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RARA-AVIS: Re: A Chandler Connection
Agree, somewhat, about disconnecting Chandler from Marlow in The Long
Goodbye. But all that mouthing off, all those "talk radio" speeches about
crime being the dark side of what is so great about America, about
Mexicans, about you-name-it, all those opinions that make The Long Goodbye
so, uh, long, surely sound like an author who doesn't mind making his main
character less laconic or terse than he previously was for personal
reasons. [The speeches sound like his essays; and Bernie Ohls' speech bits
sound like Marlow too.]
The Terry Lennox connection is harder to hold, but Marlow's unaccountable
fidelity to Terry that he holds to for so long is curious. When I've done
library discussion programs on The Long Goodbye, that's the one thing that
troubles readers most. And I confess that I am not wholly satisfied by it
either, since it seems obvious early on that he is getting his lumps for
someone who is weak and unreliable. Hence, I was interested to find that
Chandler, like Terry, was at one time in a unit that was almost completely
wiped out. ["Ann Melvin" hits this note also.] So we have an author's
tolerance, via Marlow's, based on what such a trauma might do to one.
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