Definitely my favorite Chandler, beating out The Big Sleep by a star and more than a dozen memorable lines. This book is absolutely soaking in quotables and may have the best prose of any noir IÂ’ve ever read. Add in a classic main character and a solid plot and you have a nice shiny bundle of win.
 
PHILIP MARLOWE:
 
Chandler’s iconic PI is an arrogant alcoholic who fails every PC test you can formulate. He’s racist (from what I recall he insults African-Americans, Japanese and Native Americans and maybe others), homophobic and sexist enough that I would blackjack him on the braincase before he ever got within 10 yards of either of my daughters.    
 
He’s also mesmerizing and fills up the page with his presence. His entertainment value is off the charts and he cracks wiser than anyone this side of Sam Spade. But whereas Hammett’s Spade is all slick, smoky quips and cat- grace, Marlowe is the “other side of the tracks” version. He’s unkempt, rugged and surly and his words are crusty with barbs.
 
Whereas SpadeÂ’s every move seems coordinated and cross-referenced a well-rehearsed play, Marlowe is all reaction, counterpunch and intuitive hunches.
 
However, Spade, heÂ’s also smart (much more than he usually lets on) and has a knack for clear thinking and being able to read people. Best of all though, the man is incapable of cutting slack or giving inches and is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
 
THE PLOT:
 
A convoluted series of mini-mysteries all stemming from MarloweÂ’s search for the ex-girlfriend of a just released from prison man-mountain named Moose Malloy. Fairly typical noir stuff but very well executed and paced to perfection by Chandler.
 
THE WRITING:
 
Finally…the prose. The real star of the show. I would say Chandler’s writing is a masterful example of noir. There may be others as good but it is hard for me to imagine any better. I would put Chandler’s prose into 3 separate and equally impressive categories that you don’t usually see from a single pen. First, you have a whole host of “I have to remember that” lines that are just fun to read. Quotes :
 
“The eighty-five cent dinner tasted a discarded mail bag and was served to me by a waiter who looked as if he would slug me for a quarter, cut my throat for six bits and bury me at sea in a barrel of concrete for a dollar and a half, plus sales tax.”

“‘Who is the Hemingway person at all?’
A guy that keeps saying the same thing over and over until you begin to believe it must be good.”
 
“I didn’t say anything. I lit my pipe again. It makes you look thoughtful when you’re not thinking.”     
 
“It was a nice walk if you d grunting.”
 
“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”
 
“I smooth shiny girl, hardboiled and loaded with sin.”
 
“A Harvard boy. Nice use of the subjunctive mood. The end of my foot itched, but my bank account was still trying to crawl under a duck.”
 
Second, Chandler has a wonderful facility for painting descriptions so that you feel youÂ’re walking right beside Marlowe and he does it in such sparse, efficient style. 1644 West 54th Place was a dried-out brown house with a dried-out brown lawn in front of it. There was a large bare patch around a tough-looking palm tree. On the porch stood one lonely wooden rocker, and the afternoon breeze made the unprunned shoots of last yearÂ’s poinsettias tap-tap against the cracked stucco wall. A line of stiff yellowish half-washed clothes jittered on a rusty wire in the side yard.
Â…
I was looking into dimness at a blowsy woman who was blowing her nose as she opened the door. Her face was gray and puffy. She had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasnÂ’t enough life in it to be ginger and isnÂ’t clean enough to be gray. Her body was thick in a shapeless outing flannel bathrobe many moons past color and design. Those descriptions materialized in front of me more than pages of less polished prose could accomplish. It felt I was there.

Finally, there are the passages that arenÂ’t just clever quips or snappy dialogue, but that convey a real sense of emotion.
 
“She hung up, leaving me with a curious feeling of having talked to somebody that didn’t exist.”
 
“…a sudden flashing movement that I sensed rather than saw. A pool of darkness opened at my feet and was far, far deeper than the blackest night. I dived into it. It had no bottom.”
 
