The Long Goodbye

Book Description

Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.

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Marlowe befriends a down-on-his-luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. Now Lennox is on the lam and the cops -- and a crazy gangster -- are after Marlowe.

"Raymond Chandler is a master."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered."
   THE NEW YORKER

"Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious."
   ROBERT B. PARKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye."
   LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner.... An original.... A great artist."
   THE BOSTON BOOK REVIEW

"Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century.... Age does not wither Chandler's prose.... He wrote like an angel."
   LITERARY REVIEW

"[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision."
   JOYCE CAROL OATES, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence."
   ROSS MACDONALD

"Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since."
   PAUL AUSTER

"[Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't. "
   CAROLYN SEE

"A serious rereading of the Marlowe novels and stories yields more surprises than a rereading of Hemingway."
   RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS

Customer Reviews:

This is the one.......2007-10-01

This is the one, the master's masterpiece. The story is heart-wrenching in its sad inevitability; the characters are unforgettable, the style honed to perfection. It also represents the perfect realization of the vision for noir fiction which Chandler articulated in "The Simple Art of Murder." Marlowe is as noble as it gets in a decidedly ignoble world and few of the other characters deserve to be on stage with him. The setting is palpable. You taste the smog and feel it against your skin, just as you taste the gimlets at Victor's. This is the writer's guidebook and the greatest pain comes from the fact that Chandler makes it look so easy. This is exhibit A for the art of writing. It's not using strange words. It's using everyday words in new ways. Here he does it on nearly every page.

Marlowe's pursuit of the truth is what makes this book great.......2007-09-30

Detective Philip Marlowe, looking into the death of casual drinking buddy Terry Dexter, finds that what few answers emerge merely raise more questions. It's like peeling back the layers of an onion. Dexter flees to Mexico after his wife is brutally murdered, and there kills himself under cloudy circumstances. His death too neatly disposes of the potentially scandalous murder, his wife having been the wild daughter of a secretive, Hearst-like newspaper magnate. And too many people benefit. Marlowe doesn't buy it, and when arrested on suspicion of having aided Dexter's escape, refuses to talk.

By coincidence he is then drawn into the sad marriage of a wealthy, alcoholic writer and his to-die-for wife, who happen to be neighbors and friends of Dexter's in-laws. What happens there leads him back, again and again, to the Dexter case.

When I first read this, I thought it the best detective novel ever. Rereading it years later, I'm less sure.

Lately I find detective-novel conventions tiring. The loner detective. All that hardboiledness. The hard-to-explain intergrity. The pursuit of cases with no client and no paycheck. "Because they are there" may work for mountain-climbing, but not for unsolved mysteries. Mid-century novels like this one are dated by all those fedoras and martinis, although I suppose the willing readers convert those into retro-chic charm.

What I find most implausible, though, is this: Everyone sitting still for a private eye's persistent questioning. Suspects may think they can better allay suspicion by talking than by clamming up, either because there's scant evidence or because they have powerful allies. The innocent witnesses, meanwhile, invariably hold back the truth, which conveniently allows a plot to continue that otherwise would end. The private eye always reaps great benefits from finding some hole in the story's fabric. No matter how tiny it is, enough unravels for him to move his case ahead, but never (until the end) enough to finish it.

But, really, would you talk to a private eye about a murder? Especially one to which you might be tied? That tough guys either talk to Marlowe at all, or rough him up (how quaint all those fists seem) but don't kill him, leaving him alive to snoop another day, is equally problematic. And if you were innocent, wouldn't you occasionally tell it all, having decided to talk to a private eye at all?

"The Long Goodbye", I hate to say it, drags. One drawing room scene follows another, more than usual because the plot is so complex. Marlowe talks to people in bars, diners, and offices as well as drawing rooms, parlors and porches. There's precious little action.

So, that's what's wrong with it. What's right with it?

Much. Chandler and Dashiell Hammett invented the 20th century American private eye. When Chandler wrote this, the genre was hardly 20 years old. Novels like this created archetypes that were not yet stereotypes, and can't be blamed for a half century of subsequent overuse.

I find merits in it, but different ones from back in the day, when I couldn't stop turning the pages.

Chandler's leisurely writing job contains less action, but yields great character development, set in the ennui of wealthy suburbia - at the novel's writing around 1950, still a new phenomenon. He finds in the boozy cocktail parties, unhappy marriages and wandering spouses deeper evidence of its rot.

The more we learn about the enigmatic Terry Dexter, the less we understand him. Ditto the writer Roger Wade and his wife Eileen. Marlowe's lonely integrity is what holds the plot together: no one else cares about all the parts, and anyone whose interest were material might have been put off when one part was declared solved. Chandler does pull off the delicate job of maintaining Marlowe's involvement and interest in a non-case case in which he has no interest and continually mulls dropping while frequently being warned off it by the usual criminal or rich bullies.

Keeping at the truth - through all those layers of the onion - are what make this book great, in addition to Marlowe's ultimately believable pursuit of it. Chandler keeps you guessing until the last page. The end's ambivalence and murk fit well with the LA smog just then beginning to become a Southern California fixture.

