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?
by LittleIf