“There was just enough for to make everything seem unreal. The wet air was as cold as the ashes of love.”
 
That is the trifecta of writing. Brilliant, sharp and funÂ….descriptive, informative and polishedÂ…and evocative, moving and powerful.
 
Yes, 5.0 stars and a definite must read for fans of noir, mysteries or just superb prose.

HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!1930-1953 crime detectives ...more225 s2 comments Ahmad Sharabiani9,564 148

Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe, #2), Raymond Chandler

Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio. Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma Valento. The club has changed owners, so no one now there knows her. Malloy ends up killing the black owner of the club and escaping.

The murder case is assigned to Lt. Nulty, a Los Angeles Police detective who has no interest in the murder of a black man. Marlowe advises Nulty to look for Malloy's girlfriend, but Nulty prefers to let Marlowe do the routine legwork and rely on finding Malloy based on his huge size and loud clothes. Marlowe decides to follow up and look for the girl. ...

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????? ?????? ????? 17/05/1399???? ???????? 23/02/1401???? ???????? ?. ??????? Henry Avila497 3,280

Mr. Philip Marlowe is six feet tall and weighing 190 lbs. man, women find quite attractive, maybe a tough guy to many onlookers in a sleazy and a low -paying occupation too, but is not a superhero, no eyes in the back of the head when someone smashes his skull with a club from behind, bigger stronger men can and do beat him to a bloody pulp, still the private detective is relentless and will get up... A kind of honestly is his code, yet does bend a little for his needs... constantly smoking cigarettes, drinking hard liquor and chasing careless women, not always he doesn't partake while sleeping. In a routine cheap case , (when he can collect his fee) of trying to find a runaway, a Greek husband, Marlowe on Central Avenue in Los Angeles 1940 gazes at the titanic and dangerous Moose Malloy, on an incessant mission, this former jailbird is six and a half feet tall, 260 lbs., dwarfs the amazed private eye, the recent unwisely released bank robber, is looking for his lost love the mysterious cute redhead Velma, enters the shady establishment the Florian nearby, he worked in eight long years ago then a nightclub now a gambling den, ( not legal, but in this city, no questions are asked) soon a man goes flying out the door landing in the gutter, the dumb Moose returns grabs Philip he's a paper doll and takes him upstairs, his shoes hardly touch the steps, after a brief argument the bouncer bounces very high, Mr. Malloy opens the door ( he wants information, now) not realizing things have changed... to an office in the back, does not get any...a homicide occurs the unstoppable force has been let loose . The cops don't trust Mr .Marlowe even the honest ones, asking him many questions and they do not his answers, threatening to take away his license he has heard that before, finally, let him walk out of their dingy downtown police headquarters, however all the troubles aren't any of his concern... A new case that pays well 100 bucks just to be a bodyguard, his client the nervous Mr. Lindsay Marriott, maybe a loathsome gigolo, he dresses well though and has good manners, involved with the wife of a multi -millionaire among others, the beautiful Mrs. Lewin ( Helen) Grayle but money doesn't smell, ( not always) things go dark and when Philip awakes at night in the lonely canyon, his client is no more...Marlowe will have to travels through the unsavory, with corruption everywhere he goes, mostly in the nearby small town of Bay City, ( Santa Monica)... meeting pretentious quacks, political bosses dirty cops, drug pushing doctors visiting gambling boats off the coast, the rich creeps too even a "good girl", (who scares him ) and with little help to solve several murders... Raymond Chandler describes Los Angeles as nobody before or after has, the underbelly and upper crust all of it, he knows how to write his plots are not what's important in his novels but characterization, style, pace, atmosphere and witty dialogue that few authors can ever reach or even attempt , talent is inherited, out of many only the giants will climb the heights of this eternal scribe.147 s David PutnamAuthor 18 books1,776

