RARA-AVIS: Re: Ellroy - X-offender?

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 11 Dec 2002


birdlives wrote:

> The writer of the "My Dark Places" script said that she saw
> his rap sheet, and everything was on there...

Was the rap sheet part of his press kit? How convenient.

Still... Jan Oxenburg's hardly an impartial witness, considering Ellroy's alleged past is frequently used as a marketing tool, and would be doubly so for that book.

I've no doubt Ellroy was a little shit, but if he was as screwed up as he claims, and actually did half the things he boasts about, I'm surprised he didn't end up with a criminal record. Then again, it was another age, and hey, he was one of the preferred skin tones.

Nonetheless, there's a boastful glee in his accounts of his misspent youth that's more than a little sad for a grown man. I'm sure it impresses the hell out of the little boys though.

Hmmm... Beyond their various peccadilloes, which they strove to keep private, Chandler, Macdonald and Hammett were also war heroes and patriots. Ellroy sniffed panties, and gladly tells anyone who'll listen. This ain't your grandpa's crime fiction.

In my other post today I mention "Hacks see the clothes and mistake it for the man. Good writers see the surface stuff for what it is, and pick and choose from it." Unfortunately, Ellroy's so busy showing us HIS clothes, both in his fiction and his real life, that it distracts from his work.

-- 

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