Re: RARA-AVIS: Ellroy


Bob Toomey (btoomey@javanet.com)
Fri, 31 Dec 1999 23:23:25 +0000


pabergin wrote:IMO, Ellroy has to be the biggest no-talent puffball since Spillane, another

> author whose total contribution to the genre was to point out, by example,
> its failures.
>
> Like the inimitable Mick, Ellroy
> 1 - Cannot develop a believable or interesting character.
> 2 - Cannot write dialogue.
> 3 - Cannot divorce his own contrived self-image from his work.

Well, I'm no big fan of Ellroy myself, but at least one of his novels, an Avon original PB that never gets mentioned in all the Ellroy discussions, SILENT TERROR (reprinted by somebody or other as KILLER ON THE ROAD), is as chilling and believable a first-person portrait of a serial killer as the journals of Carl Panzram. Give it a try.

BobT

--
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Fri 31 Dec 1999 - 18:17:10 EST