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ehlupton 's review for:
Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
Wow, there are a lot of old racial slurs I was unaware of that are in this book.
The positive: This is the Chandler writing with funny one liners, snappy dialogue, and beautiful descriptions of California, cynical attitude toward the wealthy, intricate plot, hard-eyed dames and hard-drinking men... this is basically everything you'd read Chandler for. Marlowe moves through a world where justice is what you pay for, cops are corrupt and don't care about everyone equally, and a lot of people from various places are scrabbling to get by in a hard world, while the specter of war looms far away but not invisible by any means. And this is, to a great extent, a world we still inhabit.
The negative: Each chapter brings a new and cringe-worthy stereotype (from Blacks to Native Americans to Asians to gay men and, I guess, women in general, no one is left untouched--I had totally forgotten how Hollywood used to treat Native Americans, and wow is it terrible, just, wow). Chandler also creates an excellent character in Anne Riordan, but she then vanishes halfway through the novel and is unused until the very end when she turns up to drink and canoodle with Marlowe, which is disappointing. Also, the Marlowe we meet here doesn't quite feel like man who "is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Because he is mean, he is afraid... but he also cares a lot about the various people he sees murdered over the course of the book (and there are a lot of murders in this book), even though they're the wrong race, the wrong gender, they largely don't have any money... he would claim that he doesn't care too much, but if he didn't care, he wouldn't be putting himself in harm's way and getting blackjacks bounced off his head as much. And that's typical Marlowe. (Also, he has a calendar with Rembrandt pictures on it and quotes Shakespeare a couple of times.)
If you're a Chandler completist, this is worth looking into, but I wouldn't start with this one if you've never read him before.
The positive: This is the Chandler writing with funny one liners, snappy dialogue, and beautiful descriptions of California, cynical attitude toward the wealthy, intricate plot, hard-eyed dames and hard-drinking men... this is basically everything you'd read Chandler for. Marlowe moves through a world where justice is what you pay for, cops are corrupt and don't care about everyone equally, and a lot of people from various places are scrabbling to get by in a hard world, while the specter of war looms far away but not invisible by any means. And this is, to a great extent, a world we still inhabit.
The negative: Each chapter brings a new and cringe-worthy stereotype (from Blacks to Native Americans to Asians to gay men and, I guess, women in general, no one is left untouched--I had totally forgotten how Hollywood used to treat Native Americans, and wow is it terrible, just, wow). Chandler also creates an excellent character in Anne Riordan, but she then vanishes halfway through the novel and is unused until the very end when she turns up to drink and canoodle with Marlowe, which is disappointing. Also, the Marlowe we meet here doesn't quite feel like man who "is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Because he is mean, he is afraid... but he also cares a lot about the various people he sees murdered over the course of the book (and there are a lot of murders in this book), even though they're the wrong race, the wrong gender, they largely don't have any money... he would claim that he doesn't care too much, but if he didn't care, he wouldn't be putting himself in harm's way and getting blackjacks bounced off his head as much. And that's typical Marlowe. (Also, he has a calendar with Rembrandt pictures on it and quotes Shakespeare a couple of times.)
If you're a Chandler completist, this is worth looking into, but I wouldn't start with this one if you've never read him before.