RARA-AVIS: Re:The Long Goodbye (the book, not the movie)

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 04 Aug 2007


Mark,

Great article, and, interestingly, I find I agree with you in your visceral and critical reactions, not only to GOODBYE, but to THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, are very similar to my own (which may be why I liked it). The reminiscences about Bruce Taylor's reign at The San Francisco Mystery Bookstore resonated, too.

I regret that the on-line class I used to teach on Chandler at the Barnes & Noble site was limited to Chandler's early work. I'd have loved the chance to talk about his later novels, and particularly about GOODBYE, at length.

One criticism, and it's technical rather than literary. In the article, there's an internal link to
"Bernie Ohls," but when you click on it you're taken to a page that, though it has a short capsule description of virtually every other character, major and minor, in the novel, has no such description of Ohls. As the most frequently recurring character, with obvious exception of Marlowe himself, in the series (two short stories, two novels, and a comparatively lengthy mention in a third novel), I'd think he deserves at least a line of description, particularly since his name is a link to the character page.

JIM DOHERTY

       
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