The Long Goodbye
Marlowe's drawn-out farewell
The Long Goodbye is a 1953 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring private investigator Philip Marlowe, widely considered among the finest works of American crime fiction.
The title has become shorthand for any protracted, painful farewell—a relationship, career, or life stage that ends gradually rather than cleanly: Watching my father's decline was the long goodbye.
- noirHard-boiled film genre
- film noirStylish, shadowy crime drama
- detectiveProfessional crime investigator
- private detectiveLicensed investigator for hire
- farewellLeave-taking expression
Raymond Chandler · Marlowe · parting · Altman · hardboiled · Robert Altman · whiskey · cigarette · Los Angeles · mystery · Eileen · Terry · melancholy · bittersweet · friendship · betrayal · 1970s · private eye
- Robert AltmanMASH, Nashville, ensemble cast, improvisation, satirical tone
- thrillerssuspense, thriller, nail-biter, page-turner, cliffhanger
The Long Goodbyeclean break
Complete, uncomplicated severance
Irish goodbye · French leave · cold turkey · ghosting · vanishing act
The Long GoodbyeThe Maltese Falcon
long, goodbye, longer, longest, lengthen, elongate, elongation, prolong, prolonged