--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Nathan Cain"
<IndieCrime@...> wrote:
>
> I have been putting off seeing this movie. There was
once a time when
> I would have rushed out to see anything with
Ellroy's name attached to
> it, and I'm kind of surprised it took so long for
anyone to bring it
> up on this list. It would seem like a movie with an
Ellroy penned
> story would a big screaming deal on a list dedicated
to hard boiled
> crime fiction. It seems, however, to have hardly
made an impression on
> anyone. It wasn't too long ago that Ellroy was the
toast of the hard
> boiled world. It seems to me, like some of the shine
has worn off. I
> know I kind of got sick of him mouthing off about
his dead mother, and
> doing the tortured genius shtick. It began to get
unseemly, quite
> frankly. He suffered a great loss as a kid and had a
terrible
> childhood, but his dwelling on it so much began to
make me
> uncomfortable. It's unsettling to see a grown man
work out his mommy
> issues so publicly. Has Ellroy gone off the rails,
and squandered his
> cachet? What say you fellow list members?
>
Since Ellroy isn't running for Miss Agreeable Personality, I
prefer to judge him on his work. I think the books he
published before American Tabloid, together with Hollywood
Nocturnes and My Dark Places, are enough to make him into one
of the great hardboiled writers. I thought American Tabloid
and A Cool Six Thousand sucked, unreadable stuff...
Best,
mrt
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