RARA-AVIS: Re: Street Kings (Is Ellroy Losing his Halo?)

From: Dave Zeltserman ( dz@hardluckstories.com)
Date: 03 May 2008


Since you asked--I would have to think having your mother murdered when you're 10 years old is probably something you're not going to get over at any age, and Ellroy is now at an age when you tend to get more reflective about life in general. So personally I'm more than willing to cut him slack on this and judge his work purely on its merit.

--Dave Z.

--- 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?
>



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