A world unto hiimself.......2007-09-17

We all sometimes wish we could permanently step into the world of a book and live there. The world presented here would be one of my top choices. It's not the happiest, the safest, but it's got style, class, hot dames, and action. The way he describes Los Angeles back then makes me nostalgic for an LA that was long gone before I was even born. This is a fantastic read on so many levels. One of the best writers of the last 100 years.

THE Private Eye.......2007-09-17

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid? The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness."
-- Raymond Chandler from `The Simple Art of Murder' (an essay)

Philip Marlowe is cult pulp fiction at its best. His characters are intertwined and Marlowe deals with all of `em with his cool temperament and a style that can be created only by Raymond Chandler.

Raymond's stories may not be as complex and extraordinary as those of established genius detectives like Sherlock Holmes or Poirot. But his tales have emotions and noir elements that are instantly attractive and captivating.

The friend who is dead, the rich woman's known escapades, the drunk author, the rich reclusive father-in-law to the dead friend, the various characters that hit Marlowe and us in a well-crafted detective fiction is beautiful and worthy or re-reading just to relive the moments described so wonderfully.

This was the first Chandler fiction I read and have now collected a few others as well. These are a prized collection from an author who has class, style and worldly wit.

Familiar Noirish Murder Mystery.......2007-08-29

Raymond Chandler's characters in THE LONG GOODBYE (1953) have become archetypes that now inhabit countless Noir movies. These include the dogged private investigator with a hard-to-explain integrity, the tough cop on the edge of the law, the spoiled manipulative rich girl, the suave and distant crime boss, and the ruthless tycoon. I don't know if these were mystery archetypes when Chandler created them in TLG. But now, they fit into cinematic boxes and serve as familiar types in a downbeat story, where the hero's idiosyncratic integrity survives in the face of brutality, deception, and murder.

As a result, a fair way to judge Chandler is to consider his craftsmanship, not just his overly familiar characters. This, in my opinion, is superior in TLG, since there is not a vague personality or needless scene in its 350+ pages. This is tight and disciplined work. Chandler definitely knew what he was doing.

Nonetheless, TLG struck me as sheer entertainment. Perhaps Chandler realized this and wanted something, shall we say, more profound. This might explain why Marlowe calls another character a "moral defeatist" in the last chapter. Implicitly, this explains Marlowe's perseverance in TLG as he searches for the truth about Terry Lennox, his occasional drinking buddy. Looking back on the book, it's credible to view Marlowe as fighting back against such weakness, which was certainly a profound position in the year's following World War II. Further, this makes him more than a relentless and humorless wise guy, which is how everyone but Terry reacts to him. Poor Marlowe really needs a friend.

Incidentally, an element in TLG that I enjoyed immensely was Chandler's insider comments on the publishing scene and writing. These came to me as complete and delightful surprises. Perhaps the popularity of Noir movies has robbed the equivalent element of surprise from his characters.

Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

Outstanding in so many ways
Writing at its best - and it happens to be in detective noir
The best of Raymond Chandler
Classic American, cynical detective stories.
Priceless Solely for The Simple Art of Murder

Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1883011086

Amazon.com

Raymond Chandler is arguably the best American pulp novelist. His prose is so acutely visual, his characters so raw and intense that it is small wonder that all but one of his books have been made into movies. And his hero Philip Marlowe has graduated into American legend. Together with its companion volume (Stories and Early Novels), Later Novels and Other Writings forms the most complete Chandler collection in print. In addition to his later novels, this collection contains selected essays and letters, biographical information, and textual as well as explanatory notes. As an added bonus, the editor has included Chandler's screenplay to Double Indemnity, the classic Billy Wilder film adapted from James M. Cain's novel. You're able to compare the script to the finished movie and have the rare opportunity to see how one major crime novelist altered and interpreted another.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding in so many ways.......2007-02-24

First, let me say that there's a separate volume of Chandler's early novels. As much as I liked this volume, I actually enjoyed the earlier novels just a little bit more and suggest starting there. I started reading one story and wound up going through all of them in both volumes in the space of a few months. I also wound up reading and enjoying all the Dashiell Hammett stories, but I give Chandler a slight edge.

I won't try to list all the ways these novels are great and entertaining, but here's one thought that hasn't been mentioned in other reviews. Chandler is excellent at presenting a hero-character who has to worry about money and making a living. Indeed, Chandler makes this issue integral to the character's persona and to the plot line. Yes, the books are escapist in so many ways. Yet, in this respect at least, they are far more realistic than almost all of the fiction, and much of the non-fiction, these days.

Writing at its best - and it happens to be in detective noir.......2006-06-20

C-L-A-S-S-I=C HIGH/low notes. These stories are like a deck cards, all aces...... but there are way too few left. I finished "Little Sisters" (GREAT), "Farewell, My Lovely"- is recommended in the other half (earlier edition). The hook is Marlow. In times where many take the easy/cheap way out, I ride hard with Marlow. Marlow does it with style, humor, wit, grit, and nothing less than an all american: get the job done. But in a way that is the opposite his nemesis: the monopolies of power & money. Of course they admire and hate him. But it just doesn't get any better than Chandler. Need an excuse? Then read it for the wrting alone. The best!

