Customer Reviews

The Goodbye Look

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To refer to Nick Chalmers of Pacific Point, California as a troubled young man would be completely understating the case. The truth is he's guilt ridden to the point of being suicidal.
Private eye Lew Archer, whose newest client is Nick's mother Irene, is determined to unravel the complex web of events that has brought Nick to the wretched mental state in which he now finds himself.

The Goodbye Look serves up plenty of typical Ross Macdonald fare as the narrative, an exceedingly complex one even by Macdonald's standards, unfolds. Three families, the Chalmers, the Truttwells and the Swains are plagued by a series of intertwined tragedies that have played out over 25 years and more.

As Archer traverses much of the southern California landscape steadfastly trying to sort out this sordid saga of murder, larceny, infidelity, parental malfeasance and hidden identity, the reader is drawn into Macdonald's world. A world where the sins of the father's are invariably visited upon the children and one's destiny is determined before one is old enough to have any say in the matter.

Enhancing this book's interest quotient is the fact that Archer himself becomes an active participant in the ongoing soap opera when he engages in sex with a married woman. Not just any married woman, but one who has, as it turns out, played a key role in the mystery Archer seeks to solve.

As is the case in most Lew Archer novels, the dialogue and descriptive prose are first rate. However, The Goodbye Look is not quite as strong as some of Macdonald's other work because the plot is so twisted that its unravelling raises as many questions as it answers. Readers, particularly those who are already Ross Macdonald fans, will enjoy certain aspects of this book. For example, a scene where clues are found by viewing a decades old home movie is particularly well written. But overall, The Goodbye Look ranks a notch or two below the author's best work.

Lew Archer works for the sleaziest rich people in California on a consistent basis. Their concealed pasts go back 20 years, sometimes longer, and in the process of the plot's unravelling several dead bodies usually turn up (including fresh ones). In this novel, his first national bestseller in 1969, two broken families have intertwined tragic pasts that Archer ends up disclosing. By the end they're not happier, but have faced the ugly truth about themselves. This book is compact, unified in time and setting, and has nice plot twists. Macdonald has been criticized for rewriting the same book, and there is a consistency of character and milieu in his work. But hey, if it's not broke... The end is a lift from Macdonald's The Galton Case, widely regarded as his best book. When you've read that one--and if there's a better PI novel written since WWII I don't know of it--try this one. It's a good read by a good writer.

The Goodbye Look is one of the best Lew Archer novels by Ross MacDonald. Archer is called to investigate the theft of an antique jewelry box owned by the wealthy Chalmers family. Suspicion quickly falls on the only child, son Nick.

This is one of the three or four best in the Lew Archer series, which is another way of saying that it is one of the ten or so best detective stories ever published. It is also maybe the most complicated of the Archers. There are many characters. I strongly recommend you write them down as they appear. Draw a graph showing who is related to who. For that reason, I do not recommend this as the first Archer novel to read.

The final resolution is not quite what I was hoping. However, it is certainly good and makes sense.

We have here many of the recurring themes that are in all but the earliest Archer novels: The private mental hospital. The strange disappearance of someone a generation earlier, probably murdered. Wealthy people who got that way at the ultimate expense of their children.

The only thing this one is missing relative to some of other later novels in the Archer canon is a lot of the incredible off hand descriptions and musings. Ross MacDonald was one of the finest writers - forget detective - that this nation has ever produced. His Archer novels are full of insights and descriptions of amazing power that resonate in the mind. I didn't find quite so many in this one.

- henry

The Goodbye Look is another excellent Lew Archer novel by Ross MacDonald. Archer is called on the case to investigate the theft of a antique jewelry box owned by the wealthy Chalmers family. Initially suspicion falls on the Nick the only son. Nick is a mixed up kid who has just dropped out of college. As Archer investigates, the threads he pulls lead him to murders commited decades before.

This another excellent installment in the Lew Archer series. MacDonlad is a worthy heir to Hammett and Chandler in the hardboiled detective genre.

I was more than a little surprised to see that other Ross MacDonald books had glowing reviews, but The Goodbye Look had a handful of positive but not enthusiastic ones.

The surprise is because The Goodbye Look is MacDonad's masterpiece, and probably one of the half-dozen greatest mystery novels of the twentieth century. It's that good. It would take a real full-length review to do justice to it, but MacDonald's pet theme of the sins of the rich and the sins of older generations coming home to roost in the present was never more memorably or searingly presented than it is here. The plot is possibly the most complex ever attempted by an American crime writer (you might actually want to take notes or create a diagram to keep track of everything, it's that complicated) but it's not meaninglessly dense or elaborate as other books are. The links between characters, the family relationships, the connection to past events, the crimes of decages ago being felt now by younger generations, these are all the reasons MacDonald's story is convoluted with a purpose.

I can't praise this book enough.

Ross Macdonald is an excellent writer of the private eye and mystery grouping.. the book was in excellent condition/ paperback .. and delivery was adequate..

I picked this one up because of the numerous good reviews that Macdonald has received over the years, and his obvious prolificity. The Goodbye Look is supposed to be his best, and while it is very good, it is a style of mystery that isn't quite to my taste. Macdonald is very much like Raymond Chandler. His hero is a rough, ready, and usually untalkative type who goes through a mystery case as gently as he downs a fifth of scotch. The mystery is also very Chandleresque--several dysfunctional families, incestuously lying and cheating their way to unhappiness. If you like Chandler, you'll like Ross Macdonald. However, based on my impression of this book, if you want more characterization, try John D. McDonald.