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zackbs 's review for:
Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler
My favorite Marlowe mystery, and I love them all. Chandler is at his best with his always-sparkling dialogue in this one, and his descriptions just kill me every time. Everything is sun-drenched and languid and rotten. The mystery is ranging and wild, full of colorful characters, danger and the kind of dogged, beaten nobility that makes noir so satisfying. The writing is gorgeous and funny and quietly sad, as Marlowe's endless struggle against cynicism inflects every note of Chandler's prose.
I'd forgotten just how unfortunately racist the setting is, reflecting the times: the story opens with a senseless murder in a black-only bar and all the white characters say causally racist things whenever the subject is brought up. Marlowe gets called into the job because the cop assigned to the murders doesn't think it's worth his time, since the victims are black. It does not age well.
Other things I hadn't remembered: there's a very interesting episode toward the end, where Marlowe meets a helpful man in a bingo parlor, that on this reading jumped out at me as very queerly coded. It is notable that Marlowe confronts and explores relationships with a beautiful seductress who offers easy sex, as well as a romantic would-be sidekick who offers domestic comfort, and he is never quite comfortable with either; in the end he is only ever emotionally honest, vulnerable, and sincerely rhapsodic about a beautiful man he meets briefly on the pier.
I'd forgotten just how unfortunately racist the setting is, reflecting the times: the story opens with a senseless murder in a black-only bar and all the white characters say causally racist things whenever the subject is brought up. Marlowe gets called into the job because the cop assigned to the murders doesn't think it's worth his time, since the victims are black. It does not age well.
Other things I hadn't remembered: there's a very interesting episode toward the end, where Marlowe meets a helpful man in a bingo parlor, that on this reading jumped out at me as very queerly coded. It is notable that Marlowe confronts and explores relationships with a beautiful seductress who offers easy sex, as well as a romantic would-be sidekick who offers domestic comfort, and he is never quite comfortable with either; in the end he is only ever emotionally honest, vulnerable, and sincerely rhapsodic about a beautiful man he meets briefly on the pier.