By the way, Brown's Requiem is more an imitation of Ross
Macdonald than
of Chandler - at least, that's what I hear in Ellroy's voice
(the plot
is not Chandleresque, either).
Chandler epitomizes elegant, evocative, precise language that
creates
tension with every sentence but does not rely on accumulation
for
effect. Ellroy does the opposite. His prose is turgid and not
always
lucid, and often has a musical effect similar to one of those
long
Dexter Gordon solos - it's beautifully disturbing, without
full closure.
It largely works by accumulation.
The nice thing about this informal list (as opposed to a
scholarly
publication) is that I don't have to change a damn thing in
the above
ramblings. It's all off the top of my head.
Regards,
MT
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