Re: RARA-AVIS: James Ellroy's opinion of Chandler
Mark Sullivan (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Mon, 28 Sep 1998 00:29:49 -0400 (EDT)
Just for the record, James Ellroy told me (a small group of us
spoke to
him for about an hour between DC screenings of the German
documentary
about him) that the only thing he had ever read by Jim Thompson
was King
Blood, in preparation for writing the negative forward to the
British
edition. Of course, I don't believe him. I still think the
sheriff in
Silent Terror (AKA Killer on the Road) is based on Lew Ford.
(Ellroy
denies this, while insisting Mosley could not have written his
"Red"
book without reading the LA Quartet.) Also, in all of his
biographical
material Ellroy speaks of voraciously reading any crime novel
he could
get his hands on during his speed-ingesting adolescent
years.
Considering the years of that adolescence, it's hard for me to
believe
he read a ton of crime novels without running across Thompson.
I think
Ellroy makes a habit of rejecting (as in Chandler) or denying
(as in
Thompson) anyone he is compared to, accurately or not.
Mark
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