بین سه تا داستانی که از چندلر تا حالا خوندم - یعنی این کتاب، پنجره ی مرتفع و بانوی دریاچه - این داستان یکم پایین تر یا حتی هم سطح بانوی دریاچه است ولی از پنجره ی مرتفع بهتره - این مقایسه ام ترجمه رو هم در بر می گیره. اگر اواخر این کتاب رو نادیده بگیریم حتی می تونم بگم که بهترین کتاب چندلره که تا حالا خوندم

اینکه از اواخر کتاب چندان راضی نیستم کلیتش دلیه و نمی تونم منطقا بگم دلیلش چیه - شاید اینکه چندلر بعد از اینهمه گله گشاد کردن داستان تو جمع کردن عناصر یکم سمبل کاری کرده. البته اینو قاطعانه می تونم بگم که قصه ی مرگ تری و ملاقات تری و مارلو در آخر داستان تو کت من نرفت - شاید اگه داستان تری رو همون جور ول می کرد بهتر بود حتی

در یکی از ریویوها هم از ترجمه شکایت شده بود هم از اینکه از اول معلوم بود داستان تری جدی نیست. والا برای من هیچ کدوم از این ایرادا وارد نبود. ترجمه به نظرم معقول بود - و رفت و آمدام بین متن فارسی و انگلیسی مؤید این نظرمه؛ در مورد قصه ی تری هم به نظرم اومد که شک من خواننده اتفاقا خواست نویسنده هم هست

حاشیه: البته متن سانسور هم داشت مثلا در بخش مربوط به صحبت مارلو با هربرت و آیلین در کافه یا در بخش آمدن خواهر سیلویا به خونه ی مارلو

Hands down the best of Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe. I loved it. So many strong lines, I could have highlighted almost the whole book! I think this book shows Marlowe in his very best light, but was also pretty sad.

I had read The Long Goodbye many years ago, and liked it. In the meantime, I have aged -- not exactly like a fine wine, but aged nonetheless -- and found myself loving Raymond Chandler's penultimate work. I might even go so far as to say it is his masterpiece, though back then I liked The Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely more.

This time I detected the raggedness. Chandler's wife, Cissy, was dying and he felt more vulnerable. This is no tight Agatha Christie thriller than runs like a Swiss clockwork. Not by a long shot. It's about a nasty, persistent evil that, once you poke it with a stick, keeps coming back to snare you and hurt you. Somehow, Chandler's detective Marlowe walks the straight and narrow path and comes out alive at the end:

I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between the stars. When I got home I mixed a stiff one and stood by the open window in the living room and sipped it and listened to the groundswell of the traffic on Laurel Canyon Boulevard and looked at the glare of the big angry city hanging over the shoulder of the hills through which the boulevard had been cut. Far off the banshee wail of police or fire sirens rose and fell, never for very long completely silent. Twenty-four hours a day somebody is running, somebody else is trying to catch him. Out there in the night of a thousand crimes people were dying, being maimed, cut by flying glass, crushed against steering wheels or under heavy tires. People were being beaten, robbed, strangled, rape, and murdered. People were hungry, sick, bored, desperate with loneliness or remorse or fear, angry, cruel, feverish, shaken by sobs. A city no worse than others, a city rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city lost and beaten and full of emptiness.

And mind you, this is just the background in which a series of murders and/or suicides take place that call Marlowe's actions into question and put him in personal peril, such as the time four toughs waylay him in his own house. They included the following:

A man was sitting across the room with his legs crossed and a gun resting sideways on his thigh. He looked rangy and tough and his skin had that dried-out look of people who live in sun-bleached climates. He was wearing a dark brown gabardine-type windbreaker and the zipper was open almost to his waist. He was looking at me and neither his eyes nor the gun moved. He was as calm as an adobe wall in the moonlight.

That last sentence inspired writer Walter Mosley to begin writing his own series of detective novels featuring Easy Rawlins.

