![]() ![]() Whereas in an earlier book he would have been just lighting a cigarette when the phone rang, in this one he has three consecutive customers come into the waiting room and tell him all their woes at length, and then Marlowe reflects on the sorry role of the private eye – and only then does the phone ring and the plot resume. What distinguishes TLG is its discursiveness: it feels a lot more rambling and long-winded than all the previous books. All spread across a much bigger acreage of more relaxed, more reflective prose. ![]() 13) – but they are less frequent, less helter-skelter than in the taut, supercharged Big Sleep and other earlier novels. 6), the same smart similes (‘I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split.’ Ch. There is the same tough guy attitude as in the earlier novels, the same obsessive notation of eyes and looks (‘They had watching and waiting eyes, patient and careful eyes, cool, disdainful eyes, cops’ eyes.’ Ch. This is a long book about alcohol and alcoholics.Īt 464 pages in the current Penguin edition, The Long Goodbye is by some margin the longest of Chandler’s novels. ‘I need a drink badly.’ ( The Long Goodbye Chapter 42) ![]()
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