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shanbro's review against another edition
4.0
My Dark Places gets a little tedious by the end, both the writing style and the wheel spinning in regard to Ellroy's mother's case. I wish that more had come from the Jean Ellroy re-investigation, but it's interesting to see all of the other cases profiled and their outcomes (if they managed to catch the perpetrators). There's also a good history of the San Gabriel Valley at the time.
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
As I said a few weeks ago in my review of This Storm, I recently met James Ellroy at a book signing. I confess to feeling some intimidation. I’ve heard many stories over the years of Ellroy’s abrasive and forward personality in public. I shared in a social media group about getting ready to meet Ellroy and one guy shared a story about him fat shaming a kid at a book signing. Granted, it was hearsay but in line with what I expected.
Anyway, once Ellroy got there, he spoke in his typical rhyming, alliterative patter. It was like he was narrating one of his books to us as a character. And gradually, my nervousness began to fade. Because what I saw in him was someone working through their anxiety. I don’t know James Ellroy from Adam and I’m not a psychiatrist but it was obvious to me. He was nervous and that’s how he dealt with his nervousness.
Once he started meeting fans, he was kind and incredibly gracious with his time. He’d sign anything anyone put in front of him, even if they had multiple copies of his books, and was quite willing to pose for pictures. He and I joked about being Lutheran and we took a photo at the end, which I did not anticipate. I was glad I went.
I share all of this because reading My Dark Places helped me understand more of Ellroy’s personality and why he is who he is. He lived a rough life for a long time. The pawn in the middle of a battle ground between two divorced parents (relatable), he didn’t seem too upset by his mother’s horrific death initially. But this meant he was raised by a man who had no business being a parent. Ellroy’s father’s lack of parental oversight sent the younger Ellroy on a downward spiral from which he was fortunate to recover from. And he has lived a monastic life since, which helps keep him from temptation.
What I appreciated about this book, and by extension its author, is how raw and honest Ellroy is about his life. Nothing is out of bounds, including many psychosexual things that probably should have been. He writes it just like he writes a typical Ellroy tale: fully targeting its subject and completely devoid of any sentimentality. The verbiage he uses to describe himself could just as easily be used to describe any LA lowlife from his novels.
As he gets older and decides to follow up on his mother’s murder, Ellroy is able to meld his trademark style of crime solving with the importance of the personal journey he undertook. It makes for compelling reading, particularly the end, when he stares down a large revelation that brings his entire story into focus.
If you’re an Ellroy fan, you have to read this. It reads like his own book and it gives you a clear picture of what makes the man, for better and for worse.
Anyway, once Ellroy got there, he spoke in his typical rhyming, alliterative patter. It was like he was narrating one of his books to us as a character. And gradually, my nervousness began to fade. Because what I saw in him was someone working through their anxiety. I don’t know James Ellroy from Adam and I’m not a psychiatrist but it was obvious to me. He was nervous and that’s how he dealt with his nervousness.
Once he started meeting fans, he was kind and incredibly gracious with his time. He’d sign anything anyone put in front of him, even if they had multiple copies of his books, and was quite willing to pose for pictures. He and I joked about being Lutheran and we took a photo at the end, which I did not anticipate. I was glad I went.
I share all of this because reading My Dark Places helped me understand more of Ellroy’s personality and why he is who he is. He lived a rough life for a long time. The pawn in the middle of a battle ground between two divorced parents (relatable), he didn’t seem too upset by his mother’s horrific death initially. But this meant he was raised by a man who had no business being a parent. Ellroy’s father’s lack of parental oversight sent the younger Ellroy on a downward spiral from which he was fortunate to recover from. And he has lived a monastic life since, which helps keep him from temptation.
What I appreciated about this book, and by extension its author, is how raw and honest Ellroy is about his life. Nothing is out of bounds, including many psychosexual things that probably should have been. He writes it just like he writes a typical Ellroy tale: fully targeting its subject and completely devoid of any sentimentality. The verbiage he uses to describe himself could just as easily be used to describe any LA lowlife from his novels.
As he gets older and decides to follow up on his mother’s murder, Ellroy is able to meld his trademark style of crime solving with the importance of the personal journey he undertook. It makes for compelling reading, particularly the end, when he stares down a large revelation that brings his entire story into focus.
If you’re an Ellroy fan, you have to read this. It reads like his own book and it gives you a clear picture of what makes the man, for better and for worse.
nephilimitless's review against another edition
2.0
What a sincerely unlikeable person. I still want the murder to be solved, but I don't want to read Ellroy's writing about it anymore. Short sentences ("telegraphese") and a lot of needless shock value. An absolute slog until the last 5% of the book, in which there's an anti-climax, unsurprisingly.
whit_knee's review against another edition
4.0
I've never read any James Ellroy books, so this is my first experience with him. His writing is brutal and straight forward, definitely not PC. Although it is very blunt it's also refreshing to read a book that's so honest. For Ellroy to be so honest about his obsessions and fantasies is very interesting, he really dives into his issues. It's a great story, but there were some parts in the middle where the story got a bit confusing to me. This book wasn't a page-turner for me but it was a good read, I can't wait to read his other work to see how it compares.
luxlunae47's review against another edition
3.0
The parts that were about the crime were more tedious, frustrating, and repetitive than the actual investigation could possibly be.
The section about his own youth... the language just blows you away and is really interesting. Most people have a somewhat positive view of themselves. He has enough distance from the "shitbird" he was as a child and teenager to give an unflinching and fascinating accounting of his extremely immoral behavior from that time.
