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any one read the long good bye ?

>>By amber (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 12:57)

In "The LongGoodbye" Chandlers style becomes more polished and leaves behind the touches of "Black Mask" and "New Detective" that set him on the road to fame and fortune, and were still evident in "TheBig Sleep" and "Farewell My Lovely". The polishing process continued in "Strangers on a Train" produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and the unfinished novel "Playback", which is exciting vintage Chandler even though incomplete.. Alas as with Edgar Allen Poe and a host of others, the final chapter is marred by womanizing and alcoholism. Despite that I still get out the tapes and listen to them from time
to time.

>>By DAVID FRY (Thursday, 6 Mar 2003 09:44)

If at all possible it's best to read Chandler in chronological order and follow the evolution of the writer and Philip Marlowe. His film work ("Double Indemnity", "The Blue Dahlia" and "Strangers On a Train") holds up well. Mr. Fry is right, though, a sad ending before the big sleep.

>>By Persevere (Wednesday, 15 Oct 2003 02:14)

Phillip Marlowe is a bad-ass. The Big Sleep is the only book I've ever studied in school and enjoyed. Except maybe Narnia... but that was about ten years ago - like a fading photograph. I'm not even sure it ever happened...

...but yeah, I've read about half of The Big Sleep and it is truly brilliant.

>>By Flagg (Tuesday, 8 Feb 2005 22:43)

I have read everything Chandler has written that is available. You know he 'cannabalized' (his term) some of his Black Mask stories to make his novels, and did not want these stories published again in their original forms, but I do have hold of a set of the m, a volume entitled 'Killer In the Rain.'
Mr. Chandler, we love both! Let us have them all! You did not write so very much for us, that is, you were not prolific, but, oh so unique and perfect.
I will quote here the last paragraph but one from The Big Sleep: "What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring bout the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn't have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as grey as ashes. And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep."
Raymond Chandler is one of the great pleasures of my life. ~Lorna Pryor

>>By Lorna (Friday, 17 Mar 2006 06:35)

Brilliant quote, I had forgotten it. I like it when Marlowe gets philosophical.

>>By Flagg (Saturday, 25 Mar 2006 23:20)

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