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A review by darwin8u
Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy
4.0
"You will read with some reluctance and capitulate in the end. The following pages will force you to succumb. I am going to tell you everything.”
― James Ellroy, Blood's a Rover
This is how the 60s ends, this is how the 60s ends, not with a bang, but a peeper. James Ellroy's Underworld trilogy was fantastic, but this was my least favorite of the three books. Looking back, I think they all were amazing, but this one just dragged a bit too far and wasn't as tight or stylized as his other two. But tied all together they create an amazing (and yes depressing) portrait of the corruption and conspiracies of the JFK ([b:American Tabloid|36064|American Tabloid (Underworld USA, #1)|James Ellroy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403181563s/36064.jpg|35975]) assassination, Bobby Kennedy & MLK ([b:The Cold Six Thousand|4191|The Cold Six Thousand (Underworld USA #2)|James Ellroy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403182681s/4191.jpg|22797]) assassinations, and Hoover years. Filled with CIA agents, FBI agents, rogue cops, corrupt cops, black panthers, femme fatales, voodoo, Cuba, conspiracies, intrigue, etc., these books read like the back side of some warped people's history. This isn't your mother or father's history. This is the devil's diary, the assassin's journal, the sludge and the gout of history. It is the underbelly and the corruption. Sometimes you learn as much from the worm as the eagle. This book is the worm and it is brilliant. I'm sad it is over and sad this series will never again be a shock. Reading these books seems to be as close as you can come without ingesting methamphetamine of experiencing the chalk, crystal, and ice of those years of Camelot that weren't photographed in Life magazine. The prose and the dialogue seemed to drill into my brain as I read. It was relentless. I think about the prose and the narrative and I wonder about how any writer could emerge from birthing this series without scars, wounds, and serious therapy debt. I'm glad Ellroy paid the price that we might experience this work of art.
― James Ellroy, Blood's a Rover
This is how the 60s ends, this is how the 60s ends, not with a bang, but a peeper. James Ellroy's Underworld trilogy was fantastic, but this was my least favorite of the three books. Looking back, I think they all were amazing, but this one just dragged a bit too far and wasn't as tight or stylized as his other two. But tied all together they create an amazing (and yes depressing) portrait of the corruption and conspiracies of the JFK ([b:American Tabloid|36064|American Tabloid (Underworld USA, #1)|James Ellroy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403181563s/36064.jpg|35975]) assassination, Bobby Kennedy & MLK ([b:The Cold Six Thousand|4191|The Cold Six Thousand (Underworld USA #2)|James Ellroy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403182681s/4191.jpg|22797]) assassinations, and Hoover years. Filled with CIA agents, FBI agents, rogue cops, corrupt cops, black panthers, femme fatales, voodoo, Cuba, conspiracies, intrigue, etc., these books read like the back side of some warped people's history. This isn't your mother or father's history. This is the devil's diary, the assassin's journal, the sludge and the gout of history. It is the underbelly and the corruption. Sometimes you learn as much from the worm as the eagle. This book is the worm and it is brilliant. I'm sad it is over and sad this series will never again be a shock. Reading these books seems to be as close as you can come without ingesting methamphetamine of experiencing the chalk, crystal, and ice of those years of Camelot that weren't photographed in Life magazine. The prose and the dialogue seemed to drill into my brain as I read. It was relentless. I think about the prose and the narrative and I wonder about how any writer could emerge from birthing this series without scars, wounds, and serious therapy debt. I'm glad Ellroy paid the price that we might experience this work of art.