The Long Good-Bye

lingua English

Pubblicato il 23 Settembre 2011

ISBN:: 978-0-241-95436-2

(1 recensione)

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 is notable for using hard-boiled detective fiction as a vehicle for social criticism and for including autobiographical elements from Chandler's life. In 1955, the novel received the Edgar Award for Best Novel. It was later adapted as a 1973 film of the same name, updated to 1970s Los Angeles and starring Elliott Gould.

5 edizioni

Jon Nixon ha recensito The Long Goodbye di Raymond Chandler

Review of 'The Long Goodbye' on 'Storygraph'

5 stelle

I binged the Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye without any gaps. I loved them all but think I may have to take a break before moving on to the other Chandler novels.

By now I’ve picked up the tropes and structures of these stories. There’s always pleanty of gangsters, crooked cops and beautiful women. One of the beautiful women is a murderer (but not the only murderer). There’s often a rich old man with two spoiled daughters. There’s always a double case; one in the first half which you think is solved, then another in the second half which turns out to be linked to the first one. There’s always an unsettling early twentieth century undercurrent of racism and homophobia which you have to hold your nose through.

The Long Goodbye is probably my least favourite of the three so far but it’s still a great …

I binged the Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye without any gaps. I loved them all but think I may have to take a break before moving on to the other Chandler novels.

By now I’ve picked up the tropes and structures of these stories. There’s always pleanty of gangsters, crooked cops and beautiful women. One of the beautiful women is a murderer (but not the only murderer). There’s often a rich old man with two spoiled daughters. There’s always a double case; one in the first half which you think is solved, then another in the second half which turns out to be linked to the first one. There’s always an unsettling early twentieth century undercurrent of racism and homophobia which you have to hold your nose through.

The Long Goodbye is probably my least favourite of the three so far but it’s still a great read. The descriptions, dialogue and one liners are always wonderful. I found the switch between the two cases more jarring in this one as the second case wasn’t very interesting at first (it gets better). Also, after the second case is solved there is a lot of loose end tying which drags a bit, but the last chapter is great.