Rating: 
Summary: Best book ever? I really think so.
Review: I first read "The Long Goodbye" in 1976, before I had read any other Raymond Chandler novels. The book practically set off an explosion in my brain -- I have been fascinated by Chandler ever since. No other book by Chandler matches this one's emotional tone. This isn't a mystery novel, it is a great piece of literature. It is about friendship, love and betrayal. And the plot is complex and satisfying. Marlowe is defeated and in pain, and very, very alone. I have read "Goodbye" three times since 1977 -- most recently last year -- and every time I am just amazed at the effect the book has on me. It possibly just touches me personally, but I really believe it deserves a rating among the great books of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Classic rat-a-tat-tat from the Golden Age of gumshoes
Review: I love this book, as well as the rest of the Chandler treasure trove. As I read the compellingly convoluted story, I can hear the random clacking of the old Royal typewriter in my head, as sometimes the only plausible logic in the story is the need for a lusty carriage return.
Yeah, the material is dated, however, this delivery of a good story will suffice for all time.
Rating:
Summary: Assaulting the Citadel
Review: In 1940 a writer of classic crime and detection stories wrote: "There are no classics of crime and detection. Not one. Within its frame of reference...a classic is a piece of writing which exhausts the possibilities of its form and can hardly be surpassed. No story or novel of mystery has done that yet. Few have come close."
Raymond Chandler included that assertion in the introduction to his collection of short stories, Trouble is My Business. The easy demystifier is to attribute the stunning falsity of those words to the fact that artists often prove themselves to be to worst judges of their own works. Or perhaps earning his name onto the screenplay for The Big Sleep along with those of Dashell Hammitt and William Faulkner lured Chandler into an uncharacteristic state of false modesty. He may have even believed what he wrote. Whatever the motivation behind his lapse of reason, he confirmed in the minds of many critics a prejudice they loved to nurture: anyone who wrote for such magazines as Black Mask, Dime Detective, and Detective Fiction Weekly needn't risk humiliation by calling his tales "literature." And when that same writer placed pieces in The Saturday Evening Post, Atlantic Monthly, and The Saturday Review of Literature, well, that provided yet more evidence that the realm of fine writing was being dragged into the gutter by so much tripe.
Nowadays we wouldn't stand for such a snotty attitude towards literature, but only because of the risk. After all, less than three in every one hundred Americans bother to read books at all. Ironically, that statistic illuminates why we need Raymond Chandler now more than ever. Writing for a mass market is automatic for any scribe today who wishes to earn a genuine living from the craft. But that does not mean that the masses can't be elevated in the process of being entertained.
No classics of crime and detection? This from a writer who yearned for legitimate praise from literary critics and earned it in spite of himself. This from a talent as big as that of his character, Philip Marlowe, whose worst trait was racism and whose least worst trait was an eye color that switched from brown to blue depending on which book one read. Chandler himself probably suffered from the same existential race hate as his creation, and yet his minor minority characters float with as much life as anyone.
No classics? Then how to explain Chandler's genius in his third book and first classic, Farewell, My Lovely, when he paints a background in Sociology, then zaps us with psychoanalytical humor right up front-despite his loathing for the social sciences?
So powerful was Chandler's prose, even when compared to his mentor Hammett, or to his greatest protégé, Ross MacDonald, that his lack of prolificacy becomes irrelevant. From The Big Sleep through Playback (or the unfinished Poodle Springs), Chandler wrote nothing but detective stories (and not many of those). In fact, a reader could begin at the beginning, wade through the lesser pools (The High Window, The Little Sister, Trouble), soak up the classics (Farewell, The Lady in the Lake, and especially The Long Goodbye), take a week off, and be anxious to start all over again, a state of affairs untrue of the works of most other mystery writers. The reason? The joy of reading Marlowe's adventures comes less from the unraveling of clues and the making of mental wagers on suspects than from immersing oneself in the rejuvenating waters of Chandler's style, one which is disserviced by the term "hard-boiled." The term is especially deceiving when applied to Marlowe's character in the best of the canon, The Long Goodbye. Here, the presumably isolationist detective spends the better part of 300 pages befriending and absolving a young man who is every bit the deliberate outcast, hardly the behavior of a bare-knuckled womanizing pragmatist. In a sense, then, plot-the essence of most detective fiction-is the least compelling aspect of Marlowe's adventures. One hardly cares whodunit, or even why. What we do care about-because Chandler won't let us escape from it-is Marlowe's conscience. We want him to be happy, or at least not miserable. We want him to enjoy that cigarette, that cup of coffee or shot of whiskey. We want the women flirting with him to treat him well and to have no ulterior motives.