I love Goodreads it has really enhanced my reading experience. And at the same time added to my anxiety. There are too many great books to read. I have at least 3k physical books on my TBR pile in my office that has really turned into a book storage space. When another reader posts something about one of my favorite books, I stop and think about how much I loved that book. ThatÂ’s what happened recently with Farewell My Lovely. I dropped what I was reading and read it again. I donÂ’t have time to reread books not with with such a tall TBR pile that continually beckonsÂ…and yet I do because thatÂ’s what the reading experience is all about. Great reads.
IÂ’ve read Farewell my Lovely a number of times and with each reading I catch something IÂ’d missed. This book is timeless and one of the greats with the voice and turn-of-phrase that many have tried to duplicate and have failed. I highly recommend this book.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson series.151 s kohey51 233

First of all I'm so partial to R.Chandler's books that I'd easily give only the titles three stars,and this gem is definitely a five-star title.
Apart from this sentimental love-and-hate story,IÂ’m ALWAYS impressed by the characters speaking they carry a book of wit and humor,to the point that IÂ’ll start picking up sharp-edged setences from here and add them to my daily conversation.
The plot is a bit comlicated with rugged and overused narrative and minor parts,but the main irresistible characters beautifully cancel them out.
Of his novels,I'd say this is one of the best character-driven ones.
It was published in 1940,and the content is somewhat old fashioned,but every time I open this book,I can meet timeless Philip Marlowe,a man of principle.Just for this reason,I'll be reading it forever.raymond-chandler96 s Robin513 3,118

"She's a nice girl. Not my type."

"You don't them nice?" He had another cigarette going. The smoke was being fanned away from his face by his hand.

"I smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin."

Hey, copper, it's how I talk, see? Mahhhhhh

This was exactly what the doctor ordered after a blitz of wonderful yet terribly earnest books, one after the other. This classic noir was everything I needed. A handsome private dick (ahem), a heist of some rare jade jewels, mysterious beauties, lots of alcohol, clever wisecracks, and great writing.2017 american mystery ...more86 s Francesc465 261

Uno de los pendientes de Chandler.
La trama se desarrolla más lentamente que en otras ocasiones y el nudo central se encalla un poco ya que da la sensación de que el autor alarga innecesariamente la novela y este hecho le resta valor a un inicio trepidante y a un final al más puro estilo Marlowe.
Tiene todos los ingredientes "Hard Boiled" de siempre, aunque no es tan "perfecta" como "El sueño eterno" o "La dama del lago".

One of Chandler's list .
The plot unfolds more slowly than others occasions and the central knot becomes a bit stranded since it gives the feeling that the author unnecessarily lengthens the novel and this fact substrats value to a fast-paced beginning and an end in the purest Marlowe style.
It has all the "Hard Boiled" ingredients of all time, although it is not as "perfect" as "The big sleep" or "The lady of the lake".81 s Ayz132 19

a powerful follow up to ‘the big sleep’ and possibly even better. i haven’t been able to make up my mind just yet. both are towering achievements (not to mention intimidating as a writer) in detective fiction, but to my mind what chandler accomplished in the big sleep in regards to revealing the despair and depravity of the rich in a way that felt pulling the curtain back just a tiny bit and not at all liking what you saw. revolting even.

and thatÂ’s reading it in 2023. which just shows you the timeless power of good storytelling.

which brings me to ‘farewell my lovely’ — a book which doesn’t have that unifying thematic quality, but what it makes up with in spades is chandler’s new found confidence in his writing ability after his debut. marlowe’s gritty sarcasm has been cranked up to 11, and it’s music to the ears, my friends. makes me want to walk around and answer everyone i know with sardonic replies that cut a sharp knife, but only a few seconds later when the other person realizes the joke.

just fantastic dialogue all throughout.

and thereÂ’s a chapter where marlowe gets drugged and stumbles around trying to get a grip on things, that might be the funniest thing youÂ’ll read all year. i was laughing out loud throughout.

to sum it up: iÂ’m rereading this book as i post this.

thatÂ’s how good it is.top-shelf82 s Dan Schwent3,087 10.7k

Philip Marlowe is looking for a woman's missing husband when he encounters Moose Malloy, a brute fresh out of prison, looking for his lost love Velma. Moose kills a man and Marlowe gets corralled into looking for the missing Velma. In the mean time, Marlowe gets another gig as a bodyguard and soon winds up with a corpse for a client. Will Marlowe find Velma and get to the bottom of things?

