The Writings of James Ellroy

I probably got into James Ellroy the same way a good number of people did -- enjoyed LA Confidential (the movie) and/or his appearances on Conan O'Brien. So about 4 or 5 years ago I picked up what was then the previous year's Time Magazine book of the year, American Tabloid.

At first it was a bit intimidating. It was a hefty book even in paperback and it has a good number of characters being thrown at you to try and keep track of. But it reads easy with blunt testosterone fueled sentences, and moves along at a great pace as it covers five years of events leading up to the murder of JFK--putting a date and time stamp at the begining of each chapter. We follow three guys, who may be the the only three fictional characters in the book, as they work their way between Hoover and the FBI, the mob, Cuban militants, the KKK, and the Kennedys themselves. The book is about 600 pages long and stops exactly at the moment of JFKs assassination, but I honestly didn't want it to end.

It really was like reading a history book of all the awful truths of our country that you kind of knew were true and finally got to find out about in all it's perverse detail. You definately get the feeling that Ellroy lives for this kind of dirt and that love makes all his bleak portraits seem that much more fun to uncover. Oh, and the best part is, it doesn't end.

The Cold Six-Thousand picks up the story later that very same day and takes you yet another 5 years down the line to the events of 1968. We follow the two guys who managed to survive American Tabloid and a new guy as they try to not get killed in their chosen professions. We're still trying to keep the forces of Hoover appeased as well as Howard Hughes this time around. We also get a peculiar view of war in the form of an operation to ship heroin in to the US from Vietnam so the undesirables of Las Vegas stay subdued. And, of course, sit sideline as RFK and MLK are thrown towards their fates. It's not quite as exhilarating as Tabloid but as I believe it is supposed to be the middle of a trilogy it serves it's role damn well and it's characters are still captivating despite it's Vegas-centric surroundings not quite as intersting as the early 60's JFK plottings.

These books (especially Tabloid) are right up there, top-shelf with the best books I've read. And I highly recommend picking them up and being ahead of the game when the thrid comes out--hopefully not too far from now. Also check out The Black Dahlia (currently being made into a movie by Brian DePalma) and White Jazz (which at one point was being made with john Cusack and Nick Nolte, but fell apart) which make up the rest of his LA trilogy with LA Confidential. All enjoyable, but if I had to rank them in order of how you should pick them up, or greatness, would be as such: Tabloid, Dahlia, Confidential, Jazz, Cold Six. There you have it.