I’ve
heard of The Long Goodbye a long time
ago for being an innovative, well-known detective story. And you can hear the
name of “Chandler” a lot in my country, China. One respected Chinese writer,
named Qian Zhong Shu, likes and admires him a lot (just like murakami.)
Although
The Long Goodbye is a detective
story, I feel like that the story doesn’t have many detective elements. That
being said, the book does not only focuses on how to unravel a mystery, but
rather is a literary and artistic masterpiece. I like the protagonist very
much. Marlowe, the detective, is a private investigator. He is poor but he is
not greedy for money. He is petty and low, but he is not “dirty.” He doesn’t
have many friends but he treats his friend very well, especially the one he
just met, terry. He helps him to escape, and refuses to talk about him even
though he was arrested by the police. He didn’t give up searching for his
friend throughout. His personality makes him standouts in the lower class.
Unlike
other detective story, this book is not that tense and doesn’t have a
complicated plot with a quirky twist. It didn’t describe a lot the details and
the process of Marlowe finding out the actual murder of Sylvia and Roger. Instead,
Chandler focuses on depicting the characters. Everyone in the story, Roger
Wade, Eileen Wade, Candy, Linda Roring, has a distinctive characteristic and
personality. I think that’s why I appreciate the novel so much. The ending is also impressive, when Marlowe
unexpectedly met Terry again. At that time, Terry has a different appearance,
and he looks unfamiliar to Marlowe. It
makes me feel a little upset.
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