Judith Freeman

I love Raymond Chandler. Really I do and I loved the concept of this book of trying to find the man, and the key to the most important relationship in his life, between him and his wife Cissy, by tracing where they lived. This was interesting because Chandler burned all their letters after she died, leaving biographers no insight into what must have been the most important relationship in his life. I was primed to like this book and so, frankly, it sort of pisses me off that I don't. Some parts work, when she can go to a building that still exists and talks about it, but most is her rambling on about 'Ray' as though she knows him. Annoying!… (mere)

Freeman spins an excellent detective story surmising what marriage was like to Cissy, his wife of 30 years, and who was 18 woman 18 years older than he. This turns out to be even more remarkable when the reader learns early that Chandler burned nearly all of their correspondence together. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Chandler's life was that he lived in more than thirty apartments and houses during his adult years in Los Angeles, where he spent virtually all those years. Freeman visits every one of them, and correlates what Chandler was writing at each address. Chandler drank himself to death after Cissy died, so the end of this fascinating biography is a heart-breaking love story.… (mere)