Farewell, My Lovely - Raymond Chandler

 

After re-enjoying The Big Sleep, I pulled this one - I understand it to be the follow-up to TBS - from the library. Phillip Marlowe stars in this, as well, and while the character and storyline is similar, this tale is a little cringe-worthy in the 21st Century for being quite un-PC. I doubt that Chandler really meant anything by it, but there's a lot of racism here, not unusual for 1940, and for a "street-wise" private eye, I suppose. A bit of kudos to the library system for not censoring this, so that we know what the world was like back in the day.

Chandler certainly did have a way with descriptive words though and his analogies'n'similies are quite entertaining. But that said, in this episode Marlowe gets knocked around quite a bit and even is doped up (against his will) and so his narration goes a bit screwy when he is not of sound mind. This is a good literary device, but between this and his (now dated) slang, some of the narration can be hard (for me, at least) to follow exactly, although you catch the gist.

It's another complicated tale, with ex-cons randomly killing while looking for an ex-girlfriend (Marlowe just happens to get caught up in that) and a client getting murdered while Marlowe is supposed to be his bodyguard. As Marlowe follows up on tips and various lines, he runs afoul of the law and the crooks, and doesn't exactly enamor himself with the ladies who are trying to help him along the way.

I didn't think that this one worked as well as The Big Sleep and while the various tangents were mostly tied together by the end, some were left kind of dangling and some were pretty tenuous. Still entertaining and I will continue on a Phillip Marlowe kick for a little while as they are quick reads and fun diversions from the insanity of the modern world.