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wolfiedude14 's review for:
Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
adventurous
dark
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
By all standards a vast improvement compared to the big sleep, the plot is lucid and the prose feels more purposed and just as vivid.
The most significant departure in contrast is the issue of race, it is interesting to see the treatment of foreigners as though they were different breeds of the same animal, it is obviously quite racist. It’s treated as an obvious and casual fact that each race seems to be determinate of character, such as the Mexican in the hotel who smiles subserviently to the white hero Philip Marlowe, or the “stinking Indian” who I suppose could be a Native American given the language of the U.S. at the time? Marlowe’s world is one of obvious inherent supremacy of the white men, but the irony that makes the racism less brutal is the fact that the supposed supremacy of the white man is constantly undermined by a changing and criminal world. So on the one hand you have an inherent and harmful reactionary conservatism, and on the other the accidental highlighting of the displacement of the whole white man narrative with an ending that doesn’t necessarily settle his position back into place.
The sexism is also apparent, it is a femme fatale story in effect, but this should be obvious and kind of a banal point since we’re discussing 30s crime fiction.
Overall worth reading for the prose and thriller, and perhaps the additional factor of classic Americana culture.
The most significant departure in contrast is the issue of race, it is interesting to see the treatment of foreigners as though they were different breeds of the same animal, it is obviously quite racist. It’s treated as an obvious and casual fact that each race seems to be determinate of character, such as the Mexican in the hotel who smiles subserviently to the white hero Philip Marlowe, or the “stinking Indian” who I suppose could be a Native American given the language of the U.S. at the time? Marlowe’s world is one of obvious inherent supremacy of the white men, but the irony that makes the racism less brutal is the fact that the supposed supremacy of the white man is constantly undermined by a changing and criminal world. So on the one hand you have an inherent and harmful reactionary conservatism, and on the other the accidental highlighting of the displacement of the whole white man narrative with an ending that doesn’t necessarily settle his position back into place.
The sexism is also apparent, it is a femme fatale story in effect, but this should be obvious and kind of a banal point since we’re discussing 30s crime fiction.
Overall worth reading for the prose and thriller, and perhaps the additional factor of classic Americana culture.