Destination: Morgue! : L.A. Tales

Rating:
Summary: Wierd but Fascinating
Review: An interesting mix of fiction and true crime. Jamers Ellroy normally writes for GQ magazine, and this book is a mixture of articles/fiction that he has written for them combined with some original material - about half each. His writing style is a bit unsual, a cross between prose and some kind of avant guard poetry. The sentences make sense, even if they are not traditional - well most of the time.

The mixture of non-fiction part of the book is about his growing up in L.A. and about various true crime situations. These include some unsolved murders, the Robert Blake story and more.

Rating:
Summary: golan fights
Review: Anymore, Rick Loves Jerry, or any other wildcat mcJagger snarfed croak with. It's a Kafkaesque kind of Dickensianism, except when Stephanie's eyes and mouth and. O crysse

Rating:
Summary: He's Taken It Too Far.....
Review: First off, I am a huge Ellroy fan. I've read all his stuff and honestly regard him of one of our great writers.
However, for whatever reason, he has gone way too far with his use of the language, especially in this book. Alliteration every once in a while is one thing, but lately, especially I would say since American Tabloid, it is starting to make his work unreadable. It seriously gets in the way of the story he is trying to tell.
If you want good, classic Ellroy...read the L.A. Quartet. This later stuff is getting to be a pain to read. Come on James, enough already. (Lee Harrell)

Rating:
Summary: Riffing, ripping, and recalcitrant!
Review: I'm surprised at the number of negative reviews for this collection. Focusing on those three "wild ass," "outré" novellas (Ellroy's description) -- yes, the alliteration and racial epithets are waaayyy over the top. But this is *your favourite author* letting loose! Dig how he ties each modern day story to a famous 50s killer, and how the real-life murder of Stephanie Gorman (chronicled in "Stephanie" ) informs fictional cop Rhino Rick Jenson. Add to this the mostly excellent non-fiction pieces and you'll be sated until the final book in the Underworld USA trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: The worst thing I read in 2004
Review: If, like me, you're a fan of James Ellroy, here's the good news: apparently he's at that level of stardom where publishers package up his dross and market it as gold. I was primed to write up a good old-fashioned rant about this book, but just read the other reviews and you'll get the gist pretty quickly. Destination: Morgue is a compilation of half-baked nonfiction pieces (most of which will be old news to anyone who has read My Dark Places) and three truly, embarrassingly awful novellas. And just because they are written badly on purpose doesn't make them any less horrible. On top of the painful prose, Ellroy takes his standard Post-WWII Racist Cop Thug caricatures and plops them in modern L.A. It doesn't work. At all. Like watching a man on a high-wheel bicycle ride in the Tour de France, it's just ridiculous.

If you've never read James Ellroy, I recommend you stay away from this and start anywhere else. And if you have read Ellroy, well, just stay away from this.

Rating:
Summary: Stunningly bad
Review: Like many other reviewers here, I have to preface this by saying I'm an Ellroy fan. I find his novels fascinating and impeccably researched. Having made that disclaimer though, I cannot recommend reading this collection. It's simply awful. The pieces on Ellroy's past repeat (if somewhat amplify) ground already covered in My Dark Places. The true crime pieces are okay, but just seem to be lacking something. But worst of all, most of the book is written in the alliteration that Ellroy used to reserve pretty much for his Danny "Hush Hush" Getchell character. And as such, the style dominates to the detriment of the narrative. Much of the time, the alliteration obfuscates his ideas so badly that I can't tell what he's talking about. I realize that all of these pieces were written and published separately, so the effect would not have been so cumulative. But man...put them together into a single book and it is simply oppressive. Bottom line: This book is nearly unreadable. Here's hoping Ellroy puts more care into his next novel.

Rating:
Summary: Laughable
Review: Like some other reviewers, I have to preface this by saying that I'm a big fan of James Ellroy's prior work. But this book is awful. You'd get more enjoyment out of buying a thesaurus and stringing together bebop-infused alliteration yourself.

