book data
2,500 ratings,
4.23
average rating, 244 reviews
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published
August 12th 1988
(first published 1953)
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 384 pages
setting
The United States
literary awards
Edgar Award for Best Novel (1955)
isbn
0394757688
(isbn13: 9780394757681)
description
Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife,...more
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avg 4.23
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in April, 2008
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
So are you familiar already with the "One Book One Chicago" (OBOC) program? We're not the first city to do it (in fact, we stole the idea from Seattle), but are definitely now the largest city in America to do so; basically, roughly three or four times a year the Mayor's Office ...more
So are you familiar already with the "One Book One Chicago" (OBOC) program? We're not the first city to do it (in fact, we stole the idea from Seattle), but are definitely now the largest city in America to do so; basically, roughly three or four times a year the Mayor's Office ...more
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Read in January, 1973
recommends it for:
Anyone
Chandler wrote tighter, tougher books, but this one was his masterpiece. I'd been pulled into loving noir by Hammett & W. R. Burnett but they didn't write like Chandler. The Long Goodbye has all the best snappy dialog and constant menace, but it had something more. It was cynical poetry, it had the brittleness and immediacy of the "existential", as we used to call it.
It had a thoroughly adult, disillusioned worldview but it also had a hero who refused to renounce his pri...more
It had a thoroughly adult, disillusioned worldview but it also had a hero who refused to renounce his pri...more
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Read in April, 2007
At first The Long Goodbye seemed like a far more complex book than The Big Sleep because the character of Marlowe, heartless and invincible and infallible in the latter, in the former is fleshed out with various forms of weakness (subjectively defined). These include a tendency towards the romantic, bravado and braggadocio, insatiable curiosity (the bane of many existences, not least the young elephant's), and an inability to let well alone. A sharp contrast is drawn between his masterful and...more
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!!!
Reading this and nearing the very end, I was reminded of my experience with Focault's Pendulum, a long, dense, convoluted book which up until the end makes you question exactly what the hell it is the author is trying to accomplish. Then, upon reaching the end, in a sudden burst of revelation the entire story and everything the author means to say is laid bare in front of you and it all becomes crystal clear.
Long Goodbye is similar in that way, though far less dense a...more
Reading this and nearing the very end, I was reminded of my experience with Focault's Pendulum, a long, dense, convoluted book which up until the end makes you question exactly what the hell it is the author is trying to accomplish. Then, upon reaching the end, in a sudden burst of revelation the entire story and everything the author means to say is laid bare in front of you and it all becomes crystal clear.
Long Goodbye is similar in that way, though far less dense a...more
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Read in January, 1994
recommends it for:
fans of pulp detective novels
Chandler's unabashed masterpiece, this novel is his only work to truly transcend the pulp genre and rank as first-rate literature. All of Chandler's books have gorgeous language and bafflingly labyrinthine plots, but this one stands out because of the author's poignant willingness to stare into his own soul. His stalwart, incorruptible hero Marlowe is hired to guard a washed-up, alcoholic, self-loathing writer who derides his own work as trash, and it's hard not to see the troubled Raymond Chandler...more
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Raymond Chandler is the great Southern California poet of depair. The Long Goodbye is very much a sad look at relationships and how that affects one's psyche. I always felt Chandler is one of the great genius' of the sentence. You can tell how much he cares for the structure of his works - even when he sort of loses it at times. But it's part of the great car ride and he's the driver of course.
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recommends it for:
Stuart, Conrad
[borrowed from the kate]
Oh, GODS, goodreads! You shouldn't let me write a 500 word review and then lose it because i clicked "edit shelves" expecting a pop-up window.
Excuse me while I mourn. So, what was I saying? Oh. The Long Goodbye, well, you will be forgiven for standing in the middle third of the book wondering if all these threads that Chandler gave you to hold, three or four of them, if he'd mind if you put them down for a few minutes? As he doesn't seem ...more
Oh, GODS, goodreads! You shouldn't let me write a 500 word review and then lose it because i clicked "edit shelves" expecting a pop-up window.
