Back in February I provided a rave review, only about 15 years late, of the film L. A. Confidential. At the time I promised myself to buy some of James Ellroy's books and that I did a couple of weeks ago. His output, given the size and complexity of his tales, is outstanding but I chose American Tabloid which was originally published in 1995. I am enjoying it, sort of, but it is taking me a considerable time to read it. His prose style is brief and to the point but his plot, or, plots, are convoluted with central characters working for and double-crossing several employers simultaneously.
The story hangs off the hook provided by the Kennedy brothers and their appalling family in the late '50s as Jack geared up to run for the presidency and Bobby attempted to pursue Jimmy Hoffa, the gangster running the Teamsters Union. Castro has seized Cuba and the CIA and the FBI are sniffing hither and thither but just about every agent is really working their own agenda. So far, not a single sympathetic or even faintly likeable character has appeared. One begins to sympathise with the doleful picture of Howard Hughes spending his hours alone in various hotel suites drugged up to the eyeballs on heroin provided by one of Ellroy's 'heroes'!
So, not an easy read, in fact, a rather depressing one but I must resist a final opinion until I finish the book.
The Black Dahlia.
Posted by: Andra | Wednesday, 30 May 2012 at 00:37
Yes, I might give that a try in time. I'm finding this one really depressing - not one single decent human being in the whole thing - so far.
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 30 May 2012 at 08:40
Dark stuff indeed, but a compelling read - I recently re-read "Tabloid" and its sequel "Cool Six Thousand" - which has a similar take on Vietnam and events round the RFK and MLK murders involving some of the surviving characters from "Tabloid" - to get myself up to speed for the recently published 3rd volume, "Blood's A Rover", which goes into the emerging Black Power movement and U.S. involvement in Central American/Carribean politics.
In the course of immersion, sympathetic characters do emerge, but some of them may only appear that way because of their style of and approach to the ubiquitous corruption depicted. For example, although their women are sympathetically drawn, I actually found myself rooting for Littel and Bondurant as it went on, whether laying traps for one another or working in subsequent uneasy partnership. Both of them are shown as capable of idealistic motivation, however warped or pragmatic their consequent actions may seem.
Some of Ellroy's autobiographical sketches are pretty disgusting too - see "Destination,Morgue". He obviously drew on experience to write these novels.
Btw, "L.A.Confidential", is actually the concluding volume of 4, one of the earlier ones being "The Black Dahlia", cited by Andra. The others are "White Jazz" & "The Big Nowhere".
Posted by: Stan Mann | Sunday, 10 June 2012 at 18:32
Hello, Stan, and thanks for your interesting comment. I have been quietly mulling over Ellroy's book ever since (with a sigh of relief, I must confess) I reached the end and put it down.
I found it relentlessly depressing but also incredibly complicated! I know I'm a bit slow these days but, honestly, 'Tinker, Tailor ...' was easy compared to this. I will try 'The Black Dahlia' because I gather it is more 'cops 'n' killers' orientated rather than political/social 'history'. To my mind (and memory) Tom Wolfe did it all much better in 'Bonfire of the Vanities'. I will let you and everyone else know what I make of 'the Dahlia#' when I get round to it. (At the moment I'm lost back inthe Roman empire, Zeus help me!)
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 10 June 2012 at 18:47