Sun 10 Mar 2019
ROSS MACDONALD – The Goodbye Look. Lew Archer #15. Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, April 1969. Bantam, paperback; 1st printing, June 1970. Reprinted many times since, in both hardcover and soft.
Published toward the end of the Lew Archer series, The Goodbye Look had a strong feeling of weariness to it when I read it this past week, that and a sense of déjà vu, as if Macdonald were repeating in it many of the same themes he’d already gone through several times before.
It begins when Archer is hired by a lawyer to find an old gold box that has just been stolen from the family of one of his long time clients. His family and theirs are close — so close, in fact, that not only do they live across the street from each other, but the lawyer’s daughter is engaged to be married to the son of the couple for whom he’s been working for so long.
One strong suspect is the son, a college student who is a very emotionally disturbed young man, and one possibly important factor is that he has recently been taking up with an older woman. A private detective has also been seen in town looking for someone, and when Archer finds his dead body in a car on the beach, the case begins in earnest.
And as is always true in Lew Archer’s cases, the problems that exist in the present have long-standing roots in the past. Lost loves and lost lives, intricately interlaced with relationships known and unknown between (in this case) three if not four families.
I always get a pervasive feeling of melancholy, of dark clouds above, whenever I read one of Macdonald’s books, no matter how sunny the Southern California sky may be. The Goodbye Look is no exception. Archer may make his way from San Diego to Pasadena and back several times in this book, but the case itself he always has with him. It is part of him, and he won’t let go.
March 10th, 2019 at 8:59 pm
I first read THE GOODBYE LOOK in 1969 and I still have the first edition hardback in dust jacket. That’s 50 years ago and I’ve reread it twice, most recently in 2018.
I still think it’s excellent and there is one scene that is unusual in the Lew Archer series. The protagonist has a sexual encounter with a doctor’s wife. Needless to say things do not end well.
March 11th, 2019 at 12:33 am
The night in bed withe doctor’s wife seemed like a rare event for Archer when he was on one of his cases. I tried but couldn’t remember for sure of another instance. I thought of saying something about in my review, but since I wasn’t sure how unique it was, I decided not to.
You’re also right, Walker, in pointing out that nothing good came from it.
March 11th, 2019 at 12:44 am
PS. Yes, the book’s 50th anniversary is next month. In many ways it’s hard to believe the book’s been around that long. I don’t have the First Edition in hardcover. I’m sure my copy is a book club edition. The ome I read just now was a paperback I picked used to have something to read on a plane. I finished it in maybe three hours, with lots of breaks for peanuts, switching flights and things like that.
March 10th, 2019 at 10:08 pm
William Goldman’s stellar review of this one in the NEW YORK TIMES happily propelled Macdonald onto the bestseller list where he stayed until the end. It is passed his best novels, THE CHILL, THE GALTON CASE, BLACK MONEY etc. and that extraordinary run, but reveals a new maturity of voice and theme and a world weariness that finally rounds out Archer’s cypher like nature somewhat.
Here the music and the milieu blend perfectly.
March 11th, 2019 at 12:39 am
You’re right about the shot of publicity that Goldman gave this book. Not many mysteries make the front page of the NYT Book Review section.
March 15th, 2019 at 2:05 pm
You might have to factor in the hypothesis that Ross Macdonald suffered from Alzheimer’s that affected the writing of his last few books. The same situation may have affected Agatha Christie’s last few mysteries, too.
March 15th, 2019 at 3:29 pm
I think he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s around 1976, the same year that THE BLUE HAMMER came out. That’s one I’ve never read, for two reasons. First, that if I do, that will be the last time I’ll be able to read about Lew Archer and one of his cases, and secondly, for fear that it won’t be as good as I’d want it to be.
March 15th, 2019 at 5:49 pm
I found his last novel to be excellent. He must have finished it before he came down with Alzheimer’s.
March 15th, 2019 at 8:20 pm
That’s good to know, Walker. I will have to be brave and give it a read someday. It will be like saying Good-Bye, of course.