Excuse me while I mourn. So, what was I saying? Oh. The Long Goodbye, well, you will be forgiven for standing in the middle third of the book wondering if all these threads that Chandler gave you to hold, three or four of them, if he'd mind if you put them down for a few minutes? As he doesn't seem ...more
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Read in January, 1987
Though Chandler is one of my favorite authors and "The Long Goodbye" is one of my favorite books I have to admit that I have never understood Marlowe and what makes him tick. He almost always does the thing I would avoid and his lack of greed and egotism makes me always feel miserable. I certainly would have taken all the money he was offered, and I certainly would have let me been seduced by the "Golden Angel" (Eileen). But how can you not adore an author who writes a c.v. ...more
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Read in January, 1989
recommended to Daniel by:
Bill Reightrecommends it for: Mystery & Crime Readers
A phenomenal piece of writing, a veritable tour-de-force of Crime. This is something that no one has the guts to do, usually in genre fiction: Write the definitive, last story of a popular, iconic character and live with the results. I won't spoil anything for newbies, but let's just say that Chandler both advanced the age and status of his alter-ego, Philip Marlowe - and also radically matured the entire Crime genre in general and Detective Fiction in particular with this stunning, poignant and...more
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I can't say enough good things about Raymond Chandler. He took one of the lowest, scummiest, quick cash-in forms of writing, the private eye novel, and turned it into legitimate literature. Every paragraph boils over with some kind of allusion, metaphor, or analogy that you'd never imagine in your life, yet afterwards you don't know how you looked at the world in any other way. His cynicism is note-perfect- bitter and sad, but with plenty of humor and just the slightest hint of hope for human de...more
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Read in February, 2008
One autumn in my early 20s, I read all of Chandler in two months. His first four novels -- The Big Sleep, Lady in the Lake, Farewell My Lovely, and The High Window -- were my favorites: they were shot out of a gun, bristling with energy and wisecracks. The later ones seemed lethargic by comparison. Now that I'm older and a little wiser, the early novels seem a bit cartoonish, but this later one seems better than ever: full of observations of people, life, and Los Angeles that are alternately ...more
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I read all the Chandler books so long ago that frankly I don't really remember them that well. I just remember loving them! So I'm giving them all five stars even though I know I didn't like them all equally nor were they all worthy of five stars. If I can recall correctly The Long Goodbye was my favorite. For me Chandler was all about his style. The only thing I remember about the plots is that there was, you know, a murder, a mysterious sexy dame and the hard-luck gumshoe. But the words! His ...more
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Read in April, 2009
Maybe it’s a shame that Chandler has been somewhat sidelined to a genre (hard-boiled fiction, detective fiction, pulp, etc.), but probably it just adds to the pleasure of discovery when you realize what a great and intense writer he is. Every line by itself is a clever haiku (my current favorite: “He had a face like a collapsed lung.“) but that implies choppy one-liners instead of the briskly flowing and unexpectedly romantic build-up of character.
Together, his characters creat...more
Together, his characters creat...more
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Read in July, 2009
When you need a good nostalgic trip into the land of private detectives, there is no one better to curl up with than the boorish, but likeable Philip Marlowe. How have I not discovered Chandler before?
First of all, I thought I had the plot all figured out, but then Chandler fooled me - okay, which isn't hard to do, I'll admit. But it's nice to be surprised by the endings of books every once in awhile. And while some of the stuff is a tad overdone here in the twenty-first century, I h...more
First of all, I thought I had the plot all figured out, but then Chandler fooled me - okay, which isn't hard to do, I'll admit. But it's nice to be surprised by the endings of books every once in awhile. And while some of the stuff is a tad overdone here in the twenty-first century, I h...more
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Read in May, 2009
the plot's loose and rambling and uneven and sometimes unsatisfying, but somehow by the end chandler makes you not want to give a damn about any of that, because he is just that good. MAN he is good. i can't say any more without giving away spoilers left and right, but i will reproduce one quote, at least:
The other part of me wanted to get out and stay out, but this was the part I never listened to. Because if I ever had I would have stayed in the town where I was born and work...more
The other part of me wanted to get out and stay out, but this was the part I never listened to. Because if I ever had I would have stayed in the town where I was born and work...more
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Read in May, 2009
"I kissed her some more. It was light, pleasant work."
