Reading 1001 discussion

5 stars

The original Noir.
I expected this to feel more dated, and to be more macho. But it was excellent story telling, a murder mystery with many twists, and Philip Marlow is not so much a hard-boiled anti-hero as a reluctant hero; a man whose hard shell covers a compassionate heart. Looking forward to reading the other Raymond Chandler book on the 1001-list.

This is a mystery with the P.I. Phllip Marlowe and it is set in California. A pretty good mystery with lots of twists and turns. A woman dies, her husband disappears and commits suicide. Marlowe can't let it lie. He gets threatened by the woman's father, the police and the mob. This is considered "hard boil" but it is a lot easier reading than some of the other crime novels on the 1001 Books ..... list. You can at least laugh reading this one. It was written in 1953 but it doesn't read as that dated. Read 2011, 4 stars

I gave it 4 stars also.
The Long Good-bye refers to the time between the suicide of a gentleman that our P.I. Philip Marlowe befriends briefly and the time that Philip finally figures out the whole story and gets to finally put it out of his mind. It plays off a French phrase; to say good-bye is to die a little.
Not only is Marlowe hard boiled (tough outer skin who can give and take a punch), but he is essentially an honest man with a great deal of moral integrity. I really enjoyed the fact that nothing was ever explained to the reader directly but only through dialogue with the characters. Marlowe didn't postulate answers to himself, so I was always slightly behind Marlowe but I never felt tricked by the multiple plot twists and many complicated character interactions. I was intrigued the way that Marlowe was intrigued and really wanted to know the answers.
Marlowe is also a character that can laugh at himself and we are able to laugh at not only his predicaments but also some of the classic "hard-boiled" language.
Along the way, Chandler also shares with us a great deal of political philosophy as verbalized by rich men, poor men, crooked cops, straight up criminals and disappointed beat newspaper reporters.
Chandler seems to know a great deal about what it is like to cheat on your wife and what it is like to be a drunk and he writes these conditions into the story very well. The women are not any less ruthless than the men in this book. All in all, a great book and a classic "noir".

Like most people here also gave it 4 stars and really enjoyed it, and agree that it isn't too stereotypical in being a noir or 'hard-boiled', aged really well overall, and has a good sense of humor.

When reading about the book, I read that Chandler wrote this in part to see himself reflected in both Roger (as a writer who felt some angst at being written off for being a genre writer) and Lennox (as an American educated in Britain who never felt at ease with the LA culture despite living there). Knowing these things helped enhance the experience further for me.

This concludes my last Chandler book on the list- but I enjoyed them all and will likely listen to or read some of his others when I want fun mystery reads in the future.

*** 1/2

My last Chandler from the 1001 List. This time, Marlowe agrees to drive Terry Lennox across the Mexican border after the latter is suspected to have murdered his rich wife. But all is not what it seems when the news came that Lennox apparently committed suicide in a lost Mexican village. The plot becomes even more intricate when enter into the action a missing alcoholic writer, his trophy wife and their majordomo. Typical noir novel, with the added touch of a softer, more human Marlowe than I have seen in other episodes. An excess of plastic surgery features among the few far-fetched elements of the story though.