it so that the reader and the other characters never really know exactly what they are thinking.
Analyzing Donoso’s book it is interesting to see that he may have lifted many parts of the story and structure from Hammet. Both deal with political struggles, Donoso’s is between the gang in [...]
Original post by onda