The best of Raymond Chandler.......2005-12-05

This book, contaning Chandlers later works, is perhaps the best collection of Chandler you can find. Sure, does not contain the better-known novels - The Big Sleep and Farewell my Lovely - but it does contain The Long Goodbye, which is not only Chandler's finest, but a great novel by any measure.

Chandler lived a tough, hard-drinking life, and these later works came out of his mind with difficulty. But the quality of The Lady in the Lake and The Long Goodbye (The Little Sister is less memorable) make this collection essential.

In addition, the book contains some essays and letters, including Chandler's writing on the mystery genre, which will interest any budding suspense author.

In short, read this book! Read The Long Goodbye, then read it again. This is not just a great mystery, but it is also great literature.

Classic American, cynical detective stories........2005-05-12

Chandler is arguably the best detective story writer out there. If you expand this genre to all mystery writers, he would still be one of the best.

Detective stories aren't as common as they once were, but if you look at the offspring of the Pulp magazine once so popular, television, they are still as popular as ever. Chandler was one author who defined what a detective story was. This book contains four novels:The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback. These are wonderfully entertaining stories that contain the archetypical hard-bitten detective, Philip Marlowe. After reading these stories you will forever see Marlowe in every detective story you see or read, from Magnum to the latest TV cop. How can you not love an author who sums up Modern American Capitalism with lines like these? "We make the finest packages in the world, Mr. Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk." Or an author who in the early 50's, (50 years before the current 'Queers Dress Up' shows) so presciently wrote, "The queer is the artistic arbiter of our age, chum." Or his comment on a speech by a politician, "He did not bore us with any facts."
These books are not just riveting, fun reading, but full of thoughtful quotes like the above.

Chandler also is must-reading for his understanding of criminality, venality, human nature, Southern California, Movies, American culture and American relationship dynamics. I hate to use the word "classic" to describe stories that are just so plain fun to read, but I find it hard not to.

This volume also contains a screenplay, Double Indemnity, and a few essays and letters. The essays "The Simple Art of Murder", and "Writers in Hollywood" should be required reading for anyone interested in 20th century culture, movies, and literature. Just a few tidbits more. Chandler on English Mystery Writers - "The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers." Chandler on boredom - "There are no dull subjects, only dull minds." Chandler on critics - "The average critic never recognizes an achievement when it happens. He explains it after it has become respectable."

My only criticism is that the plots are contrived and sometimes complicated. But such criticism is like complaining that the Mona Lisa would be a fine painting if only it were of a different size.

Chandler is simply wonderful, funny, cynical, and yes, - respectable.

Priceless Solely for The Simple Art of Murder.......2005-01-18

While Hammett may very well have carried the modern hard-boiled mystery forward into the light, Chandler defined it. Of the two, I think I prefer Chandler most. Chandler better than anyone else set the standard for the genre, and laid down the rules to which all the great mystery writers of today rigorously adhere. Here, in brief, is the mystery writer's credo:

'But down these mean streets must a man go who himself is neither tarnished nor afraid.'

As Chandler remarked in his classic essay, The Simple Art of Murder, Hammett rightly deserves the title of Founder of the modern mystery because he succeeded in giving murder back to the kind of people who commit it. So what kind of person goes up against the kind of people who committ murder? Chandler responds with Exhibit A: Philip Marlowe.

Chandler's Marlowe resonates in my favorite mystery romps, the Spenser series, and the archetype also finds its way into more than a few 'Good Cop' dramas.

I enjoy the escapades of Philip Marlowe simply because the wry cynicism, coupled with the tough moral fibre to get to the bottom of any affair and see justice (or at least some sort of closure) served, makes for truly fascinating escapist reading. Each of the books in this collection, as in the collection preceding it, amply deliver on this score.

If you happen to acquire this masterpiece, never let it go. These are classic books, and will never become dated. I personally prefer The Long Goodbye to The Big Sleep, and found the former a longer and more satisfying read. In every story of both collections, there is to be found a depraved tapestry of gilded greater Los Angeles society, quite literally ripped from the headline news of the day. Most mystery fans will love the idea of an honest man in a thoroughly dishonest world, on a righteous quest for justice.

Once you get this triumph of American literature in your hands, mix your favorite drink, disappear to a quiet place with a comfortable chair (with good lighting), and enjoy the Great Master at work. If only more writers could write like this, then I would not need cable TV...

The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, Playback (Everyman's Library)

Average customer rating:

Chandler reigns
A nice way to begin Raymond Chandler addiction

The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, Playback (Everyman's Library)
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375415025
Release Date: 2002-10-15

Book Description

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

Creator of the famous Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler elevated the American hard-boiled detective genre to an art form. Chandler’s last four novels, published here in one volume, offer ample opportunity to savor the unique and utterly compelling fictional world that made his works modern classics.

