📚 24 - January
Raymond Chandler (1953). The Long Goodbye.
The beloved detective novel, featuring beloved detective Philip Marlowe—the underdog, the beacon of integrity in a corrupt and phony LA. (I rewatched Altman's cynical/satirical treatment of the novel and read some contemporaneous criticism of the movie—people hated Altman for making a mockery of Marlowe!)
Marlowe's corny wiseacring rubbed me the wrong way at first, but over the course of the novel, as he goes through the wringer again and again rather than compromise his integrity, it starts to take on a poignancy—even in his humor he's staying true to himself.
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