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Product Description
From Library Journal
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered.” --The New Yorker
“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” --Robert B. Parker, The New York Times Book Review
“Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye.” --Los Angeles Times
“Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.” —The Boston Book Review
“Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler’s prose. . . . He wrote like an angel.” --Literary Review
“[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.” --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
“Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” —Ross Macdonald
“Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude.” --Erle Stanley Gardner
“Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.” --Paul Auster
“[Chandler]’s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that’s like ours, but isn’t. ” --Carolyn See
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The perennial gumshoe novel,
By
This review is from: Farewell, My Lovely (Paperback)
Farewell, My Lovely was my first Raymond Chandler experience, a novel I first read back in junior year of high school, and one that will forever be known to me as the novel that defines noir, hardboiled detectives and gumshoe novels.In this classic, detective Philip Marlowe gets hired to recover stolen jewels, which in turn has him running into the rogue gallery of gamblers, con men, crooked cops, and (of course) femme fatales. With this said, the story is completely character-driven, making it full of action and narrative. Just flip the book open to any page, and you'll clearly read slick, muscular dialogue and snappy comebacks. Chandler is a benchmark author for stories stripped of any literary fat. Besides Dashiel Hammett, Chandler is the perennial writer of gumshoe detectives. And Farewell, My Lovely is the perennial gumshoe novel.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding.,
By Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Farewell, My Lovely (Paperback)
This is a great novel for so many reasons. The dialogue is clever without descending into cuteness. The supporting cast of characters is a truly fascinating one. The descriptions of places are vivid. Be they the homes of the obscenely rich or rundown slum dwellings. The intricate plot unfolds in a way that really holds the reader's interest with a couple of nice plump red herrings thrown in for good measure.As always, Marlowe himself is tough as nails and completely hard-boiled. Except that towards the end of the book, he surprises us by becoming sentimental. This uncharacteristic sentimentality is not directed toward either of the two female love interests. But rather toward a tall, violet eyed boatman named Red who helps Marlowe in his hour of need. You really have to admire Raymond Chandler for knowing just when to interject the unexpected. I would love to give Farewell, My Lovely 5 stars, but I have to deduct 1 star. The reason? I can't for the life of me understand what the killer hoped to gain by commiting murder in the first place. If Mr. Chandler were still alive, I'm sure he would address that particular concern in the manner of a college professor talking to a kindergartener. I can just imagine him saying: "Reality is not straightforward. Only in the world of fiction are motives clearly defined and unambiguous. My writing is meant to reflect real life." {From The Big Sleep (1939)- "It had the austere simplicity of fiction rather than the tangled woof of fact."}
4.0 out of 5 stars
Punching, and shooting, and boozing -- oh my!,
By Andrew McCaffrey "The Grumpy Young Man" (Satellite of Love, Maryland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Farewell, My Lovely (Paperback)
Raymond Chandler was such a master at his style of prose that you only have to read the first two paragraphs of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY to know exactly what sort of story you're in for. Those two paragraphs perfectly set up the plot that follows: a thriller crossing in and out of the racial divisions of 1940's Los Angeles involving seedy speakeasies, and off-shore gambling, with double-crossing as far as the eye can see. Wonderfully gritty stuff.This particular Chandler novel has a lot going for it. The hero, Philip Marlowe, is as entertaining as ever. The setting is the familiar scene of other Chandler stories -- alive, heavy and oppressively Los Angeles. The plot is logical, but jumps around a lot, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the more it moves around, the more room Chandler has to incorporate evil-doings; I quite lost track of exactly how many crimes are committed or alluded to during the course of the book. No matter how farfetched it is, Chandler's prose is utterly gripping and absorbing. I think Philip Marlowe must drink his weight in cheap liquor several times over during the course of this adventure, but you can't help but like the guy. He punches, he shoots, he boozes. He even solves the case by the end. He sure takes a beating in this one, but he keeps coming back for more. He's everything a pulp detective should be - angry, arrogant, determined, and with just a hint of pathos to make him interesting enough to carry the story. The book as a whole is just too appealing and entertaining not to be a fun experience. Chandler is pretty much the benchmark for these sorts of stories about guns, police, and corruption, so if you like the genre, you might as well read the man who invented it. Tough guys yelling, "Beat it!" at each other might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Chandler is so good as telling the story that any inadequacies in the conventions of this genre are wallpapered over with some slick dialog and snappy comebacks. I read FAREWELL, MY LOVELY more for the great atmosphere and tone than for its overall plot. The fact that the storyline wraps up nicely at the end is merely a bonus. But the real way to enjoy this book is to just let the atmosphere, the characters and the prose just wash over you.
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