Booklog: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

[firecat]

Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

Narrated in a pretty deadpan style by Elliott Gould. I would have preferred a narration that did a better job of distinguishing the characters' voices, but it worked OK.

It's racist (which I found especially off-putting at the beginning of the book) and sexist (which I expect from early hard-boiled-PI novels).

And the language is so, so beautiful. And most of the characters are smart, and clearly drawn, and their motivations make sense. And Chandler requires you to draw inferences and work at figuring out what's going on. I sometimes listen to audio books while doing other things, but I wasn't able to do that with this book because it's so information-dense.

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Comments

[laughingrat]

You know, since the racial stuff in his later work is almost exclusively limited to this novel, I can't help but wonder if he was Trying To Do Something with it here. I'm not saying he wasn't racist, because there's enough casual racism thrown around in his other work to show that he'd certainly internalized plenty of racism, but still, this one's sort of exceptional. IDK. I don't have a position on it per se, just a sense that there's something in this book that I keep missing.

[firecat]

I see where you could get that feeling. It could well be that he was Trying To Do Something.

I mentioned it because I found it difficult to get past and I thought if there was anyone who hasn't read it yet, they might like to know it's there, so they can make a more informed decision whether to read it.

(I think there's a choir around here somewhere.) It's my experience and observation that sometimes one doesn't want to read a book with racism or other -isms, even if on some level the book is criticizing or deconstructing them.

[laughingrat]

Oh no, I get you. I wasn't picturing my comment as an argument, more like expanding on the topic.

[phoenixpdx.livejournal.com]

I love Chandler.

Also Hammett.

Didn't know there were audio books available for them. I cherish reading the hard copies I have.

And yea, books like this are very clear indicators of where we've come (and where we haven't come, sigh) in the various -isms. Amazing how much some things have changed...and how much they haven't.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[firecat]

There was recently a thread somewhere on DW about how it's a form of privilege to be able to enjoy books with -isms. Yeah, it is.