Playback [Mass Market Paperback]

Raymond Chandler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1987

A brand-new BBC Radio full-cast dramatization of a classic Raymond Chandler mystery featuring private eye Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is mixing a little business with pleasure—he’s getting paid to follow a mysterious and lovely redhead called Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble seems to follow. But she’s easy on the eye and Marlowe’s happy to do as he’s told, all in the name of chivalry, of course. But one dead body later and what started out to be a lazy day’s snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity—and murder.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Chandler is not only the best writer of hardboiled PI stories, he's one of the 20th century's top scribes, period. His full canon of novels and short stories is reprinted in trade paper featuring uniform covers in Black Lizard's signature style. A handsome set for a reasonable price.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Raymond Chandler is a master." --"The New York Times
"
"[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered." --"The New Yorker
"Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious." --Robert B. Parker, "The New York Times Book Review
"Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye." --"Los Angeles Times
"Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist." --"The Boston Book Review
"Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler's prose. . . . He wrote like an angel." --"Literary Review
"[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision." --Joyce Carol Oates, "The New York Review of Books
"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence." --Ross Macdonald
"
"Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude." --Erle Stanley Gardner
"
"Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since." --Paul Auster
"[Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't." --Carolyn See
"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345349334
• ISBN-13: 978-0345349330
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,031,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Depending on how you read it., February 7, 2004

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Playback (Paperback)

Yes, Playback is the last of Chandler's novels.

No, it is not the best of his novels-- not by a long shot.

Yes, it is still worth the time that it takes to read.

Playback is an afterword to a great series. As a book, it is a little bit sadder, a little bit more cynical. Marlowe (like Chandler himself?) is going through the motions and none of what used to interest him is quite as compelling. The character and writer both have seen a vision of how it all ends and fail to stay quite as focused on the plot.

In the book, Marlowe agrees to enjoy the charms of the lovely Miss Vermilyea, but not unless she agrees to go somewhere besides his apartment. He had fallen in love with someone else in that room, and is not sure that her charms will live up to the comparison.

He says: "I had a dream here once, a year and a half ago. There is still a shred of it left."

As a reader, you may have the same feeling about this book. It is a lovely moment, but not to be compared to the real thing.

But still, a lovely moment.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Evolution of the Modern Tough Guy Detective is complete, May 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playback (Paperback)

From Hammett to Chandler we see the beginning of the modern day tough guy detective. In this novel, Chandler's raging cynic, Phillip Marlowe, completes the cycle which began in early short stories and in "The Big Sleep." Chandler takes Marlowe through his normal routines, but also allows his detective to show more fallibility than normal. Marlowe finally stops shunning the seductresses he normally encounters and actually makes love in this novel. Chandler's decision to let Marlowe fornicate freely paved the way for future authors who followed the Hammett, Chandler rule book. This novel is both a perfect ending to the Marlowe series, and a marvelous requiem to an author so disillusioned by the post-war 40's and 50's. Chandler never shied away from showing his disdain for the spoiled and wealthy members of Southern California during his time, but in no other novel or story does he so boldy bare his cynicism. A true masterpiece from a brilliant writer. It is a shame his works are viewed only as Crime Fiction and not as literary treasures.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Playback is an engaging read., February 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Playback (Paperback)

I have read all of Raymond Chandler's novels, and I believe Playback was his last. This story was first intended, I believe as a screenplay, and reading the story, you definitely sense a filmic quality. The novel and tone is quiet, almost as if Philip Marlowe is sleepwalking throughout the mystery. This is not neccessarily a bad thing. The plot has Marlowe shadowing a a wealthy young woman hiding out in a small Southern California beach town who is trying to escape her past. There are the usual sordid characters and sprinkling of murders, but Chandler also introduces a love affair or two.

A lot of the reviews I've read here so far seem unimpressed with this story -- ignore them. PLAYBACK is classic Chandler, and one of his very best.