The Lady in the Lake moves Marlowe out of his usual habitat of city streets and into the mountains outside of Los Angeles in his strange search for a missing woman. The Little Sister takes Marlowe to Hollywood, where he tries to find a sweet young thing’s missing brother, uncovering on the way a little blackmail, a lot of drugs, and more than enough murder. In The Long Goodbye, a case involving a war-scarred drunk and his nymphomaniac wife has Marlowe constantly on the move: a psychotic gangster’s on his trail, he’s in trouble with the cops, and more and more corpses keep turning up. Playback features a well-endowed redhead who leads Marlowe to the California coast to solve a tale of big money and, of course, murder.

Throughout these masterpieces, Marlowe’s wry humor and existential sense of his job prove yet again why he has become one of the most recognized and imitated characters in fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Chandler reigns.......2006-01-21

I first came across Chandler when I heard the Coen brothers interview and discovered that 'The Big Lebowski' was written in the style of a Chandler novel (name itself being derived from 'The Big Sleep'). This alone interested me enough to buy and read The Big Sleep.

Six novels later, I'm still reading Chandler novels, and still finding each and every one different, interesting and intriguing. The main character Marlowe is a wisecracking detective, wary of women - whom he obviously mistrusts - except for the "bad type of women", for whom he does not particularly care. He is also a complex, intelligent man, often an altruist who goes to some extraordinary lengths for his clients, even when he's not paid.

Novels are usually set in 30's/40's Hollywood and Bay City (which is since called something else), and are especially nostalgic, if you've lived in the surrounding areas.

Chandler's writing is funny and unique - the stories - all told in first person, are written so that the reader is both aware of Marlowe's conscious thoughts, and at the same time, when the ending or some pivotal point in the story arrives - is not. This point is not easy to describe, but it works extremely well - the stories are always amusing, captivating, and suspenseful.

I will easily recommend any Chandler novel for anyone interested in mysteries, as well as to those that enjoy unconventional styles of storytelling.

A nice way to begin Raymond Chandler addiction.......2004-05-10

If you don't already have a bookshelf full of Raymond Chandler, Ross McDonald and other excellent mystery writers of those times this is a fine start, three good, solid novels to take up the shelf space of only one. I'd easily give every Raymond Chandler novel he ever penned 5 stars and these are no exception. You won't go wrong reading Chandler mysteries and you won't go wrong with this compact edition of three great books in one.

Average customer rating:

A wonderful love story
A Loving Tribute
Beautiful insights from an exceptional soul
Not Quite What I Expected
Where's The Beef?

The Long Goodbye
Patti Davis
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452286875

Book Description

President Reagan's daughter's personal farewell to her father

In The Long Goodbye, Patti Davis describes losing her father to Alzheimer's disease, saying goodbye in stages, helpless against the onslaught of a disease that steals what is most precious—a person's memory. “Alzheimer's,” she writes, “snips away at the threads, a slow unraveling, a steady retreat; as a witness all you can do is watch, cry, and whisper a soft stream of goodbyes.”

She writes of needing to be reunited at forty-two with her mother, of regaining what they had spent decades demolishing. A truce was necessary to bring together a splintered family, a few weeks before her father released his letter telling the country and the world of his illness. The author delves into her memories to touch her father again, to hear his voice, to keep alive the years she had with him.

Moving and honest, an illuminating portrait of grief, of a great man, a disease, and a woman and her father.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful love story.......2007-07-27

This book is touching and wonderfully written. I read it slow to catch the author's undertones of disease. I wanted to hold onto everything the author experienced listening and watching her father go down his path of life. 'The Chosen Few' I have called Alzheimer victims, because they react to love. She told it in a held back way, wanting you to feel what she was feeling and I did. The love for her mother and father was beautiful and when she put on her father's shirt to be close to him, I understood it well. Because I too have gone through this disease with a loved one. Her description of nature is a gift, given to her by her father. I would recommend this book to anyone who has lost a love one to Alzheimer's or has a detached family that comes together over disease. It's as if the disease taught them,(the ones involved) how to love again. Good going Patti, you told it well.
Rose
Rm Lamatt

A Loving Tribute.......2007-03-27

I have always admired Miss Davis' literary efforts, even when I recognized that she was writing to vent a great deal of anger. I was quite interested when I learned she had written about her Father's battle with Alzheimer's. This was a loving, respectful tribute to both her parents, and it gave me a sense of what this terrible disease does not only to the victim, but to the family as well. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone facing the aging and illness of a family member. It's a story of love, acceptance and faith.

Beautiful insights from an exceptional soul.......2005-12-01

How silly for those other reviewers to say this book didn't include "the family's experience with Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's disease." Or that the book didn't say enough about Alzeimer's itself. What do they want, a medical book? There are plenty of those. This is the unique story that only Patti, with her special place in history could tell, of how her father's disease brought her and her family tremendous pain, yet spiritual growth, and actual blessings. In so doing, she points the way to how we can continue to learn, as Americans, and as human beings, from these gifted leaders, the Reagans. I loved another book about Ronald Reagan, "How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life," by Peter Robinson. It told what Mr. Robinson had observed and learned from President Reagan as a speechwriter in his administration. It is a good book, but this one is even better, because of the vantage point, and insights of the person writing it.

