The King of 'noir' (The Long Good-bye - Raymond Chandler)

Member Name: sunmeilan

Product:	The Long Good-bye - Raymond Chandler
Date:	06/02/06 (88 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taut well-written mystery

Disadvantages: Very complex story

Introduction
As a fan of crime fiction, I’m ashamed to admit that this is the first time I have ever read a book by Raymond Chandler. Having read various glowing reviews of this book in particular, I finally got around to picking up a copy from my local library. It is immediately obvious why Chandler is known as the epitome of ‘noir’ – this novel is very dark and cynical – and this, coupled with a very complex story, makes it a book that needs a great deal of concentration to fully understand.

The author
Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago, but grew up in England and studied international law in France and Germany. He then returned to the US and served in the First World War. Chandler’s first novel, The Big Sleep was published in 1939, but he had previously published short stories and poems. The Long Goodbye, published in 1953 was the sixth in the Philip Marlowe series. Raymond Chandler died in 1959.

The plot
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe first meets down and out Terry Lennox outside a restaurant and helps him to sober up. The two become friends and Terry’s life begins to take a turn for the better when he gets back together with his high society wife. Then suddenly one day Terry turns up at Marlowe’s apartment. His wife has been murdered and he believes that he will be arrested for the murder unless he gets out of the country. Marlowe helps him to get to Mexico, where he later commits suicide. The police believe that Terry was responsible for the death of his wife and close the case. Marlowe believes otherwise and thinks that Terry’s death may have been murder.

Shortly afterwards, Marlowe becomes involved with an alcoholic author and his wife, who have connections with Terry. It soon becomes clear to Marlowe that Terry’s death was even more complicated than he had first thought, especially after another death, and he hurries to prove Terry’s innocence.

The characters
It is hard to sum Philip Marlowe up in a few words. There is constantly a feeling that there is so much more depth to him than is immediately obvious. He is deeply cynical about life and it seems that something must have happened in his past to make him the way he is, but we don’t find out what it is, in this book at least. I found myself intrigued by him. He seems to be suspicious of everyone he meets, which makes his relationship with Terry Lennox all the stranger. Despite Terry’s outward down and out appearance, he touches something in Marlowe that is hard to understand, yet it is this relationship which makes Marlowe more human. As fictional detectives go, Philip Marlowe definitely stands out from the rest.

Terry Lennox is also an interesting character. He seems to play a doormat to his rich society wife, who cheats on him, but he puts up with her for the money and seems to have lost all will to fight back. Marlowe seems to be the only person that he can trust. As the story develops, it becomes clear that there is much more to Lennox than is immediately obvious.

Conclusion
I began this book expecting to love it. And without a doubt, it is a very good book. But I’m not sure that I can say I enjoyed it as such. The story is very complex and needs a great deal of concentration to understand. This means it is totally unsuitable for reading on public transport and I found myself constantly having to go back and re-read whole chapters because I had lost the gist of the story. Marlowe’s cynicism and views on society in general can also get very disheartening and by the end of the book, although the ending is completely satisfactory, I just found myself feeling deeply depressed.

The writing is excellent and I can see why Chandler has a place in American literature. The story is also taut, complex in the extreme, but it does intrigue and draw in the reader. I would give it four stars if it wasn’t for the fact that it depressed me so much – I read to escape and I prefer something that cheers me up and doesn’t make me think about the futility of life! Recommended, but don’t read it if you’re feeling down

The book is available from Amazon for ₤7.19. Published by Penguin Books Ltd, it has 464 pages. ISBN: 0140108955.

Summary: Very complex read, not a book to be taken lightly.