I feel I have not rendered justice to this great novel -- probably because it is still working its way through my bloodstream and opening channels in my body that I did not know existed.

October-November 1949, New York. Detective Philip Marlowe and Terry Lennox are friends. One night, Terry asks Philip to bring him to Tijuana border as if he is running out from something. Later, it is revealed that Terry's wife is dead and the police files a case against Philip as an accessory to murder, i.e., for letting Terry to flee. What follows is a convoluted and improbable plot. There are many other characters introduced mostly as suspects. Although this book is an easy read, the plot can can make you woozy and confused. However, this is a typical whodunit and in the end, Terry - earlier introduced with another name and with another face - came out.

The Long Goodbye (first published in 1953) is my first book by Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). His earliest novel, The Big Sleep (1939) is in my to-be-read shelf and now it will stay there for a longer time as my brother says it is a "big bore". Both of these books are in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. 501 Must Read Books includes his other novel, Farewell My Lovely (1940) so it must be my next Chandler work. In most cases 501 editors make more sense than their 1001 counterparts.

However all of these - among 5-6 others - books by Chandler are all criminal cases by the same Detective Philip Marlowe. We know that Agatha Christie (1890-1976) has Detective Hercule Poirot and Dan Brown (1964-present) has Detective Robert Langdon. Christie and Chandler are contemporaries and made their mystery thrillers all blockbusters during their times. Now it is Dan Brown and his Robert Langdon lording it in the bestsellers list. There is also Patricia Cornwell (1956-present) with her Dr. Kay Scarpetta but she is not a detective but a medical examiner.

Interesting, huh? Style and plot stay the same and books in this genre can still make money even after a handful of decades.

I am not really a fan of detective mystery novels but it can be gripping and interesting at times. However, the one that is still to be topped is my favorite in this genre: Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Brown has so far released 5 novels: Digital Fortress (1988), Angels and Demons (2000), Deception Point (2001), The Da Vinci Code (2003) and The Lost Symbol (2009). So far, I've read the latter 4 as I heard the first one is mediocre.

However, as I still have 2 more books by Raymond Chandler so it is not yet goodbye time. But it will be take a longer while as I have other writers still to discover.

Superb - but you know that.

I've read all of Raymond Chandler's books, some more than once, and, like P.G. Wodehouse, his literary charms never waver.

Wonderful writing, and the world weary Marlowe character, a 1930s knight-errant trying to rise above LA's endemic corruption and cynicism, make for a winning combination.

The Long Goodbye (1953) may well be the pick of the Marlowe books, his journey through the shallow and sordid world of the idle rich in LA's Idle Valley inspires disgust and makes for a classic backdrop for the familiar themes of privilege, politics, policing, gambling and organised crime.

It's got a great ending too.

5/5

Chandler does with words what Gershwin did with musical
notes. The result here is a personal work. Yet, the Altman movie is far better than the book.

IT’S OK WITH ME



Marlowe cresce, senza invecchiare.
Letterariamente nato nel 1939, qui appare quattordici anni dopo per la sesta volta.

Disilluso, e apparentemente cinico, è in realtà il solito inguaribile romantico, qui più che mai.
Al punto da credere ‘ancora’ in valori come l’amicizia, e perfino l’onestà.
In questo romanzo, più che in altri, la tematica dell’alcol la fa da padrone, ci sono ben tre personaggi che ne sono schiavi: lo scrittore in crisi creativa, l’amico fuggitivo, e lo stesso protagonista. Per un lungo periodo della sua vita Chandler ebbe seri problemi di alcol, fino probabilmente a morire per le conseguenze dell’eccesso.


Il condominio dove abita Marlowe a Westwood - sullo sfondo le sue belle vicine di casa.

Il lungo addio è il grande sonno, la morte.

Per me Chandler rimane un maestro insuperato del noir in chiave hard boiled, e leggerlo rimane uno dei piaceri della vita.

