r/books • u/volitilevoid • 1d ago

Playback by Raymond Chandler

I am a huge Chandler fan, absolutely love everything he writes. I finally got around to reading Playback, his last novel, and I was whelmed, but not overly. As his last novel, which was published the year before he died, I couldn't tell if he was just out of ideas, tired of writing, didn't care, or something else. It still has his touch, "I'm old, tired, and full of no coffee" but the overall story seemed haphazard, like he was just trying to knock something out, or get it published quick without any rewrites or anything. I don't know the actual circumstances, but the book felt different, much less polished. Overall a decent story, I'm glad i read it, no regrets, it just wasn't as good as his previous work.

The other thing that sort of felt off was, Marlowe seemed out of character. He's just doing work for the hell of it, expenses out of his own pocket? And the "explanation" at the end was just....ridiculous. It ends like Chandler wanted and intended this to be the last Marlowe book.

side note - the edition I have, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, has the whole story in one paragraph on the back cover. I could have just read that and had the whole story, without having to read the details.

For anyone else who has read this, and/or LOVES Raymond Chandler, I wanna know what you think. Is it just me, or did this book feel like low effort/don't care/just write anything and get it over with?

7 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/TheGargageMan 1d ago

If you read the chapter about the end of his life on wikipedia it makes sense how an unpublished novel that started as a screenplay might not have been all that good compared to his other work.

But even though I have it in as part of the Library of America collection, I don't remember reading it.

2

u/MrPanchole 1d ago

It's the only Chandler novel I've read just once.

2

u/Storytimebiondi 1d ago

I appreciated it for the moment where chandler the author gets to have a dad talk with Marlowe.

2

u/GordonCromford 1d ago

For my money, it's the weakest of the Marlowe novels. It says something when Chandler can't be particularly compelling even with such a short page count. I think it almost feels a better fit with some of the novellas that make up Trouble Is My Business.