Point of View

Trouble Is My Business is a collection of four short stories that are all told in the first-person perspective. The perspective is always given through the eyes of the main character, which is dominant throughout the four stories, Philip Marlowe. Philip is a private detective. Each tale is a case as seen through his eyes. The narration is reliable and consistent throughout and told in the pulp fiction, detective style of magazines that were made popular during the late twenties and early thirties. For the most part, the plots are simple, and the characters represented are surrounded by violence and ruthlessness. The basic plot lines all follow a predictable format in which Marlowe is presented with a seemingly impossible case. Regardless of the situation, the good guys will always win, despite overwhelming odds and often what appears to be insurmountable misfortune. Working side by side with...