Farewell, My Lovely - Spoilers > Likes and Comments

The New School Classic Group Read for October 2025 is Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

I read this 13 years ago. According to my review I thought highly of it. From memory and my review, I can see this one rubbing folks the wrong way. What is that word some use for disagreeable subject matter....um, triggered, that's it. If you are inclined to being triggered by politically incorrect content. If you haven't been triggered in a while, this book should fix that. Enjoy it, I sure did.

I jumped the gun and read this one early. I will be following comments as readers comment.

I have a very old second hand copy of this and I know the first chapter almost by heart. I certainly know a lot of the similes.

When I first discovered Chandler in about 1977, I wanted to read all his books but could only find 1 or 2 in bookshops, so I had to scour second hand shops. I eventually got them all. This is one of his best but I have never had a new copy of it. It suits the subject matter in a way, having a battered dingy copy with yellowing pages.

John, your last sentence made me smile. Besides being noir, there is also something very nostalgic about the book,

I finished the book today. I will list pros and cons. (positive points and negative points.) This book was published in 1940. That is important to the review.

Pros:

> I like the "hard-boiled, noir" style. It feels campy and fun.
> There were unexpected twists.
> It was quick, light and there was an entertaining audiobook I listened to while doing other things.

Cons:

> The introduction uses older vernacular which although true to its time might be jarring to modern ears.
> Racial identities are mentioned and there is just no good way to do that these days. Word choice is problematic.
> Actually none of the characters come across as very attractive.
> It was light, but the flip side of that is there was no deep redeeming quality to it.

Overall, I rate it 3*.

Little late to the party, but can't wait to take advantage of the opportunity to get into this. Heard so many great things about both Chandler and this title, that it's surprising I haven't come to this well before now = in a rush to finish my Halloween read.
Looking forward to starting this one.

I am rethinking my rating. I am moving it from 3 to 4 *. The only real negative is the distasteful words used to describe people groups and women. Yet, the narrator insults everyone without reserve, and it is true to the time. In fact, I have a little bit of trouble understanding why Marlowe puts out so much effort to solve the mystery when he seems to actively dislike everyone and everything.

The Wikipedia article is interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewel...

It discusses how many movies were made from this plot line. This story was the original that many others found compelling enough to copy.

Another positive I did not mention before was that there were extensive descriptions, but they were creative, original, unique descriptions.

I'm about a third of the way through. Hardboiled or noir detective fiction isn't really my thing, and I can't see myself ending up loving this the way some people do. But I'm giving it a try. So far the plot is interesting enough. I'm wondering what the point of the Moose Malloy storyline is, and how that will tie in to what I think will be the main plot -- I'm sure I'll find out but so far I don't have any guesses.

Honestly, apart from the fact that it's so cynical (with characters it's impossible to like and the sense that one is very glad not to be in this place), my main problem with hardboiled detective fiction is the extensive use of slang that is completely opaque to me:

Shines. Another shine killing. That's what I rate after eighteen years in this man's police department. No pix, no space, not even four lines in their want-ad section.

What?? There's a lot of just going with it and assuming the bits I'm missing don't matter too much.

I'm about half done.

Well, the book/main character is certainly equal opportunity in their inappropriate slurs against anyone who isn't white. Also the depiction of most women. Of course he hates basically everyone, but in the case of non-white people it's their whole race that gets picked on, and in the case of women it feels like it's their whole gender.

Also, through sheer exposure, I'm starting to figure out the slang. I think the quote I included above basically means:

It's unfair that after being a cop for 18 years, I don't get given high profile murders of white people to work on. Instead I'm stuck with a case about a murder of someone black, which won't get my name or face in the papers.

Wobbley wrote: "I'm about half done.

Well, the book/main character is certainly equal opportunity in their inappropriate slurs against anyone who isn't white. Also the depiction of most women. Of course he hates..."

You're right Wobbley. The insults and slurs really detract.

I've finished the book. It hasn't changed my mind about this genre; it's just not my thing. And there continued to be sections that were completely baffling to me because of the slang. But I have to give it credit for the ending, which I didn't see coming at all, and which did manage to connect the two cases. And certainly the book has a strong style that became iconic.

(I do hope he and Anne won't become a thing -- it seems like her life is probably worse if he's in it. She's probably safe though. Like James Bond, this doesn't seem like the kind of series that brings its female characters into the next book...)

As a side note, I was surprised to read that this was a fix-up novel. Other fix-up novels I've read felt like connected short stories. This one feels more like a single story with multiple threads.