> Ellroy never lets us forget his past. He recounts,
at high volume,
> every sleazy little thing he did in his youth. And
while I'm sure he
> was indeed a slimy little shit, I refuse to believe
he is not
inflating
> his roll in the mud. It no longer has anything at
all to do with
> veracity, but with myth making. He is now writing
his own persona
> larger than his characters. And it is affecting his
work, in my mind.
> I found the uniformity of voice, the same voice as
his public persona,
> in American Tabloid incredibly tiresome. It killed
my interest in
> reading any of his future fiction. And I was once a
huge fan, turned
> all of my friends on to him. To my ear, with that
book, he became a
> self-parody, intentional or not.
>
> On top of that, I could no longer ignore the racism,
misogyny and
> homophobia in his books. Up until then, I had pretty
much accepted
his
> rationalization that it was the characters and the
times, not himself
> who felt that way. But it is his choice to write
only about those
times
> (and it's not like his earlier, contemporary books
didn't have similar
> characters with similar views) and those kinds of
characters. Yes,
I've
> seen Kerry's defense that he is exposing the
corruption, bigotry,
etc.,
> in our society. No, he's not. He's wallowing in it.
And sometimes
> he's so gleeful about it that he seems to me to be
championing it.
His
> work is pure nostalgie de la boue. He misses those
(whether mythic or
> real) good old days when strong white men were
strong white men, for
> good and bad, and everyone else knew their
place.
>
> Mark
>
That's very much how I feel about Ellroy these days,
basically after reading THE COLD SIX THOUSAND. As I don't
recall having that impression after AMERICAN TABLOID, I can
only conclude that what you're talking about has gotten
worse, to the point at least, of making me think it was
screamingly obvious. On the other hand, a couple of people at
work who read it told me they liked COLD 6K but I didn't
discuss the racial aspects of the book. As well as my
misgivings on what I'd have to admit are I guess ideological
grounds (which I usually try not to let interfere with my
reading pleasure) the book was, IMO, incredibly poorly
written. Makes H. P. Lovecraft & Cornell Woolrich look
like Shakespeare. And, if he still is going on about panty
sniffing (I don't know that he is) then you're right, enough
already. It is one flogged to pieces dead horse.
Rene
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