Chandlertown: The Los Angeles of Philip Marlowe

Description

Here is Los Angeles through the eyes of Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled private eye featured in such renowned Raymond Chandler novels as 'The Big Sleep' and 'Farewell, My Lovely'. Colorful, corrupt, glamorous, and dangerous — that was L.A. during the thirties and forties, and in Chandlertown Edward Thorpe recreates its vivid landscape. Marlowe was obsessed with gangsters, cars, guns, and a certain kind of woman, and he saw it all on the lush boulevards as well as on the seedy downtown streets. Thorpe cleverly contrasts Marlowe’s L.A. with its contemporary counterpart, illuminating how much has changed — and how much remains the same. Today, as yesterday, glitter and glamour coexist with a shadowy subculture — organized crime, cops on the take, blackmail in high places — and it is that deadly combination that makes L.A. so exciting. Photographs throughout the text illustrate the landmarks cited by Chandler in his novels. 'Chandlertown' is a virtual biography of Marlowe, detective fiction’s most enduring character; but, even more than that, it is an ingenious social history of Los Angeles itself. Thorpe breathes new life into Philip Marlowe and into Chandlertown, and the result will delight Marlowe’s fans and all those fascinated by Los Angeles. Author’s Note 9 1. All colours of the spectrum 11 2. A world gone wrong 13 3. Because they are phoney 18 4. Everything else was junk 32 5. A faint smell of ocean 40 6. One-man death watch 48 7. Erotic as a stallion 54 8. Punch drunk by this time 62 9. Women make me sick 68 10. A flesh-pink Mercedes-Benz 75 11. I’ll take the big, sordid, dirty city 81 12. An agonizing experience 90 13. The chimpanzee who played the violin 98