Ms. Davis is an unusually gifted writer, as her father was an unusually gifted speaker. I read this book on an airplane, unable to put it down, even though I couldn't help sobbing out loud during parts of it.

I can now understand how Ms. Davis, with her deep intelligence and passionate, poetic nature, felt (and feels) so strongly about her parents. She talks some about why she rebelled so angrily, yet I am still not sure I completely understand her motivations there. She said she was "mad at America," for 1)taking her father into public service and away from her and 2)for sending some of her young friends to be killed in the Vietnam War. She has now come to sorely regret many of her actions spawned by that anger. Now more mature, she still holds to many of her liberal beliefs, yet regrets that she couldn't have done during her father's administration what she did at a celebration for Margaret Thatcher after her father's diagnosis, namely, laugh off differences, and relate to people as human beings, instead of political entities. It is something her father did exceptionally well.

She describes so many other touching moments, though, in this book, and beautiful impressions. She gave small examples of what her father had taught her, such as how to dive into ocean waves, and how to get back on a horse when you have fallen off. The small examples and big ones add up to an exploration into what love really means. It made me happy to know that President Reagan's daughter has reconciled with her mother and takes care of her now. She shared the moment of her father's death, and how love triumphed over the disease, in many small ways throughout it. With God's help, Patti has now achieved a triumph.

Not Quite What I Expected.......2005-04-05

While I thought the book was well written, I was disappointed that more about the family's experience with Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's disease wasn't included. The title of the book is somewhat misleading, for that reason, in my opinion. The bulk of the book was more about the author's feelings and experiences than about her father's illness.

Where's The Beef?.......2005-01-29

I was looking for more information in reference to alzheimer's disease itself, which I was very disappointed to find. They were very private when Mr. Reagan was going through the ordeal with the public and apparently want to keep it that way. My own mother died of alzheimer's this past year, but I could not relate to much of anything in this book, since not much information was given about the disease. I was surprised on how close she spoke of how her mother and her had gotten, yet she stayed in hotels when she went to visit her mother. The book was took place during the very beginning of alzheimer's....then a lapse for several years until the end - no meat at all! It seemed like it was more about Patti's guilt over years of not getting along with her parents, more than anything else. On a more positive side, Patti's writing itself is outstanding, including her descriptions and flow. The title of the book is very true when it comes to alzheimer's, however, the details of the book was ALL ABOUT PATTI, and should be renamed just that.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Volume 1: After the Long Goodbye (Ghost in the Shell Novel)

Average customer rating:

Thank you, Mr. Yamada
Don't miss this "quiet" release!
A Great Piece of Literature in its Own Right
Souls, friends and dogs.
Surprisingly good

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Volume 1: After the Long Goodbye (Ghost in the Shell Novel)
Masaki Yamada
Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1421501562

Customer Reviews:

Thank you, Mr. Yamada.......2006-09-19

Mr. Yamada, thank you for writing this book. No other book has brought tears to my eyes from just reading the prologue. While you considered this book to be a hard-boiled detective story, I found it to be the quest of a cyborg for his dog, and also the search to find out if a cyborg has a soul.

This is really an excellent little book. I wish that Masamune Shirow had writing chops like Yamada. The author is an excellent writer, and now I'm going to have to see if there are other books of his in translation.

The author explores some of the aspects of Shirow's postulated future, with e-brains, cybernetic enhancements, way too much connectivity and too little information. The only downside to the book is that it is short.

Don't miss this "quiet" release!.......2006-03-25

I'm a Ghost In The Shell fan. I enjoyed the films and LOVE the SAC series.

I'm a science fiction fan. William Gibson is easily one of my top 3 authors, I really enjoyed Stephenson's "Snowcrash", and read and enjoyed "cyberpunk" voraciously until it became a rather tired genre.

So how I missed this wonderful novel until now, I'll never know! "After the Long Goodbye" is a very worthy addition to the GitS universe, and by the nature of its setting, has a cyberpunk feel to it, but it's so much more mature and thoughtful than much of that genre.

It wrestles some big questions, and even poses some interesting answers. It's written in the 1st person from Batou's POV, which surprised the heck out of me in the first two pages, but Yamada has done a wonderful job of putting the reader in the big guy's head without betraying what we've seen on the big and small screens. It's also surprisingly free of the techno-pron I'd expected. I expected almost excruciating detail about weapons, cyborgs and so on but, as Batou himself says, he's "no otaku". There's easily as much philosophy and technology in this novel, as befitting the GitS universe.

Strangely, after the first few pages, I sort of gave up on it being a "GitS novel". Little reference to Section 9, a few token appearances of Togusa, no Aramaki, and of course no Motoko... it does not seem like an unaired episode of GitS. However, by the end of the novel, all of the threads come together and you realize that, yes, it's very much a GitS story, one bigger than the television screen, but perhaps too quiet for the big screen. If you read it, perhaps you'll know what I'm trying to say.

