A Mysterious Something in the Light
The Life of Raymond Chandler
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
Drawing on new interviews, previously unpublished letters, and archives, this biography casts a new light on Raymond Chandler, one of the most mysterious of writers. The man revealed was troubled by loneliness and desertion from an early age—experiences that informed his writing as much as they scarred his life. The bleak picture details the collapse of his parents’ marriage, and the relocation of Chandler and his mother to Ireland, and later London, due to his father’s alcohol-fueled violence. In his 20s, he returned to the United States and he met his one great love, Cissy Pascal, a married woman 18 years his senior. Only during middle age, after his own alcoholism dissolved a lucrative career as an oilman, did Chandler turn to crime fiction, although his success proved bittersweet. His literary obsession, ambition, and suicidal turn after Cissy’s death combined to prevent him from living up to the promise of his first novels. This long-awaited biography shadows one of the true literary giants of the 20th century and considers how crime writing was raised to the level of art.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this immersive biography of novelist Raymond Chandler, who helped define the detective fiction genre, first-time author Williams pieces together numerous interviews, letters, and articles to offer a remarkably detailed portrait of the famously hard-boiled writer. Chandler's father was abusive and an alcoholic, two qualities that had a lasting impact on the writer. Philip Marlowe, Chandler's iconic character, was a drinker (as was Chandler himself), and the abuse his mother suffered at the hands of his father inspired a chivalrous streak displayed in fiction as well as real life. Williams spends the most time on Chandler's early writing, sharing passages from stories and poems, as well as insight into the writer's process that yielded classics like The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Chandler fans will find discussions of the minutiae of these novels to be illuminating; those with a more casual interest will likely skip ahead to read about the writer's tumultuous relationship with Hollywood, including spats with directors Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock. Meticulously annotated and researched, and written with a tangible fondness, it's hard not to appreciate Williams's efforts. Still, the book may be too myopic for most fans of crime writing. 25 b&w photos.
