Reviews

American Tabloid by James Ellroy

themainey's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kieran_furie's review against another edition

5.0

An excellent read. A story twined around interesting period of history, filled with tension and intrigue. Written in a terse and compelling style.

tunawidow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

chaun_sox's review against another edition

3.0

The story starts off slow but builds/crescendos excellently. The characters are complex and dynamic and not the caricatures you might expect from typical 50s/60s noir. The plot is complicated and obviously contrived, but never in a negative way. I loved the twists and turns and felt myself empathizing with the characters despite their MANY flaws. I also gained interest in the Kennedy years which is a subject towards which I've always felt pretty apathetic.

All of that said, the narrative style just wasn't for me. I don't know how to describe it other than the narration feels aggressive and cynical(on purpose). And the excessive alliteration drive me mad, but it is styled like an old political tabloid, so I understand why. I just couldn't enjoy it for whatever reason. I dreaded picking the book up and could only read 3-5 pages at a time because it was so tedious. Despite the endorsements in my first paragraph, I had to struggle and force my way through this book in a way that I never have with any book previously. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I'll be reading any more of Ellroy's novels. That's it....that's my review.

slcreemer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ozreads8's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

arossp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

beans_init's review against another edition

5.0

Out-fuckin-standing

sxk's review against another edition

5.0

Enjoying this one immensely so far. It's got the same grit as LA Confidential but the way it weaves into the Kennedys, Hollywood, Hoffa, Cuba, Hoover, the Mob, and hey, why not throw in Howard Hughes while we're at it, makes the scope of L.A. Confidential feel downright parochial in comparison. It does feel somewhat unbelievable at times the way every single character has not so much a dark side, but an absolute scumbag side at times, but it's enjoyable even if the conscience revolts.

jdcorley's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

You can see The Black Dahlia as the hinge point for Ellroy - you can follow him into the more conventional, Manichean cop stories, dark and exciting but suffused with good versus evil...or you can enter the Underworld USA series. American Tabloid is an unflinching, completely brutal and repellent in-your-face mission statement for the series, portraying midcentury America as a horror show of racism, corruption, hate, bigotry, antisemitism, and oligarchy. Thoroughly rooted in a history that's frantically being suppressed (this is not to say it's a true story, or that the conspiracies depicted are real, but simply that America is desperate to scream that it was never as bad as it was), it is the world, not the awful, broken characters violently staggering across it, that draws the reader in and drowns them. Ideology is for chumps, patriotism is stupid. America's an irredeemable wasteland of human garbage strangling each other to get ahead. As the underrated film Killing Them Softly would eventually summarize: "In America you're on your own." It's a lonely, cold vicious book, and in the last moment you realize everything that's coming after in a way you can't get from a history book. Beautiful, sickening, there's nothing like it.