Poi, vent’anni dopo l’uscita del romanzo, nel 1973, arrivò Robert Altman. Erano i suoi anni più fecondi: in soli cinque anni realizzò film storici, come questo, “M*A*S*H*”, “McCabe & Mrs Miller-I compari”, “Thieves Like Us-Gang,” “Nashville”, concedendosi anche opere ‘minori’, ma sempre più che pregevoli, come “Brewster McCloud-Anche gli uccelli uccidono”, “Images” e “California Split-California Poker”. Il suo obiettivo sembrava essere fare buoni film intervenendo sui generei cinematografici, smitizzandoli (pietra miliare rimane la rivisitazione del West nel film con Warren Beatty e Julie Christie), giocando sugli stereotipi.
Qui, più che altrove, respiro molta nouvelle vague francese, sapientemente adattata alla costa ovest degli US.


Verso la fine, stessa inquadratura del mitico finale: qui Marlowe arriva a piedi alla casa dell’amico, e poi se ne va (sempre a piedi!).

Altman carrella, panoramica, zoomma, muove in continuazione la sua macchina da presa col dolly, e riprende attraverso finestre, su vetri specchi quadri finestre acqua, superfici che riflettono e schermano, cornici che raddoppiano l’inquadratura.
Altrettanto meta-cinematografica è la colonna sonora di John Williams, la canzone The Long Goodbye che si ripete per tutto il film sotto forma di puro score, oppure dalla radio, oppure cantata dai personaggi, nel campanello di una porta, nella marcia funebre di un funerale messicano.



La storia, oltre a essere attualizzata ambientandola nella Los Angeles dei primi anni Settanta (il gangster sembra un sosia di Paul Simon! È interpretato da Mark Rydell, più famoso come regista che come attore: suoi sono “Sul lago dorato” e “Il fiume dell’ira”), è scarnificata, ridotta all’osso, sfrondando tutti i rami secondari con cui Chandler contorceva le sue trame.


Gould-Marlowe rimane vestito così tutto il film, inclusa la sigaretta accesa, presente in ogni singola scena.

Già dalla prima inquadratura capiamo molto di questo ‘nuovo’ Marlowe: dorme vestito con la luce accesa su un letto sfatto, accanto ha un posacenere straboccante di cicche, viene svegliato alle tre del mattino dal gatto affamato, si accende immediatamente una sigaretta, e come nel resto del film, non la abbandona mai, e la accende sempre con fiammiferi strusciati su qualsiasi superficie (la parete dietro il letto è tutta segnata). Sembra uno studente fuori sede, e fuori corso, di quelli che frequentano poco la doccia, non rinunciano a vestiti stazzonati e lavandini ingombri di piatti sporchi.
È un tale perdente che poco più avanti perde anche il gatto (non è riuscito a imbrogliarlo: il gatto ha la sua marca preferita di cibo in scatola e mangia solo quella, Marlowe ha cambiato etichetta ai barattoli, ma il gatto non c’è cascato).


I dialoghi delle scene con Hayden-Wade sono tutti improvvisati perché Sterling Hayden era sempre ubriaco e strafatto. La casa dove abita è la casa dove abitava Robert Altman all’epoca.

Durante l’interrogatorio della polizia Marlowe si dipinge la faccia con l’inchiostro del tampone per le impronte digitali: un po’ come un giocatore di football, ancor più come un pellerossa, a metà tra la marachella e la protesta (Belmondo si colorava di blu nel finale di “Pierrot le fou”).
Però indossa sempre lo stesso abito scuro, con camicia bianca e cravatta: anche se invitato a togliersela, evita, rimane vestito perfino quando si tuffa nell’oceano per salvare lo scrittore ubriaco (un immenso iconico Sterling Hayden, che improvvisò tutti i suoi dialoghi perché sul set era perennemente ubriaco e fatto d’erba).


Gould/Marlowe prova a imbrogliare il gatto: di nascosto riempie il barattolo del cibo preferito dal felino con un altro qualsiasi, lo offre alla bestiola che però non ci casca, e rifiuta sdegnasa.

