Farewell, My Lovely (Phillip Marlowe)

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Second, Chandler has a wonderful facility for painting descriptions so that you feel like you’re walking right beside Marlowe and he does it in such sparse, efficient style. You could have the most exciting plot imaginable but if the writing isn't up to snuff, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on, but sometimes an author can be so good that the plot is almost secondary. The plot isn't quite as gripping as that of The Big Sleep but this is another stylish piece from Chandler as he erases the boundary between narrative voice and character - Marlowe is how he speaks: laconic, mordant, acidic, yet with a softer, vulnerable side as he is bludgeoned, shot at, captured and doped. Encountering a behemoth of an ex-con, Moose Malloy, on the street, Marlowe follows the big man into a bar and witnesses a murder.

I'm watching the 1975 version with Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling, Sylvia Miles, the late and wonderful Harry Dean Stanton and (surprise! Audience Question: I may be taking you further afield, but is this visual, visceral style brought on by Chandler one that necessarily de-emphasizes plot? constantly smoking cigarettes, drinking hard liquor and chasing careless women, not always he doesn't partake while sleeping.Everybody bats you over the head and chokes you and smacks your jaw and fills you with morphine, but you just keep right on hitting between tackle and end until they’re all worn out. Chandler > chandelier > πολυέλαιος > κρεμάστηκα απ’ τον πολυέλαιο (έκφραση που λέμε στην παρέα και σημαίνει συγκεκριμένα πράγματα, όποιος κατάλαβε κατάλαβε).

There is a long sequence at the docks, on the water and in a ship offshore, that just plod along; no forward motion to the plot, no incentive to stay up late reading more. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things. Chandler worked on the book from June to December 1939, before destroying the entire typescript and starting again. They make a date to meet again at the club of a local hoodlum, Laird Brunette, near the spot where Marriott was killed.It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. Whereas Spade’s every move seems coordinated and cross-referenced like a well-rehearsed play, Marlowe is all reaction, counterpunch and intuitive hunches. Chandler's writing is amazingly rich for this genre and the plot lines are just convoluted enough to keep you guessing.