Finished this book today. The prose style and the dialogues are definitely very strong. Marlowe is hilariously savage and made me laugh more than I feel comfortable to admit.
But the characters are bland, not because they are all either “hoodlums” or too depressed, but because their actions aren’t very well-motivated. Among the many examples that I’m too lazy to type out, the most irritating one is why >!Terry Lennox had to flee to Mexico when it wasn’t him who killed his wife (the police only went after him because his departure created the impression that he absconded)!<. The cynicisms of some characters such as Harlan Potter and Marlowe himself are puzzling without sufficient backstory support. The plot is also somewhat far-fetched and nonsensical, with a corny >!fake suicide!< as the book’s ending.
So why do people love this book? I even saw someone claim that The Long Goodbye is one of the best books written in the English language. What am I missing?
I think plot is always the weak aspect of Chandler’s stories. He likes his characters more than the mechanics and specifics of the mystery. I think The Long Goodbye stands apart because it is very personal for Marlowe. The plot is motivated by his personal stake in the goings ons: Terry and his supposed death/innocence. It’s not a case thrust upon him as a job, in the strictest sense.
Chandler poured a lot of himself into this particular novel because of things happening in his personal life and it shows. The social critique is sharper (the emptiness of shallow Hollywood types is probably the wickedest in this book), the cynicism more biting (Marlowe, Wade, Lennox, all have a jaundiced worldview), the prose more flowery.