By the way, it's a quick read, only 180+ pages. Also, the afterward "interview" with Yamada and "Innocence" director Mamoru Oshii is a treat, and offers some fascinating insights into their approaches to this universe, and the "Innocence" film itself.

Highly recommended, and required for GitS fans.

A Great Piece of Literature in its Own Right.......2006-02-21

I picked up After the Long Goodbye during a quick stop at Borders Bookstore for something to read on a long road trip later that day. While browsing around, I just happened to notice the book cover with Batou and his Basset Hound. I was very intrigued, since I had heard nothing about a novel coming out for Ghost in the Shell.

At first, I was afraid that it would read very poorly, either due to a bad translation or because of some defect in original source material (since it is a tie-in to the movie). However, I was completely wrong on both counts. This novel is very sophisticated in its language and reads extremely well. Like some other reviewers, I hope that people won't disregard this title just because it's based off of an anime/manga series. I normally take a very long time to get through any novel, but this was a hard book to put down. I definitely recommend it to anyone that is either a fan of the series or sci-fi/cyberpunk in general. The ways in which most things are written here, from the characters to the action and intrigue, were definitely handled with care. Kudos to the translators and the original author.

Souls, friends and dogs........2006-01-28

This book is all about Batou - and the many questions he has. Does he have a soul? Why did Gabriel go? Fighting tanks, the yakuza, fast food, racing hounds, homeless guys and the question of where love comes from.
This is set before the second Ghost In The Shell movie, Innocence, and also has a bonus discussion between the director, Mamoru Oshii, and the author, Masaki Yamada.
There's gun fights, advanced science, philosophy and surreal scenes of the 21st Century.

Surprisingly good.......2006-01-27

Yeah, it's a tie-in. Get over it.

What we have here is a well-written and thoughtful take on Philip K. Dick territory in a William Gibson world. What does it mean to be human, to love, to feel empathy? As more and more of your body and even your brain are replaced by machinery, how much of your humanness remains?

It may help to have some familiarity with the two Ghost in the Shell films, but it probably isn't necessary. The novel does a fine job of setting the scene, describing the characters, and explaining the future tech and philosophical questions that drive the movies. There's action, of course, suspense, intrigue, science fictional ideas explored, but at its heart the book is character-driven, following a cyborg who doesn't dream of electric sheep because he almost never dreams at all.

I expected this to be a quick, fun cyberpunk read in an interesting SF world. It's a lot more than that, and it shouldn't slip past the SF-reading world unnoticed.

Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan

Average customer rating:

breath-taking
Couldn't have been better
A profoundly emotional story
A fair and balanced account
A true tragedy that changed the way we look at death...

Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan
William H. Colby
Manufacturer: Hay House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Right to Die | Family & Health Law | Law | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1401901328

Book Description

As the trial over her fate rages in a stately old courtroom in southwestern Missouri, the unmistakable voice of Ted Koppel tells the nation about Nancy Cruzan— "This is, at one and the same time, one of the simplest and one of the most complicated stories with which we have ever dealt." Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan follows an ordinary family's extraordinary journey to the United States Supreme Court. The book looks behind the scenes at the painful human cost exacted in a highly public legal battle. It is the true story of an American tragedy—a tragedy that could visit any of us in an instant.

On a black January night Nancy Cruzan's 20-year-old Rambler flies off the road and travels the length of two football fields before flipping to a stop. Nancy is thrown out face down on the cold ground, apparently dead. But not quite. Five years later, Nancy has not emerged from her coma, and her family makes the grim request that the state hospital remove Nancy's feeding tube, which the family authorized years before when hope remained. But the state refuses, and the battle begins. Before the battle is over, powerful forces in society will team up to oppose the family—including the Missouri Attorney General, Missouri Governor John Ashcroft, United States Solicitor General Ken Starr, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Near the end, protestors from around the country converge on Missouri, and attempt to storm the hospital. Their fight reaches its climax, and resolution, shortly after midnight on a bitter cold Christmas Day. This blue-collar family keeps one goal from! beginning to end - trying to do what they know in their hearts their loved one would want them to do. In the process, they help to raise the consciousness of a nation, and "free countless Americans of some of the fears attending death," according to the New York Times.

Customer Reviews:

breath-taking.......2007-03-18

no matter the side you take in the persistent vegetative state, this book exposes you to the intricate details of life and death matters. William Colby is not only an outstanding lawyer but a great author. the book is detailed with facts and carries you into a world that we dont normally think about or decide to ignore: the world of legal matters concerning death and what happens if this is a personal matter. you'll learn a lot from this book aside from it being an interesting and engaging read!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't have been better.......2005-10-14

I really am enjoying this book. Although I am reading it as an assignment, I believe I would have read it regardless.

