The Long Good-bye (Philip Marlowe) (Textplus)

by Raymond Chandler

Jeffery Deaver (Introduction)

Down-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to his only friend in the world: Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator. He's willing to help a man down on his luck, but later, Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe finds himself drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?

• ISBN10: 0241144507
• ISBN13: 9780241144503
• Publish Date: 2 April 2009 (first published 30 June 1988)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 15 December 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Hamish Hamilton Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye is different to all his other Philip Marlowe books; it’s twice as long, semi autobiographical and it’s a platform for social criticism. While people say this book was never on the same level as The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, Chandler (and other critics) considers it his best work even though he was going through a lot of agony writing it with his wife was terminally ill and the alcoholism he was suffering.

In the book Marlowe forges an unhealthy friendship with a drunk, which lands him in a situation he could have avoided, if he wasn’t loyalty to his friends. Which leads him into a whole lot of situations that could have been avoided; but this does make for an interesting and unique story. The dialog and the situation make this book possibly the best Marlowe book written (in my opinion). It’s tight and well planned, the story is a lot less complexity, but more socially relevant.

I love this character and I’m sad to be almost at the end of all the Marlowe books, but this one will stand out more than the others for the depth and biographical nature. Don’t expect this book to be the same as all the other Hard-Boiled novels Raymond Chandler wrote, this is definitely unique.