nicanical
This bad boy is longer than Raymond Chandler's other novels.
The Long Good-bye is also more introspective—both in terms of Marlowe's characterization in it, and probably for Chandler in writing it as his wife Cissy was terminally ill at the time. Terry Lennox and Roger Wade doubtless represent aspects of Chandler himself.
The Long Good-bye is aptly named. There's the obvious reason: even after Terry ventilates his head with a nickel-plated down Mexico way, Marlowe cannot shake the specter of his presence. But Chandler also keeps in extraneous scenes and details in a manner deviating from his previous novels. When Marlowe must narrow down a shortlist of doctors, Chandler gives each visit its own scene where he otherwise might have done away with the wrong doctors with one line. Similarly, Chandler reproduces troubled writer Roger Wade's rambling stream of consciousness draft in full—again, something I feel Chandler could equally likely have done away with in a single line. These parts slow down the pace of the story when encountered but not to the point of detriment. More importantly, keeping in these parts gives nuance to Marlowe's thinking.
This might be the most literary of Chandler's novels, with its web of relationships, and exploration of its characters' steely loyalties and psychological debts—I appreciate why Chandler considered it his best book.
This bad boy is longer than Raymond Chandler's other novels.
The Long Good-bye is also more introspective—both in terms of Marlowe's characterization in it, and probably for Chandler in writing it as his wife Cissy was terminally ill at the time. Terry Lennox and Roger Wade doubtless represent aspects of Chandler himself.
The Long Good-bye is aptly named. There's the obvious reason: even after Terry ventilates his head with a nickel-plated down Mexico way, Marlowe cannot shake the specter of his presence. But Chandler also keeps in extraneous scenes and details in a manner deviating from his previous novels. When Marlowe must narrow down a shortlist of doctors, Chandler gives each visit its own scene where he otherwise might have done away with the wrong doctors with one line. Similarly, Chandler reproduces troubled writer Roger Wade's rambling stream of consciousness draft in full—again, something I feel Chandler could equally likely have done away with in a single line. These parts slow down the pace of the story when encountered but not to the point of detriment. More importantly, keeping in these parts gives nuance to Marlowe's thinking.
This might be the most literary of Chandler's novels, with its web of relationships, and exploration of its characters' steely loyalties and psychological debts—I appreciate why Chandler considered it his best book.