I found the book very unsatisfying except for the hour I spent on that part of the book.
The section about his own youth... the language just blows you away and is really interesting. Most people have a somewhat positive view of themselves. He has enough distance from the "shitbird" he was as a child and teenager to give an unflinching and fascinating accounting of his extremely immoral behavior from that time.
I found the book very unsatisfying except for the hour I spent on that part of the book.
captainfez's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a bummer.
Yes, because the rest of Ellroy's writing is full of joie de vivre, right?
Nope. This is a complete bummer. But it's essential if you've enjoyed any of his work in the past, because this book is an honest, gruelling examined of how he became who he is. If you've ever had a feeling there were some weird peccadilloes in his writing, they're at least ameliorated a little here.
The book chiefly concerns three people: Ellroy's mother, Jean Hilliker, Ellroy himself and Bill Stoner, a detective. Each is separately considered - first Hilliker's murder; Ellroy's childhood and adolescence; Stoner's work as an investigator - but latterly combine when Stoner and Ellroy reopen the unsolved case. It's part confessional, part police-procedural and part ghoulish tourism.
As with his fiction, the past is recounted with unnerving precision. There's less-is-more at work, but the sense of knowledge behind the scenes is fearsome. There's not as much catharsis in the text as you'd expect... but then, Ellroy's stories rarely end well.
The telegraphic, short style can be a trial. This is the case in his other books, but it hits like a hammerblow here. It feels as though he's masking his feelings with the pace and brevity, but that's not so: he's providing the Teletype version of How It Happened. It's the language of the notebook from a first responder, the transcript of an autopsy, the just-the-facts-ma'am interview, even when he's spitballing murderers. But where his fiction is protected by a sort of noir, schlub aura, the style here is like a laser, making you see the horror of his life and his mother's death.
My Dark Places is not an easy book to enjoy, particularly in the section where Ellroy writes about his own decline into drugs, alcohol abuse and incest fantasy. Or where he writes about his attention-getting excursions into schoolboy Nazism. It's not pleasant. It's not meant to be. But there'd be no point in writing this book - an attempt to exorcise and pay tribute to his murdered mother, in equal measure - if he wasn't relentless and eviscerating. The book shows how much his mother - and her death - has changed him. How his breakthrough novel on another murdered woman, Elizabeth Short, was a tribute to her. And how he knows he's a fucked-up guy but keeps on anyway.
This book shows Ellroy is (if naught else) braver than most. It shows why he is like he is, without apology. He might be a strange fucker, but you can't deny his drive.
Yes, because the rest of Ellroy's writing is full of joie de vivre, right?
Nope. This is a complete bummer. But it's essential if you've enjoyed any of his work in the past, because this book is an honest, gruelling examined of how he became who he is. If you've ever had a feeling there were some weird peccadilloes in his writing, they're at least ameliorated a little here.
The book chiefly concerns three people: Ellroy's mother, Jean Hilliker, Ellroy himself and Bill Stoner, a detective. Each is separately considered - first Hilliker's murder; Ellroy's childhood and adolescence; Stoner's work as an investigator - but latterly combine when Stoner and Ellroy reopen the unsolved case. It's part confessional, part police-procedural and part ghoulish tourism.
As with his fiction, the past is recounted with unnerving precision. There's less-is-more at work, but the sense of knowledge behind the scenes is fearsome. There's not as much catharsis in the text as you'd expect... but then, Ellroy's stories rarely end well.
The telegraphic, short style can be a trial. This is the case in his other books, but it hits like a hammerblow here. It feels as though he's masking his feelings with the pace and brevity, but that's not so: he's providing the Teletype version of How It Happened. It's the language of the notebook from a first responder, the transcript of an autopsy, the just-the-facts-ma'am interview, even when he's spitballing murderers. But where his fiction is protected by a sort of noir, schlub aura, the style here is like a laser, making you see the horror of his life and his mother's death.
My Dark Places is not an easy book to enjoy, particularly in the section where Ellroy writes about his own decline into drugs, alcohol abuse and incest fantasy. Or where he writes about his attention-getting excursions into schoolboy Nazism. It's not pleasant. It's not meant to be. But there'd be no point in writing this book - an attempt to exorcise and pay tribute to his murdered mother, in equal measure - if he wasn't relentless and eviscerating. The book shows how much his mother - and her death - has changed him. How his breakthrough novel on another murdered woman, Elizabeth Short, was a tribute to her. And how he knows he's a fucked-up guy but keeps on anyway.
This book shows Ellroy is (if naught else) braver than most. It shows why he is like he is, without apology. He might be a strange fucker, but you can't deny his drive.
curlyhairedbooklover's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.0
It was interesting but not enjoyable and if I hadn't had to read it for class I would have stopped 20 pages in honestly.
jeffreyp's review against another edition
4.0
This one wins most of its points for it's combination of memoir and noir style, and the rest of its points for brutal honesty. Ellroy gives us a really interesting look into his psyche (hint: paging Dr's Freud and Oedipus) while searching for answers regarding his mother's murder 35 years prior. He ends up finding some answers more interesting than whodunnit.
kgm's review against another edition
I adore James Ellroy's novels and this was the most dark and depressing book of his I have read. Such sadness and sorrow. His return to the case and the depth his returning with the evidence that was still left (evidence was destroyed as it was old and the space was needed for new evidence) was amazing.
Bittersweet with overtones of distress and heartbreak.
Bittersweet with overtones of distress and heartbreak.