A profoundly emotional story.......2003-12-12

Long Goodbye: The Deaths Of Nancy Cruzan by William H. Colby is the in-depth and true story of a judicial trial concerning Nancy Cruzan, a woman who was thrown from her vehicle and suffered horrific injuries. Since that tragic accident, Nancy has remained in a coma for five years, until her family abandoned hope for her revival and requested the removal of Nancy's feeding tube so her life could end peacefully. But the state intervened and denied the family's wishes. Thus began a extended legal battle began over who had the authority and the right to authorize the end of medical intervention with respect to a patient like Nancy. Long Goodbye is a profoundly emotional story of striving to do what one hopes is the right thing, in accordance with the wishes of those who cannot speak for themselves -- and the role of government to intrude into family and medical issues. This is a profoundly important issue that plays out in our hospitals and nursing homes every day. At the crux of the matter is the right to life, the right to die, and who has the final authority over a loved one caught up in a plight similar to Nancy Cruzan and her family.

A fair and balanced account.......2003-08-05

Despite this book being written by the lawyer who represented the parents of Nancy Cruzan who wanted feeding apparatus to be withdrawn and thus to have Nancy die, this book presents the issues and the struggle fairly and even-handedly. This is shown in a way since after reading it I conclude the U.S Supreme Court's decision was right--in the circumstances shown the family could without monetary loss have permitted their child to not be starved to death. The account of the trial and of the appellate history of the case is absorbing and shows the author is an able lawyer, admirable in representing his clients. I have no hesitancy in saying if it had been my child I would not have gone to the efforts which Nancy's father went to in order to have his child die. But psychologically Nancy's parents wanted the living death to end and their lawyer was right to seek the relief his clients desired. An extraordinary book.

A true tragedy that changed the way we look at death..........2003-06-21

During my training as a chaplain at Baylor University Medical Center, it was considered part of the "dues" of training that one would take lots of being on-call at the hospital for handling of emergencies. To that end, there was a "call room" where a chaplain could catch a little sleep, while waiting. On one of those sleepless nights in the call room, I viewed a Frontline special on the story of Nancy Beth Cruzan. She was a young woman, fully alive, who, as a result of a terrible accident, would become a test case for end-of-life matters for years to come. After seeing that special, I was deeply touched by the need to convey what our wishes were for the ends of our lives.

The Nancy Beth Cruzan case took the better part of ten years before resolution. The lawyer who fought for her right to be disconnected from the feeding tube was William Colby, the author of this outstanding book. Those of us on the front lines of trying to help families prepare for the issues they will face at the end of life will find insight into the ramifications of that case, as well as grist for the mill of the work that we are doing.

Colby is a highly readable author (at times, I felt like I was reading a Grisham novel), the Cruzan's case is deeply compelling, the story is truly tragic, and readers will come away with an appreciation of the law and concepts that are involved in pursuing these matters. There are several important story lines running throughout this volume: There are the lawyers, one who pulls an unexpected punch; the politicians, aiming for re-election; the Cruzans, especially Nancy's father, Joe, a salt-of-the-earth laborer, broken to the core over the loss of his little girl; a common sense probate judge, just trying to do the right thing; and the right-to-life movement (with whom we generally have sympathy, but not in this case). Indeed, under the skillful telling of Mr. Colby, law itself becomes a character, fickle at times, inflexible at others, and, at the last, compassionate.

Book Description

Mandie is shocked to hear that a turkey has been stolen from Aunt Lou's oven. The search is on for the missing turkey, but they uncover another mystery instead. Ages 8-13. Mandie book 30.

Customer Reviews:

sort of sad!.......2007-03-04

Mandie upset that joe has to go to college, but when Joe is still at Mandie's house...the turky disaperd right out of the oven! So Mandie thinks " maybe the turky is still in the house," and outside too.But they can't fined the turky! But they also have 3 other mysterys to soleve! But than Dr. Woodard goes missing! This is a very good book!!!!!!!!!

#30 is ssooo sad!!!! and good.......2004-10-11

The plot is about a missing turkey, which didn't really appeal to me, but otherwise the book was good. The end made me hungry for the next book!!!! If the mystery weren't so boring, this would be one of the best Mandie books ever.

This is SSSOOOO good!!!.......2004-10-10

Mandie and the Long Good-Bye is probably the best Mandie book I've read. Joe is going off to college, but Mandie tries to put it off for as long as possible. A turkey is missing from the kitchen oven, so Mandie, Joe, Jonathan and Sallie search for it (along with the annoying neighbor Polly). Suddenly Dr.Woodard, Joe's dad, disappears, and things get more serious. No matter what Mandie does, she knows that soon Joe is really leaving. The ending leaves you DIEING for the next book and an answer to a question!

Should have been called 'Mandie and the Turkey Theft'.......2003-12-05

Joe will be leaving for collage soon, and Mandie tries to put off the parting as much as she can. But things start looking even darker when Dr. Woodard disappears along with the Thanksgiving turkey. This time Joe puts no restrictions on her, seeing as the missing person is his father.
All their wanderings lead to a very surprising-and scary-discovery.