Like Crime Wave, Destination: Morgue! combines memoir, journalism and fiction. However, in this one Ellroy is using the SAME voice in every piece. It doesn't matter if he's talking about his own life, doing a piece on Robert Blake or attempting to write a novella--it all sounds the same and it's annoying as hell after the first few pages. There is no deviation in narrative voice whatsoever: it all sounds like a derelict version of Maynard G. Krebs. The alliteration and hepcat talk are particularly out of place in the journalistic pieces. We expect Danny Getchell to write this way in his scandalous Hush-Hush columns, but in the "serious" pieces of this book, it's just irritating. It takes more than silly beatnik lingo and consonant repetition to make good literature, but unfortunately that's all Ellroy is offering here.

Rating:
Summary: So, do you need to read this? Hell yes!
Review: Many pieces on Ellroy begin with imitations of his incomparable style, emphasizing irony and alliteration. I'm neither smart nor bold enough to imitate this master of hard-boiled fiction, so you'll find none of that tired rambling here. The facts will have to suffice.

Ellroy's latest offering, a companion volume to 1999's Crime Wave, contains eight pieces of nonfiction and four pieces of fiction.

The fiction features an Ellroy still preoccupied with Hollywood tabloids ("The Trouble I Cause") and bent but noble cops (the brand new "Rick Loves Donna" trilogy, consisting of "Hollywood F*** Pad," "Hot Prowl Rape-O," and "Jungletown Jihad"). Although reading these tales will likely create an urge to shower upon finishing, they also leave you craving more.

The nonfiction (all of which, along with "The Trouble I Cause," was originally published in GQ magazine) breaks down into three basic categories: true crime reportage ("Stephanie," "Grave Doubt,"), profiles ("Little Sleazar and the Mail-Sex Mama," "I've Got the Goods," "The D.A") and biographical pieces ("Balls to the Wall," "Where I Get My Weird S***," "My Life as a Creep"). All deliver the impact of a roundhouse punch, exhibiting Ellroy's innate cynicism and twisted wit. All are related with a brutal, unsparing honesty.

So, do you need to read this? Hell yes. Read it for the violence. Read it for the clever throw away lines. But, most of all, read it because Ellroy uncovers basic truths about his violent subject matter. Tough, visceral, and disturbing truths, truths we all need to deal with.


Rating:
Summary: Yikes... a mess... a great likeable mess
Review: Standard preface: long-time Ellroy Fan here. Read it all, much of it twice or more. The L.A. Quartet ruled my world. The first two installments of the Underworld U.S.A. less so -- I completely dug Tabloid, but got tired of the alliterative Hemingway-wannabe nonsense of Cold 6K about two-thirds through.

That said: I dig this book. I read most of the GQ journalista pieces as they were published, and liked them lots then, and like them now. Kool Kulture Kwiz, as he would put it these days. Still -- ugh, a mess to absorb at one sitting, in one book, for the afficianado and novice alike. Put this book on top of your toilet, and read the first section at various grunt-breaks.

As for "Rick Loves Donna." C'mon, guys. You detractors you. This is great stuff. Yes, it's that annoying Hush-Hush style that is grating on all of our collective nerves by now... but as the text reveals, there is a rhyme to the reason, and in toto, it amounts to the first significant body of Ellroy Lit to deal with contemporary America. LAPD circa 2004. Post Tupac & 911 corruption and obsession. Autobio mixed with reactionary love-lust and nearly post-mod re-writing of L.A. history, a la serial miscreants and messed-up cops.

Is it his best stuff? Gee whiz no! But an entertaining smash-up of Ellroy-isms pertaining to post 911 U.S. of A? Believe it, brother.

Rating:
Summary: Just didn't like it
Review: This was my first Ellory book and it will probably be my last. Is the author as strange as his writing suggests by what appears to be much autobiographical storytelling? Are the folks in California really this strange? I tried, but I couldn't even finish the book.