As I've said before, noir fiction and I go together chronic constipation and heroin addiction. Farewell, My Lovely, Philip Marlowe's sophmore adventure, is one of the better noir tales I've ever read.

I wasn't completely sold on Farewell, My Lovely at first. It seemed it took a little longer to get started than the Big Sleep. Once Marlowe got warmed up and I forgave it for not being The Big Sleep, I was completely absorbed by the writing. Chandler's poetic prose only got better in the gap between the Big Sleep and this book. There were even more quotable lines in this one. Chandler's similes reminded me of P.G. Wodehouse's at times, maybe the kind old Plum would write if he was in the grips of a powerful hangover.

"I lit a cigarette. It tasted a plumber's handkerchief."

As for the plot, it's only slightly less convoluted than the Big Sleep. The two cases didn't intersect much until the end and I only guessed the big twist a paragraph or two before it happened. As with the previous book, the prose was the star of the show. Marlowe took so many blows to the head in this one that I had sympathy pains while reading it.

While I wouldn't say it's as good as The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely is a classic and not to be missed by noir fans. Four easy stars.

2012 crime-and-mystery64 s Steve251 955

Excerpts from a dinner honoring the 2016 winner of the Otis Chandler Award for Literary Criticism

Audience Question: YouÂ’re known for your essay on the Kantian aesthetic of disinterested judgment as seen in the works of James Joyce, William Gaddis, and Dan Brown. Are there other authors or titles that come to mind, perhaps even more focused on the primacy of style?

Steve: Well, let’s see… Maybe the first book I read where a certain shadowy deportment really popped as a pure statement of style was Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. The book itself was a cannibalization of three earlier short stories of his. Whereas the stories were neatly contained as standalones, the edits in piecing them together were more slapdash, sacrificing both congruency and clarity in the process. Chandler responded saying, "My whole career is based on the idea that the formula doesn't matter, the thing that counts is what you do with the formula; that is to say, it is a matter of style.” And of course that hard-boiled, noir feel of his is prevalent to this day.

Audience Question: I may be taking you further afield, but is this visual, visceral style brought on by Chandler one that necessarily de-emphasizes plot?

Steve: I donÂ’t think so. Style is not everything. (Nor is image, much as Andre Agassi would have us believe on Canon's behalf.) Furthermore, Â…

Audience Question: [interrupting what would surely have been an insightful elaboration on the topic of substance v. style] But think back to the movies. When you picture Bogie and Bacall in The Big Sleep, do you remember the on-screen chemistry and the wise guy patter, or is it a plot detail, something the perp who stole the falcon, that stuck with you?

Steve: Actually, wasnÂ’t that DashiellÂ…

Audience member: [blurting out] For me, itÂ’s Bogie and Bacall. Even in black and white they sizzle.

Steve: Admittedly, HumpBac, as I to call them (retrofitting a nickname) were iconic, butÂ…

Another audience member: Those couple combo names have kind of run their course, don’t you think? Who’s even together at this point? Certainly not Brangelina. TomKat? – no. Zanessa? – no.

Yet another voice from the audience: What about Bennifer? Are they? ItÂ’s hard to keep track.

And another: I donÂ’t think so. I suppose Lizard (that is, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) were the first of the on-again, off-again power couples.

Host: IÂ’m afraid we may be veering off course as litterateurs, my friends. This isnÂ’t an episode of I Love Lucy, after all. Should we redirect ourselves? Steve?

Steve: Actually, that’s often how it works with me – seemingly on point for brief spurts before devolving into flapdoodle. Besides, I just thought of another one: Lucille Ball + Desi Arnaz. They’d be Ba, Bu, bu, b…

Susan (Steve's lovely): YouÂ’re mumbling in your sleep again.

