James Ellroy unleashed -- and unfinished
As long as I'm on the subject of the few books I never finished, a few words about James Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand, published in 2001 as the sequel to American Tabloid. I tried to read it a few years ago, and have never since seen a book quite like it. Here's an excerpt:The Casino Operators Council flew him. They supplied first-class fare. They tapped their slush fund. They greased him. They fed him six cold.
Nobody said it:
Kill that coon. Do it good. Take our hit fee.
The flight ran smooth. A stew served drinks. She saw his gun. She played up. She asked dumb questions.
He said he worked Vegas PD. He ran the intel squad. He built files and logged information.
She loved it. She swooned.
"Hon, what you doin' in Dallas?"
He told her.
This isn't just hard-boiled; it's granite pressurized to the density of neutronium. While the staccato style is kind of fun in the early going, it just keeps going. And going. On and on. For 700 pages. Dave got through 200 of them. Dave gave up.
Even though I'm interested in the milieu of both American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand -- corruption and intrigue surrounding the Kennedy assassination -- the style of the second book struck me as an endless affectation, and I could not keep turning the pages.
That said, I may attempt it again one of these days; it's one of those books that has since done pretty well with the critics.
Those are my unfinished books. Anybody else have an example?
Comments
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
As it happens, I've been thinking a bit about Ellroy recently. After I posted my comment about good opening lines, Jerome Weeks of the BookDaddy blog offered his own thoughts on the subject along with some good examples and one bad one -- from L.A. Confidential. The opening really does look bad, even thought I liked the novel.
I remarked that Ellroy must have stopped hyperventilating after the opening, because no author could keep up that rat-tat-tat for five hundred pages, and if he had, I'd never have read it.
I guess The Cold Six Thousand never lets up with its particular stylistic affectation. I can imagine that a few readers in this world might be able to use Ellroy's prose as a kind of incantation, its rhythms lulling them into a trancelike state.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I also enjoyed L.A. Confidential, despite the scenery-chewing at the get-go. Ellroy is a hell of a writer; I just wish someone could have hosed him down a little while he was writing The Cold Six Thousand.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
My own disappointment was Daniel Woodrell. I was enmeshed in his excellent Civil War era novel "Woe to Live On" (made into the underappreciated Ang Lee film "Ride With the Devil," and then rereleased under that title).
But when I tried his contemporary crime fiction, (Tomato Red, Muscle for the Wing), I thought he over-relied on his talent for evoking Ozark idioms, etc.
'Nuff said
Daphne
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/