The Long Good-bye (Phillip Marlowe)

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I have probably done "The Long Goodbye" somewhat of an injustice this far, as well. Amongst the sorrow is a stunningly precious study of mothers and daughters. Perhaps due to the nature of the memoir, there is nothing saccharine about O'Rourke's description of her relationship with her mother. Every aspect of mother-daughter relations is examined, even the ones we are less likely to want to discuss: the anger, the jealousy, the desire to always be the child and not the care-taker. The TV adaptation of The Long Goodbye was nominated for Best Episode in a TV Series but lost to “Smoke,” an episode from the series Suspense written by Gore Vidal.

There are blondes and blondes and it is almost a joke word nowadays" [p. 89] is Marlowe’s acerbic observation after spotting the beautiful Eileen Wade enter a hotel bar. Marlowe often classifies people as types, which is a hallmark of genre detective fiction. Does this help or hinder the characterization of Marlowe? What other elements in The Long Goodbye identify it as genre writing? What elements transcend genre? CHA: Yes. There's a great passage towards the end of the book that is one of the best pieces of writing that exists about LA. I'll read it. Then there are the dreams. After losing your mother, this person who has literally brought you into the world, you can't stop dreaming about them. Those dreams, so real that you wake and have to remember their death all over again, haven't stopped for me after 13 years. I still see her, so close to me, and then wake to have to process the loss all over again. The Long Goodbye was previewed at the Tarrytown Conference Center in Tarrytown, New York. Judith Crist, then the film critic for New York magazine, hosted the gala. [25] The film was not well received by the audience, except for Nina van Pallandt's performance. Altman attended a question-and-answer session afterward, where the mood was "vaguely hostile", reportedly leaving the director "depressed". [25] The Long Goodbye was not well received by critics during its limited release in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami. [1] [25] The New York opening was canceled at the last minute after several advance screenings had already been held for the press. The film was abruptly withdrawn from release with rumors that it would be reedited. [25] CHA: Yes. When "The Big Sleep" was being adapted for film, he was asked, who killed the chauffeur? And he didn't know.Marlowe contrives to have the suicide note published by the local paper, publicly clearing Terry Lennox of all wrong-doing and embarrassing both the police department and Harlan Potter, who tried from the beginning to suppress the whole affair. It also prompts Menendez to ambush Marlowe as Marlowe has not heeded his warning to let the matter drop. Chandler is also one of those rare writers who's able to combine profound depth of character and theme with a truly compelling plot. As I mentioned, I didn't find it as ungraspable as that of The Big Sleep, in fact I'm pretty certain I was able to follow it (having seen the Altman movie twice definitely helped, even though there are significant differences), but its complexity and precision coexist with its ambiguity- ambiguity not so much in terms of what happens, but why it happens. The greatest mysteries lie within ourselves. Another reviewer mentioned that they found Marlowe's passivity in this novel strange. But the novel is stranger than that, it's almost as if this entire story sort of happens to Marlowe, almost as if Sylvia's killer wants to be caught. Stanley Ellin, who you’ll read more about when we discuss the 1959 winner, won the Best Short Story award for “The House Party.” La storia, oltre a essere attualizzata ambientandola nella Los Angeles dei primi anni Settanta (il gangster sembra un sosia di Paul Simon! È interpretato da Mark Rydell, più famoso come regista che come attore: suoi sono “Sul lago dorato” e “Il fiume dell’ira”), è scarnificata, ridotta all’osso, sfrondando tutti i rami secondari con cui Chandler contorceva le sue trame.

un tale perdente che poco più avanti perde anche il gatto (non è riuscito a imbrogliarlo: il gatto ha la sua marca preferita di cibo in scatola e mangia solo quella, Marlowe ha cambiato etichetta ai barattoli, ma il gatto non c’è cascato). Around the time Chandler wrote The Long Goodbye, he seemed to be struggling pretty hard with life’s troubles. His wife, Cissy, was dying a slow death due to severe medical issues. He dealt with long bouts of melancholy where he found it difficult to write. He drank constantly. And it all showed in the book. The alcoholic writer who couldn’t seem to finish his book is most definitely Chandler’s way of inserting himself into the story—and likely working through some of his own issues with the help of Marlowe’s tough point of view. The other Chandler stand-in is Terry Lennox. Like Chandler, Lennox is an alcoholic. Also like Chandler, he had fought in a war which left emotional scars. For Lennox, it was the Second World War; for Chandler, it was the First. Lennox is a Canadian citizen but he had spent a great deal of time in England and retained the restrained and formal attitude of an English gentleman. This made him somewhat of an anomaly in the fast-paced and more informal world of wealthy Los Angeles, which he inhabited because of his wife's money. The Marlowe part of the answer is important. It’s the same reason a decade later John D. MacDonald created a character named Travis McGee, through whom he could comment on cultural and environmental matters. Marlowe is as self-aware as he is aware of the world around him, a character to whom social commentary comes naturally, the perfect vehicle for Chandler’s purposes. One of the ironies of The Long Goodbye is that Chandler puts most of his observations into the mouths of other characters. That would be a problem if Phillip Marlowe were merely a mouthpiece. At his core he is, as he has always been, the moral center of any situation, any group, any environment. It’s that essential, unwavering characteristic that allows a single character to elevate what should have been an uneven and disjointed novel.Mrs. Linda Loring had called Marlowe previously, informing him that she is getting a divorce from her husband Dr. Loring, who subsequently had written prescriptions for massive doses of Demerol to the late Mrs. Wade, allowing her to overdose. Linda pays a visit to Marlowe's house with an overnight bag, and they drink champagne together. She stays for the night and even proposes a marriage to Marlowe. In the morning they part amicably, Linda leaving for Paris.

The Long Goodbye is full of gangsters, crooked cops, tough guys, and hot blondes, but what made the book was Marlowe's stoic, principled, noble-in-spite-of-himself attitude, and Chandler's writing. And so I gravitated towards this courageous memoir from a woman who has steered her way those grounds and provides a sort of blueprint of what it’s like to feel unmoored. Meghan O’Rourke’s mother Barbara died in her early fifties; as she lay dying of cancer, Meghan became “irrevocably aware that the Person Who Loved Me Most in the World was about to be dead.” CHANG: You would think the unveiling of the murderer would be the key to the end of any crime novel.Wilder, Billy (1978). "Chapter 4: On the Fourth Floor at Paramount". In Gross, Miriam (ed.). The World of Raymond Chandler. New York: A & W Publishers. p.(46). ISBN 978-0-89479-016-4.