È un Marlowe molto diverso, a cominciare dal fatto che è trasportato negli anni Settanta.
Ma nostalgia e malinconia impregnano il film come il romanzo: basta pensare alla macchina che Elliott Gould-Philip Marlowe possiede, una Lincoln Continental decapottabile del 1948. O basta pensare al fatto che a sceneggiare è la stessa Leigh Brackett del mitico “Il Grande Sonno”, proprio quello diretto da Haward Hawks nel 1946, con l’ancor più mitico Bogart che rese leggendario il private eye Marlowe. O anche alle imitazione del custode del Malibu Colony.
Ma oltre a questi sentimenti ‘retro’, c’è ironia e umorismo da vendere, macchiette, caricature, alleggerimento, diluizione della suspense.
È un noir così atipico che è girato quasi tutto di giorno, senza neon e asfalti bagnati in controluce (il direttore della fotografia è il grande Vilmos Zsigmond, che in post-produzione sovraespose il negativo alla luce per smorzare i neri e ammorbidire i colori fino a raggiungere tonalità pastello).


Le vicine di casa, sempre nude, sempre tra lo strafatto e lo sciroccato.

È un film con un investigatore privato protagonista e non vediamo mai il suo ufficio, con la classica porta a vetri, e la bottiglia di bourbon nascosta nel cassetto della scrivania. Dove lavora questo Marlowe? Ce l’ha un ufficio?
È un detective privato che gira disarmato, tranne nel finale.
Che ha vicine di casa bellissime e sciroccate, perennemente in topless, sempre sveglie, passano il tempo tra yoga meditazione e confezionando candele, preparano brownies alle tre del mattino (sicuramente speziati di hashish). Marlowe invece di corteggiarle, gli fa la spesa di notte e non si fa rendere i soldi. Piuttosto chiede loro di gettare un occhio sul suo gatto che s’è offeso per il tranello della scatoletta di cibo ed è sparito.
Gould è sornione e strafottente, ma emana anche tenerezza e fragilità, le donne lo ingaggiano anche per essere protette (vedi la moglie dello scrittore, Nina van Pallandt).


Riflessi e doppie inquadrature.

Per tutto il film Gould-Marlowe ripete “It’s ok with me”, inno di strafottenza e rinuncia: ma alla fine invece, all’amico che gli dice "A nessuno importa…", risponde "Importa a me.” E compie un gesto tanto inaspettato quanto inevitabile, regalando al film un finale magnifico, decisamente superiore a quello del romanzo.

Quanto assomiglia ai protagonisti dei film americani della stessa epoca (il Jack Nicholson di “Cinque pezzi facili”, Gene Hackman de “La conversazione”, DeNiro di “Taxi Driver”, sempre Hackman di “Bersaglio di notte”, il Krist Kristofferson di “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid”…: delusi, perdenti, ma non sconfitti, anti-eroi un po’ fuori dal tempo, ma perfette espressioni di quel loro tempo incerto.

E allora, il lungo addio del film di Altman è forse quello del cinema americano al cinema classico, al cinema di papà: la nouvelle vague è venuta almeno dieci/quindici prima, anche il free cinema, adesso è il tempo della New Hollywood (non per niente il film si chiude sulle note di Hooray for Hollywoodche continua a scorrere sotto i titoli di coda)

PS
In due ruoli minori, neppure citati nei titoli di coda (uncredited) si vedono David Carradine e Arnold Schwarzenegger.


Da sinistra a destra: Robert Altman, Nina von Pallandt, Elliott Gould.

...And now I'm fresh out of Chandler.

Everyone's been telling me that The Long Goodbye is the best. I think they're right. Several people told me I should read it first. I think they're wrong. I think it's best when you know and love Philip Marlowe, and you know and love Chandler's writing, and he can come along and punch you in the gut and bowl you over all over again. Or shoot you in the head.

