Miker,
Re yours and Brian's comments below:
> But I find nothing
> epic
> about his obsession with corruption, and
> *over*-emphasis on the profane.
>
> **********
> I see what you mean! The dirty, mean,
corrupted
> streets of Los
> Angeles that Ellroy portrays are just some
twisted
> personal fantasy
> of his, with no foundation in reality. In the
real
> world cops
> are honest, racism doesn't exist, there's
no
> poverty . . .
If you're going to arguewith somebody, deal with the issues
he or she has raised. Brian never said corruption, racism,
etc., didn't exist, and to suggest that he did as a way of
showing the fallacy of his arguments is to fight
unfairly.
What Brian implied, and it's a fair point, is that the TOTAL
corruption Ellroy shows, in which there is NO character
acting from good or noble purposes is at least as far from
reality as a presentation that suggests that there is no
brutality, corruption, or racism in the ranks of American law
enforcement.
That said, Ellroy is, if not an elegant writer, an
extraordinarily powerful one, deserving of all the attention
(if, not necessarily, all the acclaim) he receives.
As to the question of the best "non-historicals," I'd say the
Lloyd Hopkins trilogy, about a contemporary LAPD homicide
detective, of which the best is probably the third, SUICIDE
HILL.
JIM DOHERTY
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