alfredo_buscatti
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- Dec 17, 2007
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I am on his fifth novel in two months and have never read any author this exhaustively this fast. Addictive as bourbon. Although I usually read Austen, Faulkner or others like them who have been championed by the ages, I cave to Ellroy without complaint as his staccato style beats like the roll of a jazz drummer, declarative after declarative, eliding words, full of slang and obscene invective, and is the accompaniment to characters inhabiting every underworld niche. Grit is everywhere. The cops are more brutal than the criminals. He takes me places that I’ve never been, from the many suspicions of J. Edgar Hoover’s precarious perches to the haunts of Haiti, filled with Klerin liquor (an hallucinogen made from blowfish toxins and the glands of toads), where zombification is amply practiced.
In some books there is no possibility of redemption. The characters are always high, never sleep, are always chasing the money. In others, particularly “Blood's a Rover,” two characters buy it but, presumably, go to heaven, exiting in an atypical Ellroyian manner. This truly warms the heart.
The plots are intricate and Ellroy tells you just enough to keep you both hanging on and forever guessing.
Very enjoyable and very entertaining. Very well-written. Highly recommended. Apparently very popular; at my library you grab what’s on the shelf.
In some books there is no possibility of redemption. The characters are always high, never sleep, are always chasing the money. In others, particularly “Blood's a Rover,” two characters buy it but, presumably, go to heaven, exiting in an atypical Ellroyian manner. This truly warms the heart.
The plots are intricate and Ellroy tells you just enough to keep you both hanging on and forever guessing.
Very enjoyable and very entertaining. Very well-written. Highly recommended. Apparently very popular; at my library you grab what’s on the shelf.