Steve: Huh?

Susan: Must be another pizza dream.

Steve: Yeah, [shaking cobwebs from his head] that and the bibimbap I had for lunch. With extra hot sauce.

Susan: So what were you dreaming?

Steve: Ha, I think I was getting some kind of award and spouting complete nonsense, in one of my Goodreads where I have nothing to say but say it anyway. The only thing I remember from it is groping for a certain word.

Susan: Do you remember what it is?

Steve: Yeah. Ballsy.

Steve: [continuing, somewhat incredulous] I know, it doesnÂ’t make any sense to me either.

Susan: Hmm. Definitely a pizza dream.
60 s Luís2,092 881

I started reading Raymond Chandler's novels to complete my thriller culture. I thought I would find that same cliché of the solitary and invincible detective laying down the law in the streets of Los Angeles. So yes, it's partly true, but the novel is not just a story of gangsters; the essential lies in Chandler's talent: the atmosphere, the intrigue, and the writing are remarkable.
The story begins with an unusual encounter. Marlowe meets a man distinguished by a build "no wider than a tank truck." The behemoth enters a bar frequented by African Americans, and in less than a minute, one of the customers had ejected from the establishment—an excellent glide. The detective, intrigued, enters the bar in turn. And here, he is drawn into a tortuous story that will take him to the living rooms of a millionaire, a medium or an alcoholic slut, a clandestine clinic, or the holds of a boat transformed into a casino.
I particularly d Chandler's style. He knows how to be lyrical and uses images that of a beetle stuck in a police building to illustrate Marlowe's state of mind. And then there are these images that I find lovely. Here are two examples: "The moist air was cold as the ashes of a dead love" and "the voice became as cold as a canteen meal." The novel is very well written and has an old-fashioned touch (busty blondes, crooked police officers, Italian mobsters), giving it a natural charm. A favorite!2023-readings american-literature e-5 ...more57 s Dave3,233 392

Down These Mean Streets

When you open up any dictionary and you look up the phrase Hardboiled private eye, you'll find it defined right there in black and white as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. If much of the book seems familiar, it may be that you read it many years ago or that so many of the motifs were borrowed and used by so many other private eye writers over the years. But if you want to know how it's really done, you return to the master Hardboiled craftsman himself.

I always picture Philip Marlowe as Humphrey Bogart and no one can ever shake that image from me. However, Bogart only played Marlowe in the film adaptation of the first book in the series, The Big Sleep. For Farewell, My Lovely, you get the film images of Dick Powell and Robert Mitchum many decades later.

But, you always get the mean streets of Los Angeles no matter how you picture Marlowe. These streets range from the seedy joints lining Central Avenue to the estates in Beverly Hills and Brentwood Heights. The streets lead of course to Chandler's fictional Bay City, loosely based on what was a crooked Santa Monica right down to the gambling boats three legal miles offshore.

Marlowe here is always quick with a quip but world-weary. He's seen it all a time or two and nothing necessarily surprises him except maybe getting knocked out when he's playing bodyguard or locked up and drug-addled in a sanitarium.

The very beginning of the novel sets the whole attitude as Marlowe nonchalantly accepts a great big ape of a guy, Moose Malloy, no less, throwing a guy bodily out if his way. Moose is a great character, a singleminded maniac returned to the street after eight years in the pen and determined to find his gal, Vera. Gil Brewer later created a whole novel about such a guy in A Killer Is Loose.

All the usual Hardboiled rackets are well-represented here from blackmail to fortune telling to crooked cops to payoffs to rich folks living in a different world. Through it all, Marlowe resolutely starts adding up all these things that just don't add up and couldn't possibly be related. But what makes it such a joy to read is the fantastic prose, the descriptions of people and places that just bring them to life, often with a sardonic humor.100-top-crime-fiction crime-fiction-all crime-fiction-hardboiled ...more54 s Kemper1,390 7,301

Phillip Marlowe is one of the most famous and influential characters in detective fiction. HeÂ’s also a racist alcoholic, and after all the blows to the head he routinely takes, heÂ’s almost certainly suffering from post-concussion syndrome so you gotta question his judgment.

