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A review by rbreade
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
In this novel, far more than the Chandler's earlier ones, I noticed the frame of Marlowe recounting a case since closed, rather than Marlowe, and the reader, experiencing the details and incidents of a case as they happened. The opening sentence, in fact, begins this sense of a story-present that is different and far removed from the story about to be recounted: "The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of the Dancers." A few pages later, Marlowe has the following thought about an exchange with a parking lot attendant: "He was partly right of course. Terry Lennox made me plenty of trouble." All of this before he's learned Terry Lennox's name.
As in Farewell, My Lovely, Chandler opens with one "case," seemingly closes it when he helps Lennox flee to Mexico after Lennox allegedly killed his wife--and later hears that Lennox committed suicide there in a small town--moves onto another case during the middle part of the book, and gradually becomes aware of how the two might be connected. Once again, there is a femme fatale, which you'll be able to spot, though it's fascinating to see how her case and the Lennox case are entwined.
The writing is sharp and tight, as expected. If there are fewer of those trademark one-liners, there are perhaps more moments of insight by Marlowe, on celebrity culture and the media, law, justice, television, and the historical romance genre, among other topics. Once again, Marlowe's big advantage over the cops and gangsters who regularly threaten and beat him is that they don't understand his oddly altruistic worldview, and never will. Also, Chandler makes use of flash forwards in spots, which I don't remember him doing in his earlier novels.
And if you want to have a chance of figuring out the final twist before it happens, keep an eye on the mailbox. It shows up early in the novel, recedes far into the background, and pops back onto a front-burner at the end. Give this mailbox a good deal of thought, especially its location and purported role as recounted in a certain letter Marlowe receives.
As in Farewell, My Lovely, Chandler opens with one "case," seemingly closes it when he helps Lennox flee to Mexico after Lennox allegedly killed his wife--and later hears that Lennox committed suicide there in a small town--moves onto another case during the middle part of the book, and gradually becomes aware of how the two might be connected. Once again, there is a femme fatale, which you'll be able to spot, though it's fascinating to see how her case and the Lennox case are entwined.
The writing is sharp and tight, as expected. If there are fewer of those trademark one-liners, there are perhaps more moments of insight by Marlowe, on celebrity culture and the media, law, justice, television, and the historical romance genre, among other topics. Once again, Marlowe's big advantage over the cops and gangsters who regularly threaten and beat him is that they don't understand his oddly altruistic worldview, and never will. Also, Chandler makes use of flash forwards in spots, which I don't remember him doing in his earlier novels.
And if you want to have a chance of figuring out the final twist before it happens, keep an eye on the mailbox. It shows up early in the novel, recedes far into the background, and pops back onto a front-burner at the end. Give this mailbox a good deal of thought, especially its location and purported role as recounted in a certain letter Marlowe receives.