Rating: 
Summary: The Amazing Adventures of Philip Marlowe
Review: In Raymond Chandler's "Farewell My Lovely" we see the stereotypical detective, sitting in his detective agency, at his desk, looking out of a rain-streaked window, pondering something, something we will probably never figure out. The detective here is Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator, and he is presented with what seems like a simple jewelry theft case. Marlowe, with his wit and charm, instead confronts crooked cops, fraudulent psychiatric hospitals, blackmailers, con men, and beautiful and deadly women. Marlowe jumps, almost literally from situation to situation. Each scenario is highly entertaining, but a little difficult to believe. Either Philip Marlowe manages to fit thirty-four action-packed hours in one day or I don't know what. It's interesting how witty the character of Marlowe is and how unaffected he seems to be by all the events going on around him. Even when he is beat up, drugged, and almost killed, he gets up, and carries on. It is difficult to determine whether or not he does this solely for the money, or if he feels he has a personal investment, or perhaps desires the glorification. Chandler incorporates wonderful descriptions of sunny Los Angeles into his novel as we follow Marlowe around the city chasing after people, details, and a solution. He also uses a great amount of similes and metaphors, comparing everything to some strange seemingly unrelated object. Yet, when it comes down to it, this quintessential detective mystery fulfills all my requirements for a good book and left me guessing up until the end.
Rating:
Summary: Philip Marlowe on the case with no client
Review: In Raymond Chandler's crime world, everyone's got a gat (a gun) - even sickly old women ("I feel like Death Valley") and nice daughters of former coppers. People are led to locations where their screams will not be heard. Drinking establishments are respectable if there hasn't been a knife fight in the past month.****Chandler's detective, Philip Marlowe, is looking for a case that pays. But the action starts when he's not on assignment. He follows a stranger into a "Negro dinge joint" for no other compelling reason except that it wasn't any of his business. The dinge joint turns out to be a homicide scene, and Marlowe continues to follow the case without a real client in sight. Even the police aren't overly-interested in his participation. ****He's a smart-mouth. An almost-heel. He frequently talks to himself out loud. Sometimes he hears a voice replying and realizes it's his own. This guy's a freak. ****It's not hard to imagine how a recent writer like Jonathan Lethem could create a detective who has Tourette's Syndrome in "Motherless Brooklyn" (Vintage Books, 1999). A detective is really just a man with serious quirks - he's also smarter than you think he is and likable enough to get the girl, at least for a little while. ****Marlowe's a special brand of freak. He notices with exacting detail and describes in kid-like exaggeration what people wear. He fixates on the body musk of henchmen, the desirability of women, and a pink-headed bug crawling around an office. ****There are "agents" in the universe - men with fluid positions that we merely call private investigators. Marlowe can fall into a scenario not of his creation. He can be as one character describes, "a late comer to the show," but just in time to be in on the action. He carries the arc in a story and brings clarity. If he can't figure things out, there is no solution to be had. ****"Farewell, My Lovely" is typical Chandler - tough, sardonic, thickly sliced but smartly dialogued, and oddly, funny as hell.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing writing of a difficult life
Review: In Raymond Chandler's second novel, Philip Marlowe gets embroiled in a complex plot involving murder and lost love. Marlowe's on the wrong side of town when he gets drawn into watching a murder in a bar that blacks frequent. As usual for this day and age - this is decades before civil rights, remember - the white cops brush it off as meaningless. Only Marlowe shows some interest in what is going on, and the lug of a man that desperately misses his lost love. Marlowe, pretty down on his luck and drinking hard, pries into the situation as much out of intellectual boredom as anything else. He's not after money, and indeed half the time he's not getting any. He's after making some difference in the world, no matter how small. He's after doing his part to help out those in need. These qualities of honor are taken up by many detectives who came after Marlowe, and are admired by millions of movie viewers who saw the movie version of this book. The gritty world that Marlowe lives in, the desperate state that many of the characters are in, the racism and disregard for the poor and drug use were all harsh realities of Los Angeles in the 1940s. In that swamp of despair roamed Marlowe, barely keeping his own head above water, but determined to do the right thing. It's his doggedness and his adherence to his own rules that make him a man to be admired throughout the ages ... and it's Chandler's brilliant writing style that brings this world to life. Those reviewers who cringe at the drinking, the despair and the racism should thank Chandler for bringing these realities into such clear view, instead of blaming Chandler for showing them a glimpse of a life beyond their air conditioned living rooms.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Chandler's best book.
Review: Only THE LONG GOODBYE merits higher place in the shining canon of prose-poet Raymond Chandler. This violent, shabby, hilarious, and ultimately very moving novel rockets P.I. Phillips Marlowe through the darkest, seamiest side of Chandler's textured world Los Angeles. In no other novel does Chandler's razor sharp and witty prose slice so sharply, and his sense of tragic irony ("It isn't funny that a man should die, but it is funny that a man should die for so little") reaches its zenith. Hard to put down, impossible to forget.