And so, when Chandler concluded his essay with the threat, "[That] is one of the principal reasons why otherwise reasonable people continue to assault the citadel," he had already given us the classic fictionalized model for doing precisely that.
Rating:
Summary: The most thoughtful and affecting detective novel out there.
Review: Like all classic hard boiled novels, Chandler makes his investigator more than a narrator. In a melancholy examination of alcoholoic writers, pigeonholed women and scarred war veterans, Phillip Marlowe's psyche reveals a depth and eloquence that makes the tough-guy attitude of most hard boiled detectives seem immature. For thrills, read the perfectly structured, 8-cylinder, "Lady in the Lake". If you want a moody masterpiece, read "The Long Goodbye". It's got legs, my friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Long on atmosphere but short on plot and character development (save for the character of Marlowe himself), I couldn't wait to finish this novel and move on to something else. The surprise ending isn't much of a surprise, and Chandler's heavy-handed misogyny is distracting.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, Again!
Review: My second Raymond Chandler novel has elevated my opinion of him even higher than I thought possible. Chandler is an absolute master of the noir genre. His grittiness, dialogue and characters are matched by almost no one else. This book just flies by and is such a page turner that I had it finished in less than two days. Too bad Chandler wasn't more prolific; I'll have all of his stuff read by the end of the year. The Long Goodbye brings Marlowe into constant conflict with lowlifes almost immediately after the book starts. Marlowe befriends a drunk who happens to be married to a beautiful, rich heiress. The only problem with this is she's a nymphomaniac and ends up dead. Marlowe helps her hubby escape and ends up in trouble with the law (of course). The rest of the book sees Marlowe hired to keep a famous author sober so he can finish his novel. Marlowe ends up entwined with the author's wife and their crazy butler, Candy. Needless to say, all of these threads wind together in the end. Even revealing this much to you in no way spoils the book. There's so much going on here that you'll be constantly wondering how Chandler is going to bring it all to a head. He does, and he does it beautifully. The book is top heavy with all sorts of clever dialogue. Marlowe's putdowns lead to endless howls of laughter (at one point, he describes a guy with as having a "face like a collapsed lung"). My favorite part of the book is when Marlowe confronts the three quack doctors while trying to track down the alcoholic author. Marlowe is the man!! This book should be required reading for anyone interested in noir. I'd recommend it to anyone who just likes to read. I can't wait to read more of Chandler's novels. I'll try and space his books out so they last a long time. Too bad Raymond Chandler didn't start writing at an earlier age.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the finest novel by arguably the finest crime writer
Review: Not Chandler's best known novel, but clearly his best, in it Philip Marlowe confronts a pair of complex, ultimately linked mysteries while also confronting his own sense of honor and mortality. I've read it probably 15 times, and still get chills from the scene where he confronts the murderer. If you like mysteries it is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!!
Review: One of Chandler's best. Long, but worth the work. You'll get to know a little more about Marlowe, even if you feel like you know him already...
Rating:
Summary: One of this century's greatest novels
Review: Ostensibly a detective story, this novel is one of the great achievements of twentieth-century literature. In the first three pages alone, Chandler perfect encapsulates the apathy of modernity, and the prize and rewards offered the lone man who resists the shiftless world of phrases like "who cares?" The mystery itself isn't as intriguing as Chandler's earlier work, but the depth of characterization, passion, and what can only be described as epic humanization carry it far beyond the calibre of his previous books. Written in flawlessly penetrating and insightful prose, this novel has more philosophical weight than volumes of French existentialism.
Rating:
Summary: Best Friggin' Book Ever Written
Review: Pure poetry--nothing else can touch it
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