This book could have been better. I was puzzled that Lois Gladys Leppard titled the book 'The Long Goodbye' when the goodbye doesn't come until the end, and takes up about 2 or 3 pages, that's it. It should have been called 'Mandie and the Turkey Theft' or something like that.

Awesome!.......2003-08-05

This book is absolutely so wonderful! It is a must-read!

Average customer rating:

What A Great Book!
I laughed, I cried, I loved this book.

The Long Italian Goodbye
Robert Benedetti
Manufacturer: Durban House Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Family Saga | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1930754663
Release Date: 2005-08-15

Product Description

The Italian neighborhood surrounding Oakley Avenue on Chicago's West Side in 1948 is a Tuscan village transplanted from northern Italy thirty years before. Joey is ten, an only child born of the Great Depression, weaned on the lustrous myths of the neighborhood's gangster past, and reveling in the cooking of his Tuscan grandmothers. This is, for Joey, that special year when boyhood ends, a year of extremes of joy and grief. He earns money by delivering coffee to the black workers in the neighborhood factory, and becomes aware for the first time of the place of black people in his world. During the traditional summer retreat of the neighborhood's mothers and children to a rural Michigan lakefront town, he experiences the first stirrings of romantic love, but also the numbing pain of the death of his best friend. He comes to doubt the very existence of God, and learns that life is not what he had imagined, that even the joy of a kiss will be forever tinged with mortality. He returns to the city a changed person, his faith shaken but his conscience awakened, and he takes his first small stand against injustice. As the year ends, his family moves away from the old neighborhood and Joey leaves behind its sights, sounds, smells, and people, especially his first love Benita, and a big piece of himself. "Robert Benedetti has written a beautiful first novel. For readers who long for another time when the family table was the center of the world, when being Italian American meant you came from a great place to make a new country greater still, when cultural divides seemed liked impossible rivers to cross and yet some did, this is the story for you. Simple, graceful, filled with humor and love, "The Long Italian Goodbye" is a portrait of a boy growing up in Chicago surrounded by love and the reality of loss. You will laugh and cry, and be very sad to leave the world Mr. Benedetti paints so splendidly." Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of QUEEN OF THE BIG TIME, COOKING WITH MY SISTERS, BIG STONE GAP I wish to congratulate you on a beautifully written book. It is hard for me to believe that this is your first novel Joey is described so well that it makes me feel this is real biography You describe all the people just as welleveryone seems more real than fictitious. I feel Joeys problems, pain, and love throughout the book: from his experience on the school grounds, to the death of his grandpa, to his attachment to Benita. Not only do you bring your people to life, but you do the same for the neighborhood where Joey lived his first ten years. Ernest J. Gaines, Award-winning author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah Book Club selection) and A Gathering of Old Men. I loved it! "The Long Italian Goodbye" is charming and honest and totally absorbing. I could see and feel both the characters and the neighborhood. I could almost taste the food. And ahhh, those terrible moments of childhood that we just can't forget. Joey's shame and humiliation when he wet his pants. The death of his protector and the way you handled it was quite wonderful. Sad without being maudlin in any way. Just the right tone. Marilyn Levy, Author of Run For Your Life, The School Story, and Bride of the Wind. Dear Beny, Thank you, thank you, thank you......for the novel, for writing the novel, and for capturing the precious transitions from childhood to adolescence as well as from pre to post WWII life in Chicago. The novel is absolutely delicious!!!!!! and it held all the more poignancy for me on two grounds. First, I have been writing a painful chapter in my personal medical history for the past ten weeks......hence my delay in writing you. It climaxed in a massive attack of rheumatoid arthritis in my hands, which have been useless these past five weeks. Although they are on the mend, I am writing with considerable pain....so be not surprised at an abrupt closur

Customer Reviews:

What A Great Book!.......2005-10-06

For anyone who grew up in the 1940's or early 50's this book is an absolute gem. Benedetti's nostalgic account of a young boy's first halting steps into maturity is beautifully written. You meet characters who you've known for years but have forgotten, you journey into secret places that are tucked away in the back recesses of your memory and you can literally smell the delicious aromas of favorite dishes that you haven't tasted in years. The trip to the amusement park, the neighborhood bully, the first girl friend, the long ride to the country in your family's Packard; they're all here. A great read!

I laughed, I cried, I loved this book. .......2005-10-03

You do not have to be Italian(or a Chicagoan) to enjoy this trip down memory lane. "The Long Italian Goodbye" (for both the author's farewell to his childhood and because of the way all ethnic groups say good byes after family gatherings) is a loving look at one boy's growth from innocence to maturity. It is hilarious, tender, emotional and insightful -- the kind of book that everyone will enjoy. Benedetti's remembers boyhood adventures and discoveries, embarrassments and terrors, and love within the open-hearted bosom of an Italian family and neighborhood. You will miss a lot if you do not read this book.

I Think God Wants Me to Be a Missionary: Issues to Deal With Long Before You Say Goodbye

Average customer rating:

I Think God Wants Me to Be a Missionary: Issues to Deal With Long Before You Say Goodbye
Neal Pirolo
Manufacturer: Emmaus Road Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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