Take a photo of a barcode or cover
rebecita 's review for:
Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
OK, this had its moments and I'm kind of fascinated by Marlowe's weird empathy for bugs and murderers, but overall my first forray into Chandler did not impress. I generally dig the over-the-top descriptive turn of phrase, but the hyperboles are so persistent and heavy handed. The buttons were golf balls. The hallway had been mopped the day McKinley was inaugurated. Enough already.
And I'm telling you even the characters in the book couldn't refill their glasses fast enough to survive the offhand-racist-comment drinking game. As far as I can tell Chandler's much touted love affair with the city of Los Angeles just makes for a setting with more people of color to hate on. In addition to a variety of slurs unprintable here, there's the chapter that begins, "The Indian smelled." An odor which Marlowe can't shut up about for the next 30 pages, in between joking about wanting to shoot an Indian and throwing out vocabulary like "gottum." But don't worry, "His smell was the earthy smell of primitive man, and not the slimy dirt of cities."
Anyway, PUTTING THAT ASIDE. The writing, Marlowe's roll-with-the-punches incompetent PIing, the convoluted mystery, the women - meh.
(WatchingThe Big Goodbye The Big Sleep shortly afterward helped me to stop taking it all so seriously and just enjoy the tough talk and ridiculous dames. Believe it or not, lucky reader, you've just dodged several rants.)
And I'm telling you even the characters in the book couldn't refill their glasses fast enough to survive the offhand-racist-comment drinking game. As far as I can tell Chandler's much touted love affair with the city of Los Angeles just makes for a setting with more people of color to hate on. In addition to a variety of slurs unprintable here, there's the chapter that begins, "The Indian smelled." An odor which Marlowe can't shut up about for the next 30 pages, in between joking about wanting to shoot an Indian and throwing out vocabulary like "gottum." But don't worry, "His smell was the earthy smell of primitive man, and not the slimy dirt of cities."
Anyway, PUTTING THAT ASIDE. The writing, Marlowe's roll-with-the-punches incompetent PIing, the convoluted mystery, the women - meh.
(Watching