Farewell, My Lovely

I loved reading this book - there's something about the character of Philip Marlowe that is so.. endearing. He's a private eye - so is on the lower end of the street, so to speak - but still has morals and scruples and a, slightly skewed, sense of decency. He's also got a great penchant for one lines - as has Chandler, and there are plenty. The plot for Farewell, My Lovely is as labyrinthine as they come - par for course with Chandler as well- but, as usual, it is very tightly plotted - and you forgive it's little idiosyncrasies because of it's charm and coolness.

Even Moose Malloy manages to garner sympathy -which is far more than the femme fatale manages - and that is the key, really, to Chandlers characters: they are all clearly defined. You know who the bad guys are, you know who they good guys are and although good doesn't always win the way you expect them to, good does triumph.

There was a wonderful film adaptation with Dick Powell as Marlowe and it's almost impossible for me to picture anyone else in that seminal role. Raymond Chandler -and to a certain degree Micky Spillane - is a guilty pleasure that I won't often admit to. In an age of literary snobbery these books, for me, stand out as a cracking read for purely entertainments sake, and for that reason I say "encore!!"