I loved this one the best. I loved Terry Lennox and I loved Marlowe for helping him and I kind of followed the whole plot and thought it was clever and probably the best. I love the last two chapters and wanted to punch Chandler for them at the same time. I love the way it finishes up, and I hate the way that Marlowe is just as alone, just as bitter, just as poor, at the end. Except, I hate it in a good way.

Probably the best plotted and the most emotional of the lot. If you're only going to read one, read this.

Reading Chandler is like unravelling a ball of tangled yarn, just when you think you've found the end you hit another knot.

Chandler had become my favorite author somewhere between The Big Sleep and The Little Sister. I had saved this book to savor when I was jostling for a quality read cause I knew its chances of disappointing me were pretty low. The last true Marlowe novel (there are two more books in the series one of them a novella another one finished after Chandler's death) was a bittersweet read. It did not flow like his previous hardboiled mysteries, the two books mentioned earlier were probably better examples of the genre but it could be debated this no way hindered The Long Goodbye from being the better book.

Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran Terry Lennox and tries to help him escape the country when he is charged with his cheating wife's murder. In an unrelated case Marlowe is tasked with stopping an alcoholic author from hurting himself or his family.

All the previous novels had a singular case with Marlowe diving into the deep end of the pool from the get go. The whole structure is turned upside down in The Long Goodbye. Terry Lennox is less of a case and more of a friend in a jam while the other case involves babysitting an idiot which does not sound as interesting as the murder and mayhem that Marlowe witnessed in the previous books. But the twists ramp up and the bodies start to pile in true hardboiled fashion and the resolution comes much quicker than expected. There is a late twist but it is not of the most memorable variety.

The most deplorable and vapid character is the victim which ensures the suspects gallery is not made up of the usual boisterous brutes or the despicable damsels. Most supporting characters garner sympathy as they have been dealt a hand that they are ill equipped to play with. An alcoholic writer caught wallowing in self pity unable to do the one thing he is supposedly good at that is expressing himself coherently. His stoic wife caught between dreaming of an unrequited love and performing her duty to her husband. The victim's sister who oscillates between vulnerable and viscous. And then there is Marlowe.

Philip Marlowe isn't just the most important character in the book, he is the book. The book is an examination of Marlowe's idea of morality. Since the last book (The Little Sister) Marlowe had shifted from sarcasm to gallows humor, from having a healthy mistrust of optimism to outright pessimism and here he is tired, angry, bitter, cynical and still refusing to quit. His version of morality is not one associated with idealism or nobility. It isn't the shallow morality of a a callow cynic. He is moral because he has too much self respect to walk away from doing what he knows is the right thing. He realizes that morality is foolish, it is easier to look the other way and walk into the sunset and all that stops him is his broken pride. This dichotomy of a cynical man in a corrupt world and his self awareness makes Marlowe my favorite character. His quotable quips and witty one liners are there but it's his worldview which I find the most interesting thing about him. He struggles with doing the right thing like all of us and does it anyway even knowing it isn't in his best interest.

Chandler's writing had been described as beautiful, descriptive, elaborate and insightful. In this novel it's all that but more than that it's haunting, not a word used to describe pulp fiction but not a word that I use lightly. His simile laden descriptions are there but it's when he comments on society or marriage - "For two people in a hundred it's wonderful. The rest just work at it." that one can't help nod along and wonder how eerily correct his words are even sixty years down the line. It ensures The Long Goodbye like other Marlowe novels and unlike most mystery books isn't just a story about the destination - unearthing the final piece of puzzle who killed who; but more about the journey - the brilliant evocative writing that steals every scene.

Any medium of mass entertainment be it movies, tv, books has two main functions to entertain without insulting the intelligence of its patrons or to be interesting and say something that's worth paying heed to. Chandler is one of those unbelievably rare examples in the world of mass entertainment (nowadays called pop culture) across different eras who says something interesting in an entertaining manner. If that's not enough to convince anyone to give him a chance nothing will.

