Re: RARA-AVIS: Ellroy's Dahlia

Anthony Smith (ansmith@netdoor.com)
Sun, 19 Apr 1998 12:30:52 -0500 > I think he's an incredible writer, and his last five novels rank high
> on my list of all-time favourites. He can be brutally and graphically
> violent, though, and I know a couple of people who couldn't make it
> through just one book. Eye sockets and stuff.
>
> If you're just starting the L.A. Quartet, you're in for a treat.
> Watch his style through the four books, and how he pares things down
> until he's left with only sentence fragments in the last one.

Of course, as I've said a few thousand times, I agree. (I won't shut up,
will I? One note, over and over....)
I read where Ellroy said LAConfidential was too long a book, so he was
asked to cut. Since it was exactly as he wanted it thematically, he cut
words instead of scenes, and thus, the birth of a truly unique style,
continued in my fave, White Jazz, then in the novella Dick Contino's Blues
(Very "voicey" in the first person), and taking a different track in Am.
Tabloid.
As a friend told me yesterday, who is just beginning some Ellroy based on
my suggestions (nagging), Ellroy is also extremely funny. Dark and blunt,
but really funny.

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