Disappointing
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I read this after The Black Dahlia and thought that it was nowhere near as good as that book. The style is only dense in terms of detective fiction, and gets annoying gimmicky after a while, the narrator's voice becoming incoherent in order for Ellroy to make simplistic psychological points. The story does not hang together particularly neatly and there's an awful lot of names to get through to make sense of what's going on in the wider scheme. The author also seems incapable of writing a fully-formed female character.
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The most stunning novel you'll ever read.
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I've read a hell of a lot of novels in my time. White jazz is easily the most stunning of then all. If you only ever read one novel in your life, then trust me, this is the one you read. Unlike everybody else I'm not going to bother you with the plot, although unlike previous Elroy novels, this actually has one, and it's a stunner. No, the overiding, dominating factor of this novel is Elroy's writing style. It's terrifying, almost incoherent. 90% of people who read this novel give up after 50 pages. Trust me, read those 50 pages. On the 51st page, his style will suddenly click in your mind like an epiphany. Everything suddenly becomes clear. And you'll suddenly realise you're reading the most stunning novel of your life. Forget the pretentious reviews of kitchen sink novels in the sunday broadsheets. White Jazz is the real thing. A genuine work of art.
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The finest crime writing - stylish prose, sharp dialogue....
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Ellroy deserves so many superlatives for this work. His language is pared down to small bullet like phrases - like beat poetry or a stream of semi consciousness as we follow the case through the blood shot eyes of Dave Klein, the most corrupt, cold blooded, and twisted hero imaginable. The pace is relentless, leaving you breathless; the thoughts, actions and dialogue distilled to their most potent and concentrated form, leaving your brain bruised, at times baffled, but ultimately buzzing. There is little cheer in Ellroy's nightmare vision, even the love interest offers little relief and his plot reveals how dirty LA political fighting got in the 1950s. Howard Hughes, Hollywood, LAPD, FBI, the world of Boxing & Football, slum landlords, drug dealers and pimps battle, no holds barred, for supremacy and life is cheap. Only the tough survive and Dave Klein flourishes. White Jazz captures this hell better than any other crime book i've ever read.
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The densest and darkest of Ellroy's LA Quartet
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Dave Klein is your typical James Ellroy hero. He's corrupt, violent, amoral, driven, and in love with his own sister. And he's a cop. This novel pits Klein against almost the entire LA establishment, including the awe-inspiring Dudley Smith. The actual crimes that spark the story are almost irrelevant and the twists and turns of the plot almost too labyrinthine to enumerate - this book is about what Ellroy does best; disturbed interior monologue, brutal description and dialogue that reads like a mixture of lyrical poetry and aggravated assault. An incredibly dense and challenging book, with very little in the way of hope or redemption on offer to the characters - a fine and fitting conclusion to the LA Quartet.
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LA-speak cop thriller worth persevering
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This is the final book of the LA quartet, and although it could probably be read alone, I recommend reading the others first. Some of the characters won't make real sense otherwise. I found this harder to get into than the other three, but it is well worth persevering. It is written in 1950s LA cop dialect. Usually I find dialect style books offputting, but with Ellroy you find you start thinking in it in everyday life. Worrying. The story is a complex thriller-mystery of murder and corruption.
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