Re: RARA-AVIS: Still on early Ellroy

From: James Michael Rogers (jeddak5@cox.net)
Date: 12 Oct 2010

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    Yeah, I couldn't make the scene (as Ellroy might say) with White Jazz either. I think that has to do with the brutal edit he was asked to do rather than with the merits of the book he began with.

    James

      ----- Original Message -----
      From: Ron Clinton
      To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
      Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 12:35
      Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: Still on early Ellroy

        
      When I reference my vast preference for early Ellroy over later Ellroy, I'm
      utilizing a totally arbitrary, personal cutoff, one that, in fact, divides
      the L.A. Quartet. Along with the Lloyd Hopkins trilogy and his most of his
      other early works (BROWN'S REQUIEM and SILENT TERROR...didn't really care
      for CLANDESTINE), I very much enjoyed THE BIG NOWHERE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and
      THE BLACK DAHLIA, but parted ways with him w/ '92's WHITE JAZZ, the fourth
      of the Quartet. Half-hearted attempts with his subsequent UNDERWORLD
      trilogy (AMERICAN TABLOID, et al) affirmed my disinclination to continue
      trying to read his work.

      Ron C.

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On
    > Behalf Of James Michael Rogers
    > Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 10:07 AM
    > To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Still on early Ellroy
    >
    > I don't think the Hopkins books are all that different from the LA
      Quartet. The main
    > difference seems to me that Ellroy replaced the half-crazed Hopkins with
      the
    > wholly-crazed and even more compromised protagonists of the later books..
      Other
    > than that the books seem to share the same strengths (narrative drive, a
      really
    > natural style, a very disturbing sensibility) and the same weaknesses
      (implausible
    > plotting, ridiculous Grand Guignol violence, a sometimes cartoony and
      self-
    > conscious darkness). Obviously, I like the Ellroy books but I can see how
      they
    > could leave some folks cold.
    >
    > James
    >

      

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