However, this section is also where a big portion of the literary elements of the novel comes into play. Despite his contemporary success, Chandler was often hurt by critics’ reluctance to include him in literary discussions. In his introduction to Trouble Is My Business (1950), a collection of four of his short stories, Chandler touched on the dichotomy of critique in the genre:

People. They pass through your life, your mind, your heart, bundled in their own worlds with their wants and needs and feelings. And they'll tangle you up and drag you with and leave you with a lump in your throat and a weight in your gut. That's the best case scenario. Worst case scenario you end up broken, in jail, dead. Philip avoids the latter case with an insight into the human condition so instinctive and accurate it is frankly terrifying. Doesn't help him at all with the former though. The Long Goodbye starts as two unrelated cases that naturally converge. First, a rich drinking buddy of Marlowe's shows up in trouble — his wife has been beaten to death, and naturally he's the prime suspect. Marlowe doesn't believe his friend did it, and helps him get to Mexico (without actually breaking the law, since technically he does not know for a fact that his friend is currently wanted). This lands him in all kinds of trouble, with everyone from the cops to hoodlums to the dead woman's super-rich father trying to intimidate him. They want to pin it on her husband, and they want to pin Marlowe as an accessory, and they certainly don't want him poking around and questioning the official story. O'Brien, Daniel. Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor. London: B.T. Batsford, 1995. p. 53. ISBN 9780713474817. See also: Dame Agatha Christie herself was the Grand Master. She also won the award for Best Play for Witness for the Prosecution.Gore, Father (2016-06-07). "Altman's The Long Goodbye is Perfect Post-Modern Film Noir". Father Son Holy Gore . Retrieved 2019-07-03. Verso la fine, stessa inquadratura del mitico finale: qui Marlowe arriva a piedi alla casa dell’amico, e poi se ne va (sempre a piedi!). Chandler is also one of those rare writers who's able to combine profound depth of character and theme with a truly compelling plot. As I mentioned, I didn't find it as ungraspable as that of The Big Sleep, in fact I'm pretty certain I was able to follow it (having seen the Altman movie twice definitely helped, even though there are significant differences), but its complexity and precision coexist with its ambiguity- ambiguity not so much in terms of what happens, but why it happens. The greatest mysteries lie within ourselves. Another reviewer mentioned that they found Marlowe's passivity in this novel strange. But the novel is stranger than that, it's almost as if this entire story sort of happens to Marlowe, almost as if Sylvia's killer wants to be caught. Marlowe doesn't take this story at face value either, and continues to get threatened, cajoled, and seduced by various parties, none of whom really want him to uncover the truth. Eventually the two cases converge, at first the way you think they will, but with a few twists thrown in. Marlowe finds himself drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?

The TV adaptation of The Long Goodbye was nominated for Best Episode in a TV Series but lost to “Smoke,” an episode from the series Suspense written by Gore Vidal. This is very much a postwar novel, as well. We always hear that the 50s were a time of optimism and affluence in America, but Marlowe is preoccupied with the portents of a new world that's coming into being, a world of mass advertising and consumerism in which organized crime is "just the dirty side of the sharp dollar", and where the wealthy enjoy "one long suntanned hangover." Terry proposes the existence of this world to Marlowe, early on: The Long Goodbye is a cornerstone of noir and mystery that rises above any genre into simply being a beautiful piece of literature. A searing social critique orchestrated with dazzling plot twists, enviable dialogue prowess and a firm grounding in doing what is right simply because it is right, Chandler has created a masterpiece that is just as potent today as it was when first written. This is the sort of novel that scratches an itch of being both a fluff read and an intellectual endeavour (there must be a term for this somewhere) and grabs the reader by the throat and heart and won’t let go until the final, heart wrenching few lines. Plus, the Robert Altman film starring Elliott Gould is fantastic (though not a perfect adaption it still works) and rivals even Chinatown as a masterpiece of noir cinema. This novel was a true comfort on many a dark night and it was sad to see it end. Marlowe is a true literary hero and one I won’t ever forget.The drunk is Terry Lennox. The lady is his ex-wife, daughter of a multi-millionaire, reclusive newspaper tycoon. Marlowe helps the badly wounded war veteran make his way to Las Vegas for a fresh start in life where a wartime buddy will give him a job. Shortly thereafter, he gets a letter from Lennox saying that he and his wife have not only reconciled, but have remarried. Once in a while in this much too sex-conscious country a man and a woman can meet and talk without dragging bedrooms into it. It all depends on where you sit and what your own private score is. I didn’t have one. I didn’t care.

Deeb, Gary (29 July 1977). " 'Long Goodbye' was a short one". Chicago Tribune. p.II-12 – via Newspapers.com.

A true 'hot property': Elliott Gould's 'Long Goodbye' apartment is for rent!". Los Angeles Times. 3 December 2014. Varèse Sarabande released selections from Williams's score on a CD in 2004 paired with the album rerecording of Williams's music from Fitzwilly; in 2015 Quartet Records issued a CD entirely devoted to The Long Goodbye. L’alcool è come l’amore. Il primo bacio è magico, il secondo intimo, il terzo un’abitudine. E poi si spoglia la donna” In questo romanzo, più che in altri, la tematica dell’alcol la fa da padrone, ci sono ben tre personaggi che ne sono schiavi: lo scrittore in crisi creativa, l’amico fuggitivo, e lo stesso protagonista. Per un lungo periodo della sua vita Chandler ebbe seri problemi di alcol, fino probabilmente a morire per le conseguenze dell’eccesso.