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A review by gregbrown
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
5.0
History class was never this exciting. Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID seduces you with bad news, spilling out the extortion, bribery, and killings that underlay the forces of history between 1958 and 1963.
Through it all are three fixers trying to play all the parties involved: FBI, Mob, Justice Department, CIA, and more. There are few things more enjoyable than watching someone good at their job, and these three men are very fucking good at their jobs—except when they forget that they're tools of the powerful, to be used and discarded when out of control.
The prose? Like uppers on uppers, hurtling forward with maximum velocity and minimum equivocation. It doesn't hurt that he gets to revel in the lurid details, both weaving together and ripping apart history with the glee of a good skank sheet. It's goddamn infectious, as you can probably tell.
That style—and the subject matter—keep this from being properly understood in the maximalist tradition: think Pynchon, Gaddis, Delillo. Encompassing decades of American history and myth is an even grander aim than any of those chumps, and this is just installment one of three.
Next up: THE COLD SIX THOUSAND and BLOOD'S A ROVER.
Through it all are three fixers trying to play all the parties involved: FBI, Mob, Justice Department, CIA, and more. There are few things more enjoyable than watching someone good at their job, and these three men are very fucking good at their jobs—except when they forget that they're tools of the powerful, to be used and discarded when out of control.
The prose? Like uppers on uppers, hurtling forward with maximum velocity and minimum equivocation. It doesn't hurt that he gets to revel in the lurid details, both weaving together and ripping apart history with the glee of a good skank sheet. It's goddamn infectious, as you can probably tell.
That style—and the subject matter—keep this from being properly understood in the maximalist tradition: think Pynchon, Gaddis, Delillo. Encompassing decades of American history and myth is an even grander aim than any of those chumps, and this is just installment one of three.
Next up: THE COLD SIX THOUSAND and BLOOD'S A ROVER.