Chandler in the introduction to Trouble is my Business (a collection of Marlowe stories) states that there are no classics in the mystery genre. It's a genre unlike the more literary ones where the glass ceiling had not yet been breached and probably won't ever be. But in this book he has done enough to prove himself wrong. Rating - 5/5

(Book 511 from 1001 books) - The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, #6), Raymond Chandler

The Long Goodbye is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1953, his sixth novel featuring the private investigator Philip Marlowe. Some critics consider it inferior to The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, but others rank it as the best of his work. Chandler, in a letter to a friend, called the novel "my best book".

The novel opens outside a club called the Dancers. It is late October or early November. No specific year is given for when the events take place, but internal evidence and the publication date of the novel place them some time between 1950 and 1952.

Philip Marlowe meets a drunk named Terry Lennox, a man with scars on one side of his face. They forge an uneasy friendship over the next few months. In June, Lennox shows up late one night at Marlowe's home in "a great deal of trouble" and needing a ride to the airport across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. Marlowe agrees as long as Lennox does not tell him any details of why he is running.

On his return to Los Angeles, Marlowe learns that Lennox's wife was found dead in her guest house and that she died before Lennox fled. Marlowe is arrested on suspicion of murder after refusing to co-operate with investigators, who want him to confess that he helped Lennox flee. ...

خداحافظی طولانی - ریموند چندلر (روزنه‌ کار) ادبیات آمریکا؛ یکی از صد داستان جنایی برتر دنیا؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز سوم ماه می سال1999میلادی

عنوان: خداحافظی طولانی؛ نویسنده: ریموند چندلر؛ مترجم فتح الله جعفری جوزانی؛ تهران، روزنه کار، 1378، در 408ص؛ شابک 9646728073؛ موضوع داستانهای پلیسی از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکایی - ماجراهای فلیپ مارلو - کتاب شش - سده 20م

چکیده داستان: مردی به نام «تری لنوکس» با دختری از خاندان ثروتمند آشنا می‌شود، اما چون خود از ثروت بهره‌ ای ندارد، با بی‌مهری دختر مواجه می‌گردد، و ناگزیر از او فاصله می‌گیرد؛ سرانجام «تری» با مساعدت دوستش ـ کارآگاه مارلو ـ کاری در «لاس‌وگاس» می‌یابد، و اوضاع او به شدت رو به بهبودی می‌رود، و پول فراوان دست و پا می‌کند؛ او با تغییر وضع مالی خود، به سراغ همان دختر می‌رود، و با او ازدواج می‌کند؛ این امر البته با نارضایتی کارآگاه «مارلو» صورت می‌گیرد؛ یکچند سپری می‌شود، تا اینکه «تری» با حالتی وحشت‌زده، و تفنگ به دست، نزد کارآگاه «مارلو» می‌آید، و…؛

آغاز داستان از متن: (دفعه ی اولی که چشمم به «تری لنوکس» افتاد؛ توی یک ماشین «رولزرویس» نقره ای رنگ، بیرون تراس رستوران «دنسرز» مست بود، مسئول پارکینگ ماشین را آورده بود، و همینطور درو واز نگه داشته بود؛ چون پای چپ «تری لنوکس» هنوز بیرون ماشین آویزان بود؛ انگار یادش رفته بود که اصلا پای چپی هم داره؛ چهره اش جوان به نظر میاومد؛ ولی موهاش سفید استخونی بود؛ از چشماش معلوم بود که پاتیله؛ ولی ازون که میگذشتی، قیافه اش مثل هر کس دیگه ای بود؛ که تو جایی که فقط واسه سرکیسه کردن ساخته شده، پول زیادی خرج کرده باشد؛ یه دختر کنارش بود؛ موهایی به رنگ قرمز تیره ی دوست داشتنی داشت؛ رو لبهاش لبخند دوری بود، و رو شونه هاش یه پالتو خز آبی، که تقریبا باعث میشد اون «رولز رویس» مثل هر ماشین دیگه ای به نظر بیاد؛ اما نه؛ هیچی نمیتونه با «رولزرویس» این کار رو بکنه؛ و ...)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 07/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I recently finished the first of the Philip Marlow stories (The Big Sleep  (my review)) that I had not read in a long time. I decided to go back and read some of the higher points in the series to test my memory. I realize now that except for a few of Marlowe’s snappier similes I had completely forgotten how this story went. It was like reading the book for the first time.