But heÂ’s also the guy that says things this:

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window."

And this:

"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake."

And this:

”" I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”

So I always find myself making allowances for MarloweÂ’s bad habits and personal failings.

Marlowe is working a boring job trying to find a missing husband when he has the bad luck to come across Moose Malloy. Malloy is a giant hulk of a man who just got out of prison and is looking for his lost love, Velma. Unfortunately, Moose is kind of simple and doesnÂ’t know his own strength so he ends up killing somebody when asking questions. As a witness, Marlowe tells the cops what he saw and is coerced into trying to find Velma by a lazy detective. However, a real paying job as a bodyguard for a guy delivering a ransom for the return of stolen jewelry comes up so Marlowe ditches the Malloy mess. But things donÂ’t go quite as expected.

One of the better Chandler novels, this is pretty typical Marlowe. The plot doesnÂ’t make a lot of sense, but thatÂ’s not really important. ItÂ’s all about atmosphere and attitude. If you can get past the casual racism that litters the early chapters, youÂ’ll find one of the classics of noir fiction.
crime-mystery detectives famous-books ...more54 s James ThaneAuthor 9 books6,987

It's impossible to think of anything that might be remotely fresh and interesting to say about this book. It's a classic of crime fiction; it was first published in 1940, and it's been reviewed thousands of times, mostly by people far more competent than I.

Suffice it to say that this is the second full-length novel featuring Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe, following The Big Sleep, which had been published in 1939. Marlowe was the prototype for all the tough, wise-cracking P.I.s that would follow, and Chandler was really the first crime fiction writer to fully exploit the setting of Los Angeles. Scores of writers have followed in his footsteps, but very few have succeeded as well as Chandler did.

As the book opens, Marlowe is searching for a missing husband when he encounters a mountain of a man named Moose Malloy who is staring up at a bar above the barber shop where Marlowe had hoped to find the aforementioned missing husband. Malloy, fresh out of prison after an eight-year stretch, is looking for his lost love, Velma. Malloy hasn't heard from Velma in all of that time, but that has not quenched his affections for the woman who used to work in the bar.

Eight years is a long time, and in the interim, the bar, which used to be a white establishment, has now become an African-American one, although in 1940, no one would have described the place quite that politely. Well, one thing leads to another and Malloy drags Marlowe up the stairs and begins demanding answers from the people in the bar who, not surprisingly, have never heard of Velma.

Malloy winds up killing someone in the bar and takes off, leaving Marlowe to explain things to the cops. From that point on, Marlowe is entangled in Malloy's search. As a sideline, he also takes a job body guarding a guy who is trying to exchange cash for a valuable jade necklace that was stolen from a friend.

Neither job is simple and neither turns out very well, and before long, Marlowe is up to his neck in trouble with the cops and a whole lot of other people as well. Before it's all over, he'll be beat up, doped up, pushed around, and lied to, but it's all in the nature of the job.

The plot really doesn't make a lot of sense, but nobody reads Chandler for the plot. The book is beautifully written with one great line following another. Through Marlowe, Chandler rolls back the curtain and exposes the seamy side of pre-war L.A. It's not a pretty sight, and you sometimes get the impression that Marlowe might be the only honest, decent man in the state.

The Big Sleep may be one of the greatest crime novels ever written, and it's an impossible act to follow, even for Raymond Chandler. I this book a lot, but I don't think it's quite on a par with the first book in the series. A solid 4.5 stars for me.

crime-fiction philip-marlowe raymond-chandler48 s Nikos Tsentemeidis416 264

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Raymond Chandler

????????????! american-literature noir45 s BradleyAuthor 4 books4,414

What can I say? I absolutely loved the style and imagery. I mean, SERIOUSLY loved it. Marlowe is the quintessential hard-boiled detective who is suspicious of everyone, especially the dames, clients, cops, and thugs... but he has a pretty good understanding with the thugs.

