James Ellroy is unlike any modern writer and White Jazz is, in many ways, his masterpiece. Told from the point of view of a murderously corrupt, almost psychopathic police lieutenant, the novel opens with a stunningly violent scene and refuses to give any quarter to the squeamish or gentle the rest of the way. Ellroy forces us to look intently upon a world devoid of mercy and relief, and the only love available is twisted and pathological.
We meet Lt. Dave Klein at a critical juncture; he is, in his own words, "forty-two going on dead." For years, he has been a leg-breaker and bagman working for the underworld, a bad cop who has loyally stayed bought. But, now, the Federal government is launching a probe into police corruption and Klein finds himself suddenly alone and set up to take the fall for a multitude of sins and sinners. He is beset by political hacks, gangsters, hitmen, and the Department's head honchos. The book gives us Klein's first-person account of his determined and increasingly desperate attempts to get himself out alive, no matter who he has to destroy in the process.
James Ellroy has taken on the daunting task of writing the secret history of America in a series of novels that has so far covered the 1940's through the 1960's. That he has largely succeeded is due to intense commitment, Byzantine plotting, a unique perspective and a lean, telegraphic prose style. His words fly at us like quick uppercuts and leave bruises. Ellroy spares no sensibility: many of his characters are forthrightly brutal, profane and racist. They are repellent but at the same time all too human. And they possess one saving grace: they have integrity, they remain true to themselves. The writer is not here to take us by the hand and tell a nice little story; this is a man with fire in the belly and a burning need to confront all demons, his and ours.
White Jazz distills the core elements of Ellroy's vision, refines them to their essence, and Dave Klein is his strongest character, a man who has many of the traits of greatness-competence, daring, intelligence and a cool head-but in him they are perverted almost beyond recognition. James Ellroy has always been concerned with the rot beneath the shimmering surface(it is not a coincidence that Klein is "tall and movie-star handsome")and he rips off the lid and shows it to us with admirable skill and a deadly glee.
LOS ANGELES, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns -- it s standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He s a slumlord, a bagman, an en...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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