Rating:
Summary: When the Moose Goes on the Loose
Review: Phillip Marlowe is over on Central Avenue, searching for a barber who left his wife. He notices a big man walk into double swinging doors, almost immediately a youth is thrown through the air into the gutter. Marlowe looks in, and is taken upstairs by Moose Malloy. More violence breaks out while Malloy searches for Velma. Marlowe calls the police to report the problem. The police lieutenant strongly suggests that Marlowe should look for Velma. Marlowe gathers information, and looks up Mrs. Florian, wife of the now dead owner of this bar. Mrs. Florian says that Velma is dead, and gives Marlowe a picture of Velma. Marlowe gives her his card, and reports back to Detective Lieutenant Nulty.
When Marlowe returns to his office, he gets a phone call hiring him by a stranger to act as his bodyguard. Marlowe accompanies Marriott to a deserted country spot to pay off a jewel thief. Marlowe leaves the car to make the payoff, but nobody is around. When he returns to the car he finds Marriott dead. A young woman shows up and gives Marlowe a ride to his car. Marlowe returns to the West Los Angeles police station to report another murder.
Marlowe continues to gather more facts. Marlowe has meetings and adventures in pursuit of the truth. The story effectively exposes the crookedness of Bay City politics, and the corruption of the rich and powerful. The ending seems tacked-on to meet the moral conventions of the time: nobody gets away with murder, not in fiction. The author sort of admits this in the last chapter: "we'd never have convicted her". If the trial and scandal hurt her older husband, she'd be a rich widow. If not, they could move away from this scandal and notoriety.
Rating:
Summary: Improbable But Impressive Stuff
Review: Raymond Chander's second novel is both more and less successful than his first. THE BIG SLEEP suffered from a plot that fell apart in midstream; FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, however, is much more consistent throughout. On the other hand, for all its twists and turns, THE BIG SLEEP was quite plausible; FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, however, is about as farfetched as you can get. But once again, such criticisms are almost beside the point: the great attraction is still Chandler's knock-you-flat prose, his tone of voice, his often imitated but seldom equaled style, and it is so powerful that it keeps you turning page after page after page. In general, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY once more finds street-smart and super-savvy California P.I. Philip Marlowe sticking his nose where it has no business being--and when curiosity leads him to follow a massively built white man into a black nightclub he finds himself embroiled in a murder no one cares about solving... at least not until it begins to figure in what seems to be a completely different case with a high-society spin. And encounters with stolen jewels, a spiritualist racket, police corruption, and a gambling ship quickly follow. Along the way Chandler again paints a gritty portrait of the seamy side of life. On this occasion, he takes a passing look at race, and makes the point that from a police point of view two standards apply: the authorities care nothing about the murder of a black man, but they treat a white man's murder very differently indeed. This portion of the novel is intrinsically controversial, for Chandler uses the slang and racial slurs common to the mean streets of his era--but it is worth noting that although Marlowe uses the same language, his attitude toward the blacks who appear in the novel is considerably different from that of the authorities, who could not care less about the murder of a black man who don't much care who knows it. And once again, Chandler graces his pages with dames and dandies, broads and bums--and he makes them live with remarkable vitality. The famous prose is as rich as ever, although noticeably less witty and quite a bit darker than that found in THE BIG SLEEP. We've stepped off the curb and into the gutter, Chandler seems to be saying, and we're walking in it all the way. Impressive stuff and a very entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Punching, and shooting, and boozing -- oh my!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Punching, and shooting, and boozing -- oh my!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The importance of being Marlowe
Review: Raymond Chandler's creation, Philip Marlowe, is a character that has influenced modern fiction greatly. Without Marlowe the archetype of "private dick" would not carry the cultural weight that it does today. It is true that the plot lines of many Chandler works are contorted to the point of no return, but it is not the plot that counts. The reason why these books are so successful is because we the reader become enthralled by Marlowe and his immediate knowledge of all things that surround him. Because Chandler made Marlowe such a carefully wrought character, Farewell, My Lovely becomes an examination of the human character rather than a list of dastardly deeds committed by crooks without depth. Every scene is an interaction between fully developed characters. He defines himself in relation to the people and actions that whirl in and out of his life. Marlowe offers us plenty of insight into his opinion of his relations. Because he is such an endearing person we want to believe every word he says. He is a product of the LA scene where he works. We the reader build confidence in our hero because he is capable of sizing up any situation immediately. Slowly we learn to trust Marlowe's way of navigating the underbelly of LA. I truly enjoyed Farewell, My Lovely because Chandler forces through Marlowe an undeniable wit and charm. He will make you laugh and draw you into his brand of thinking about other characters. I wonder sometimes when reading Chandler about how Marlowe would size me up. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about interesting characters and loves a wry wit and dark charm.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding.
Review: 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."}
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