Juri wrote:
"But as for puzzles or mysteries, couldn't care less. There
are some exceptions: Westlake's first, "The Mercenaries", and
Ellroy's L.A. Quartet books. Maybe Chandler's "The Long
Goodbye", since it's so tightly woven."
Juri, do you really think Long Goodbye was much of a mystery
(in the whodunnit sense)? Not even Chandler thought
that:
"Anyhow I wrote this as I wanted to because I can do that
now. I didn't care whether the mystery was fairly obvious,
but I cared about the people, about this strange corrupt
world we live in, and how any man who tried to be honest
looks in the end either sentimental or plain foolish."
And that's just what I like about the book, still my favorite
Chandler. It was also my first Chandler and probably my first
hardboiled novel. Even then I had noe trouble figuring out
whodunnit and that's something I don't even try to do, happy
just to go along for a ride with some interesting (but not
bloated ) characters. And Long Goodbye does just that. It was
thoroughly satisfying even when there was no mystery to be
solved, fulfilling Chandler's dictum that a mystery novel
should satisfy even if the last page is missing.
Mark
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