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RARA-AVIS: "Red Wind"



Michael Sharp's question of why Waldo is tagged as being able to describe
Lola's clothes"in a way the ordinary man wouldn't know how to describe
them"--I can't remember precisely, but perhaps Marlowe is guessing that
Waldo has been instructed to look for a girl, identified as wearing certain
clothes;  which is to say, it's an arranged meeting.

My own reactions:

1. First time I've read "Red Wind" and it seems to have all the trademark
convolutions of a Chandler plot.  'Bout the time you think you've got the
complete cast of suspects, another body and more attached live ones.  Who
cares whodunit!   Let's get to the great face-offs, the dialogue, the
descriptions.  ...which is to say, plot is secondary for me in most
Chandlers.

2.  Best scenes for my money: The opening scene is a gem of misleads and
surprises, worthy of any film.  (Don't know why, but I think of the opening
of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.)  Then the scene where Lola
"floats...soundless" up behind the killer who is ready to eliminate Marlowe
(in my version).  You think about it: her sandelwood scent, her
background...she wouldn't seem to be the sort who could come up behind
someone with so much experience, but you reread it and Chandler's style
just  floats her there and you're so thankful you don't care how she got
there, and then that wonderful cinch of a line: "That buys me," I said.
"Anything I have is yours--now and forever."

3.  Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but "Red Wind" is now officially
"literature, " with all that that implies.  English majors will study it in
a very popular Anthology of American Literature (Macmillan), Vol. II,
located between a Carson McCullers and a Richard Wright.  The story has
footnotes!  Let's all come up with the titles of English major essays that
will be written...

Onward!



Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>


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