I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.

"I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars."

So today, I finished reading The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. After Fitzgerald's elaborate descriptions in the previous novel I read, I was quite happy to try a classic hard-boiled detective novel that was written in a very straightforward manner . The Long Goodbye was a pretty great novel with an interesting protagonist, an engaging plot, some great one-liners by Marlowe and an insightful critique on society.

The main protagonist in this novel, as in all of Chandler novel's, is the enigmatic private-eye Phillip Marlowe. Phillip Marlowe is your classic "tough guy", but he still is usually the only honorable character in the plot littered with corrupt individuals - he remains faithful to his client and does not accept much money even for his services. He does not understand why he does the job he does except that he feels a deep, unexplainable need to unveil the mysteries in such a corrupt town.

The plot begins with Marlowe befriending a drunken man known as Terry Lennox. Marlowe eventually helps Lennox escape to Mexico after his wife turns up dead and he is blamed for the murder. Lennox is allegedly killed in Mexico and the case is supposedly closed. However, later on Marlowe takes a case for a drunken writer and realizes that his wife was actually in love with Lennox all this time. At the end, its discovered that Lennox is still alive and has just changed his apperance through cosmetic surgery. The real culprit was the wife of the alcoholic whom Marlowe was hired to help and she eventually ends up confessing and committing suicide at the novel's close - because she wishes to "remain beautiful."

Of course, I've left out many important details and a lot of suspense that was present in the novel. What I liked most about this novel however, was that the plot was supplemented by some really intriguing themes. These include the corrupt lifestyle and dark secrets of the high society people which Marlowe is always called into help. Marlowe realizes how unhappy they are despite all the money that they have. Furthermore, a HUGE theme in this novel is the concept of goodbye, which I think is pretty apt as I leave go to off to university soon. In the novel, Marlowe realizes that a goodbye may be "long" but it always unique. Even when Marlowe meets his friend Terry Lennox again, at the end of the novel he realizes that he doesn't even like him anymore - he has changed or at least the circumstances have. Marlowe realizes that saying goodbye is something final and irrevocable. Even when Eileen Wade meets her long lost love (Terry Lennox) after waiting for him for so long she realizes that he is not the man he once was - this drives her to insanity and ultimately culminates in her murder of Syliva Lennox and her suicide at the end of the novel.

In a way, I feel like I can relate to this idea of goodbye. Everyone in my memory has only existed for the time I have known them and when I say goodbye to them at the end of the summer I'll be saying goodbye to all I've ever known of them. It will be painful but even when I meet them again it won't matter - I've already said my farewell to the person that was in my life at the time. For this same reason, Marlowe chooses not to marry Linda Loring even though he has sex with her (interestingly the only female Marlowe EVER has sex with in any Chandler novel) - he realizes that saying goodbye will allow him to remain happy as he is, even if he loses a piece of himself. Marlowe also reminds me of myself as he does not really understand why he so apathetic sometimes and yet why he cares so much about helping the unscrupulous upper echelon of society...perhaps its only for a sense of completion.


Anyway, here are some quotes I liked from the novel. I would rate it an 8.5/10 as it was tedious at some parts where nothing was really happening.


There is no trap as deadly as the trap you set for yourself.

Marlowe talking about what it would be like to not drink alcohol anymore:

"Usually it does. It's a different world. You have to get use to a paler set of colors, a quiet lot of sounds. You have to allow for relapses. All the people you used to know well will get to be just a little strange. You won't even like most of them, and they won't like you too well."

"To say goodbye is to die a little"

"I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars."

"You talk too damn much and too damn much of it is about you."

"We make the finest packages in the world, Mr Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk."

"Your husband is a guy who can take a long hard look at himself and see what is there," says Marlowe to Eileen. "Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had" (153)

"Alcohol is like love," he said "The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off."

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.”

“Common sense always speaks too late. Common sense is the guy who tells you ought to have had your brakes relined last week before you smashed a front end this week. Common sense is the Monday morning quarterback who could have won the ball game if he had been on the team. But he never is. He's high up in the stands with a flask on his hip. Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake in addition. But it's always somebody else's money he's adding up.”

The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.

The streets were dark with something more than night.