The tale is fun and familiar, partly because Chandler paved the road for the best of what we know of Noir, but moreover, it's just GOOD. Snappy. Sarcastic. So VERY colorful.

And because -- let's be fair -- this came out in 1940, we need to adjust our sensibilities. Just a little. As a character, Marlowe is an alcoholic racist who lets his boredom rule his feet and his mouth.

I don't have to his racism to think of him as the anti-hero that he is. He's an asshole in more ways than one. But he happens to hurt assholes, so that's viscerally okay. By today's standards, it's problematic, as are so many things that came out back then are, today, but the core and the style in this is totally brilliant. I'm often astounded by the turns of phrase. And so, for that, alone, I would totally recommend this. 2022-shelf mystery42 s Maria Clara1,091 609

Como ya dije antes, no me ha gustado nada de nada! Es más, me ha encantado! Desde luego Raymond Chandler supo crear un personaje único, irónico y humano que a día de hoy sigue enamorando al lector.39 s Jason KoivuAuthor 7 books1,329

Not as complicated as it seems or as Chandler would you to believe. And that's a-okay! I love a little private dick action and this is perfectly satisfying!

This story of a thug getting out of prison and trying to find his girl is fairly straightforward, but Raymond Chandler throws a bucketload of red herrings into Farewell, My Lovely in an attempt to throw you, dear reader, off the trail. Stick to the yellow brick road, Dorothy, and you'll figure it all out in short order.

Fresh off The Big Sleep detective Philip Marlowe is at it again in this sequel to that highly popular and well-written mystery. Farewell, My Lovely is an admirable followup, but it would be tough to meet or top one of the best detective novels of all time.

Book two in the Marlowe series marches forward, doing its best to recreate the original with a bevy of interesting characters that are relatively well-drawn for the crime noir genre. All that good, whip-smart, wise-crackin' dialogue you know and love is in place. It's just the plot that's a little out of whack. Chandler attempts to confuse the situation, and generally succeeds, but not in a particularly clever way. It's a muddied up pond, but a pond nonetheless, so you can swim fairly easily through the murky waters to the other side.

Don't get me wrong, Farewell, My Lovely is still really good reading and any fan of the genre will enjoy it. Just don't expect a masterpiece. crime detective fiction ...more37 s Emma2,596 1,000

Fabulous! Philip Marlowe is the man! He gets quite knocked about in this story, which was good enough for me not to guess what was going on until I was told. And that is good enough for me!

Anne, a side kick character in this story sums up the story and Marlowe this:

You’re so marvellous,’ she said. ‘So brave, so determined, and you work for so little money. Everybody bats you over the head and chokes you and smacks your jaw and fills you with morphine, but you just keep right on hitting between tackle and end until they’re all worn out. What makes you so wonderful?’

Unfortunately for her, she isn't his type:

‘I smooth shiny girls, hard-boiled and loaded with sin.’

I love Marlowes ability to bounce back. He is totally the dude!

'I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.'

Chandler has such a way with words!
'She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.'
There's also a lot of beautiful landscape prose which can get missed and his attention to detail (or maybe Marlowe's) is impressive. There is a scene where he watches a little bug moving round the office and it's really quite funny and observant.

It's dated -largely in a cool way. Nowadays attitudes are different but there is racism, referring to overly groomed men as pansies, the way women are thought of and described- these are historically accurate now and were contemporary at the time of writing. Everyone chain smokes and is practically alcoholic too.

I love Chandler's writing and I have a black and white movie visual going on the whole way through. I see Humphrey Bogart slugging whisky in his office, then delivering his wise-cracking one liners.