I like reading these old noir classics. The original copyright or this book is 1953. The book was written 15-years after The Big Sleep. Frankly, I prefer the pre-war stories in the series to the post-war books. They’re more historically interesting and that time feels less familiar to me.

Prose is straightforward. Dialog and descriptive prose are about equal. I note that Chandler indulges in a lot more exposition in this book than in the Big Sleep. The book is modernly long at 380-pages. The earlier stories were brief by modern standards at around 250-pages. I greatly appreciate and miss the economy of those earlier stories.

Marlowe’s badinage is iconic. All noir Private Investigators are masters of the snappy comeback—it is part of the arch-type. The dialog is not sexually explicit, but it can be licentious. Differently from the other books in the series, Marlowe ends-up bedding the right woman. She makes a reappearance in n  Playbackn (my review). There was also no vulgar language used. I would have expected expletives being used as punctuation by some of the characters. Unlike in earlier books of the series, I did not have to research any long out-of-use slang terms. (I was disappointed not having to do that.) Finally, Chandler includes an extraordinary amount of exposition (soliloquies are also forms of exposition) by earlier standards in this book. He writes a bit about writing and a lot about how he sees the world. I laughed out loud at the sentiment that most fiction was, junk written for half-wits. (I thought of YA fiction.) I found his famous n  blondesn soliloquy to be more of a screed. I did find his skewering of the bourgeois lifestyle of Californians more than amusing.

Descriptive prose is likewise good. Chandler is an author preoccupied with atmosphere. It’s very rich, cynical and leftist.

Characters have always been important to the author. Many of this story’s characters are arch-typical noir types: Smart Talking PI (Philip Marlowe), femme fatale (Eileen Wade), "good" bad girl (Linda Loring), Heffe( Harland Potter), Good Cop (Bernie Ohls), Bad Cop (Captain Gregorious), etc.. Chandler wrote himself into the story as the alcoholic, writers blocked, Roger Wade. There are a certain amount of thugs, other than the thuggish police. Many of them are Latino. Latinos fared badly in this story. There is also a small amount of gay-bashing in this story, which was less than in earlier stories.

Plot is a two-parter. Marlowe’s altruism leads him into the case. A friend’s (Terry Lennox) wife (Potter’s daughter) is murdered. Lenox is martyred to protect the reputation of a rich and socially prominent father (Harland Potter). Marlowe sees the injustice in the cover-up. Serendipitously, a subsequent case involving the Wades connects to the Lenox murder. The last 100-pages unnecessarily tied-up loose ents. I thought the book went on overly long, with only the last two chapters being enough to deliver the major plot twist.

This story was interesting to me as the apogee of the author's fiction rather than as a detective story. Marlowe is fully developed. His snappy badinage and the author's use of metaphors and similes are all there. Although, I think they are slightly overripe at this point. The book went on overly long by previous stories. I also found the social commentary to be too heavy-handed. This may be my modern perspective. However, the story is still worth reading.

Considering my failed memory of Marlowe, I think I'm going to go back and read Farewell, My Lovely.

If you liked this story, you'd also be interested in the movie  The Long Goodbye (1973) . Although, I didn’t appreciate the update to more modern times (1970’s) or the cat.

Readers interested in early Chandler should read n  Chandler: Later Novels and Other Writingsn (my review) . This book would also be helpful in seeing the autobiographical aspects of this story.