What we thought of “Farewell, My Lovely”

There were four of us at our meeting on Tuesday 20th September to consider “Farewell, My Lovely” by Raymond Chandler., though we also had input from three members who were unable to attend. Our three words included:

• Funny, Imaginative, Flawed
• A fun read
• Witty, Dated, Shallow
• Filmic, Atmospheric, Stylish
• Unpleasant, Dated, Good description

Reactions to the book were surprisingly mixed, but favourable opinions seemed to correlate with a fondness for Film Noir of the 40s and 50s!

Our discussion topics, “borrowed” from The Loveliest Book Group were:

• Has anyone not read this book / any Raymond Chandler before? What were the experiences of new readers in comparison to those who had read it before?
• What are your thoughts on the writing style and descriptive pieces?
• Raymond Chandler books are often called the ‘textbook on detective fiction’ – do you think this is true?
• Some of the language and themes in this book are racist. How far does this overshadow the merits of the rest of the book?
• What are your thoughts on the portrayal of women in this book?
• In The Big Sleep Marlowe is referred to as a ‘shop-soiled Galahad’. Is he a version of a knight in shining armour with chivalrous motives?
• The book contains many contemporary references to 1940s California, many of which are lost on a modern audience. Do these detract from the reading of the book.
• The noir style of Raymond Chandler has been copied many times over the years, does this make us jaded to the original article?
• To whom would you recommend the book?

Some of us loved the writing, but wished Chandler had written a “proper” book without need for the conventions of a Detective Novel.

Although there was a lot of racist language in the book we thought that it was mostly used by other characters and that when Marlowe used it it was when quoting other people, or used in a disapproving way. We thought Marlowe, and by extension Chandler, wasn’t racist.

On the whole we felt that the women in the book were mere cyphers, but then so were a lot of the male characters. We’d have liked to know more about some the the characters, but then that would have got in the way of the story.

We thought that Marlowe was on the whole a good guy, but struggled against it, and in a way despised those tendencies in himself.

We agreed with one of our members comments that the way language was used reminded them of P.G. Wodehouse.

As ever, please feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments section at the end.

Our next book, on Tuesday 18th October is “The Heat of the Day” by Elizabeth Bowen, and watch out for our November special when we’ll be doing a “compare and contrast” on “The Outsider” by Albert Camus and “The Meursault Investigation” by Algerian novelist, Kamel Daoud.