This line, near the end, made me laugh in my chair, and threw into focus Chandler's mastery (as if there were any question). It's the lightest moment in the book, like a quick gulp above the turbid waters of filthy wealth, permanently scarred humans, violent boozy hazes, and crappy culture, before a quick sinking back down into Marlowe's dirty aquarium where he's one of the few fishes without illusions and a self-serving...more
This line, near the end, made me laugh in my chair, and threw into focus Chandler's mastery (as if there were any question). It's the lightest moment in the book, like a quick gulp above the turbid waters of filthy wealth, permanently scarred humans, violent boozy hazes, and crappy culture, before a quick sinking back down into Marlowe's dirty aquarium where he's one of the few fishes without illusions and a self-serving...more
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Read in March, 2009
Raymond Chandler has been one of my favorite writers since I stumbled upon a collection of his short stories while toting a gift card around some mega store. The Long Goodbye reminded me what I love so much about this author and crime fiction of the early half of the 20th century. It takes true mastery to set a reader up so they know what twist is coming next and think they have everything figured out, allow that twist to occur, but then take it a level beyond their imagination. Chandler manages...more
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A much easier read than I thought it would be. I though I would get bored and it would take me weeks to finish it. But once I got started, it hooked me and I finished it in two days. I like Chandler's writing style and the titles of his books, so I will probably read others.
Maybe because it was my first foray into this genre, but sometimes I couldn't figure out why people were acting the way they were acting. Why did people keep beating up Marlowe, and why did he let them? And then ...more
Maybe because it was my first foray into this genre, but sometimes I couldn't figure out why people were acting the way they were acting. Why did people keep beating up Marlowe, and why did he let them? And then ...more
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Read in February, 2009
Longest Goodbye EVER!!!
I guess this is the invention of the kind of story where the classic poor dick-for-hire sits in his swivel chair in his hole-in-the-wall office and the silhouette of a buxom, blonde young woman adorns the frosted window of his door. She desperately needs help but it's a secret so he has to stoically hide anything he knows from the police. He's manly enough to lust after her, but sensitive enough to stay away...unless she makes advances on him. Mystery has a ...more
I guess this is the invention of the kind of story where the classic poor dick-for-hire sits in his swivel chair in his hole-in-the-wall office and the silhouette of a buxom, blonde young woman adorns the frosted window of his door. She desperately needs help but it's a secret so he has to stoically hide anything he knows from the police. He's manly enough to lust after her, but sensitive enough to stay away...unless she makes advances on him. Mystery has a ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Great crime novel! Really kept my attention which is hard, read it in 5 days. Wonderful writing with lots of witty metaphors.
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quotes from this book
"There are blonde and blondes and it is almost a joke word nowadays. All blondes have their points, except perhaps the metallic ones who are as blonde as a Zulu under the bleach and as to disposition as soft as a sidewalk. There is the small cute blonde who cheeps and twitters, and the big statuesque blonde who straight-arms you with an ice-blue glare. There is the blonde who gives you the up-from-under look and smells lovely and shimmers and hangs on your arm and is always very, very tired when you take her home. She makes that helpless gesture and has that goddamned headache and you would like to slug her except that you found about the headache before you invested too much time and money and hope in her. Because the headache will always be there, a weapon that never wears out and is as deadly as the bravo’s rapier or Lucrezia’s poison vial.
There is the soft and willing alcoholic blonde who doesn’t care what she wears as long as it is mink or where she goes as long as it is the Starlight Roof and there is plenty of dry champagne. There is the small perky blonde who is a little pale and wants to pay her own way and is full of sunshine and common sense and knows judo from the ground up and can toss a truck driver over her shoulder without missing more than one sentence out of the editorial in the Saturday Review. There is the pale, pale blonde with anemia of some non-fatal but incurable type. She very languid and very shadowy and she speaks softly out of nowhere and you can’t lay a finger on her because in the first place you don’t want to and in the second place she is reading the Wasteland or Dante in the original, or Kafka or Kierkegaard or studying Provencal. She adores music and when the New York Philharmonic is playing Hindesmith she can tell you which one of the six bass viols came in a quarter of a beat too late. I hear Toscanini can also. That makes two of them.
And lastly there is the gorgeous show piece who will outlast three kingpin racketeers and then marry a couple of millionaires at a million a head and end up with a pale rose villa at Cap d’Antibes, and Alfa Romeo town car complete with pilot and co-pilot, and a stable of shopworn aristocrats, all of whom she will treat with the affectionate absentmindedness of an elderly duke saying good night to his butler."
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