Superbly escapist and wonderful way to spend a few hours of my weekend!noir32 s Joe337 98

In this his second adventure, private detective Philip Marlowe – more or less in between cases – pokes his inquisitive nose where it doesn’t belong. Encountering a behemoth of an ex-con, Moose Malloy, on the street, Marlowe follows the big man into a bar and witnesses a murder. And before the reader can ask, “Where’s my Velma?” – the question makes sense when you read the novel – Marlowe finds himself embroiled in police corruption, a blackmail scam, chasing a gang of jewelry thieves, another murder encounters a young female who becomes his pseudo-partner, meets up with a psychic con-man and a crooked doctor and is propositioned by a beautiful young woman who is married to a much older and very wealthy man. All the while Marlowe attempts to keep tabs on Moose.

If possible the plot/story-line of Farewell, My Lovely is even more convoluted than its predecessor, The Big Sleep. Marlowe meeting new players with each twist and turn of the investigation and getting physically bounced around on a regular basis. (For the politically correct there are a handful of racial slurs here which may make the reader cringe.) But somehow the author ties it all together in the end with maybe a not so neat bow.

This being a Chandler novel there are plenty of classic “Marlowe-isms”. After being called to a rich client’s home, where “the carpeting almost tickled his ankles”, he describes the den he is escorted into as “a room where anything could happen, except work.”

When embarking on a night’s work he makes the observation, “I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance. I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.”

Ahhhh – to be Philip Marlowe.mystery-thriller35 s Roman Clodia2,615 3,547

The plot isn't quite as gripping as that of The Big Sleep but this is another stylish piece from Chandler as he erases the boundary between narrative voice and character - Marlowe is how he speaks: laconic, mordant, acidic, yet with a softer, vulnerable side as he is bludgeoned, shot at, captured and doped. And that scene where he picks up a stray pink bug in a police office, wraps it in his handkerchief and releases it outside speaks volumes. As does his sympathy for huge Moose Malloy on the search for his pre-prison sweetheart, Velma.

The writing is sharp and extravagant, utterly distinctive, and the observations on LA create an atmosphere that permeates the text. Anne Riordan, a 'nice' girl-next-door, gets to do some flirty bickering with Marlowe but does he think he's too much in the gutter for her fragrant self?

Looking forward to Marlowe #3.

(Original review below)
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More tough-talking noir from the world-weary Marlowe as he untangles another convoluted case involving jewel heists, blackmail, corruption, a beautiful woman on the make and a feisty girl-next-door. The casual racism is jarring to modern ears with use of the N word alongside descriptions of an 'Indian' (Native American) who is 'greasy' and 'smelly' and racially-inflected slang for passing Japanese and Italian characters... But the prose is characterful and the plot flows easily - and me, I love Moose Malloy!35 s Annetius333 106

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«????? ??? ????, ????? ??? ???????? ????, ????? ????????, ????? ??? ??????? ?????. ??? ?? ????; ??? ?????, ??? ?????? ??? ??? ??????????. ?? ?????? ??? ????? ??? ?? ???????.»

?????? ?? ??????? ?????? ??? noir ????? ????: ? ???????????? ??? ?????? ??????? ??????? ?? ?????? ????????? ??? ?? ?? ?????????? ????, ?? ?? ?????????? ???? ??? ?????????? ??? ????? ???????? ???????? ??? ???? ??????, ?? ?? ??????? ???? ????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ???? ? ???????? ??? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ????????? ?? ????????. ? ??? ?????? ?? ?????????? ?? ??? ????????? ??????, ????? ??? ??????? ?????.

? Chandler ????????? ???? ??? ???????????? ?????????? ?? ??????. ?????? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ??? ??? ??????, ?? ??? ?????? ???? ??? ??????, ???? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? noir ??? ???? ????????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ??? ??????????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ????????? ??? genre. ???????, ??????????? ???? ?? ?????? ??????????.

«-??????? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ????????, ????. ?? ???????? ????, ?? ??????? ??? ????????? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?????. ??????? ?? ??????, ??????? ??? ?????????, ??????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ??? ?????????? ????????.»
33 s William676 371

3.5 stars

A very uneven successor to The Big Sleep, but truly brilliant in part. If I were to make a movie from a book, this would be The One.
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