Rating: 
Summary: Gritty, Tough and Excellent
Review: The plot of "American Tabloid" is too complex to sum up in one paragraph or in five paragraphs. Basically the story is about the mob, the Kennedys, the FBI, the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffa and every important person in the American scene from 1958 through 1963. Each character is carefully drawn out and excellently written. The three main characters Kemper Boyd, Ward Littell and Pete Bondurant are fascinating...Each one has his own strengths and weaknesses, each one is amazingly realistic. You can on and on about the plot, but the true story are the characters. You have the squealers, the enforcers and the mob wannabe types, everyone has an agenda and they all are on the make.I admired Ellroy's style of short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters. I enjoy smart characters and quick plots. Furthermore, I like being challenged by a writer. You have to pause when you read "American Tabloid", Ellroy serves up so much detail in one chapter that it would take some authors half a book and they still wouldn't cover it as well. Each chapter moves the story forward and all of characters serve a purpose. Rarely have I enjoyed a story more. This is my first James Ellroy book and it will not be my last. I hope they are all this good.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: As a reader of primarily non-fiction (history/economics), I am no expert on popular authors. However, after reading American Tabloid, it is clear that James Ellroy is a cut above the bestseller-writing hacks. The story is fascinatingly complex, and focuses on recent history as seen through the eyes of three very different lead fictional characters. Ellroy reminds one of Gore Vidal in his tendency to use fictional characters and their perceptions of what is going on around them to express his own historical interpretations. Since much of his historical interpretations are conjecture involving conspiracies, the novel is the perfect writing medium for Ellroy. He turns actual historical figures into peripheral characters in the lives of the fictional ones. Ellroy's distortions of history are amusing, entertaining, and fairly harmlesss. Readers who were put off by Ellroy's esoteric writing style in previous novels (White Jazz, L.A. Confidential) need not worry. This time around, he is a bit more reader-friendly. Above all, the story is top-notch. This is a rather lengthy book, but you will breeze through it. It is a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: Savage, Dark, Awesome!
Review: Ellroy's "American Tabloid" takes the Kennedy-Bay of Pigs era and throws it in the shredder, hacking through the Golden Age myths of Camelot and the reader's pre-conceptions about the JFK presidency. America has never looked so seedy or corrupt. In a work that should be accompanied by a Quentin Tarantino-selected soundtrack, Ellroy spins a tale of duplicity, false alliances, and mutual interest that alternately unites and tears apart the men of the CIA, the FBI, the Mob, the Teamsters, and teven he insane Howard Hughes. The trio of anti-heroes who drive the story forward, Pete Bondurant (hand-cuff snapping hired muscle), Kemper Boyd (Kennedy wannabe from the CIA), and Ward Littel (fallen FBI angel) rub shoulders with the Kennedys, J. Edgar Hoover, and other infamous movers and shakers from the period. One hopes that Ellroy's exhilirating tale is not historically accurate, but Ellroy weaves enough historical detail that you feel as if "you are there, live!" If even one tenth of Ellroy's tale *is* true, then we are reminded how fragile and savage our American experiment with democracy really is.
Rating: 
Summary: Schizoid but compelling view of recent American history
Review: The pro Castro Cubans, the anti Castro Cubans, the FBI, the mob, the CIA, Howard Hughes, Donald Duck...... Ellroy would have us believe that all of these factions/individuals and more were somehow caught up in the conspiracy to assassinate JFK and thereby loosen the Kennedy clan's righteous grip on the reins of American power (the irrepressibly corrupt patriarch, Joseph, being the main exception). And who are we to argue? Ellroy's marvellously twisted imagination has conjured up something terrifyingly compelling in 'American Tabloid'. Terrifying for its extreme paranoia but more terrifying for the fact that you can't help feeling that it may not be so far away from the truth. Think Oliver Stone's JFK and multiply by 10. Hell, Ellroy had me thinking that I may have somehow been involved (though not sure whether I'd have been on the side of the feds or the mob. Plus I hadn't actually been born yet.....). The novel centres on the relationship between three characters - Kemper Boyd, the charming, cold blooded, Kennedy wannabe, Ward Littell, the neurotic, morally upstanding, deadbeat, and Pete Bondurant, the psychotically violent mercenary. These men walk on both sides of the fence and all have different motives that shape what they do, and what they eventually become. Ellroy shows us, ominously, that nobody who is involved in violence and corruption can remain untouched by it. And the different journey that each of the men takes twists him into something unrecognisable by the time of the ominous events of 1963. Ellroy's writing is downbeat, efficient, bruisingly evocative. His use of the vernacular imbues the book with authenticity and gives it a visceral quality which renders it all the more vicariously fascinating for the average middle class, law abiding reader. Where Ellroy's main appeal lies, I suspect, is in the fiendishly complicated plots he manages to conjure up, where at times you can scarcely process what is happening, but can't wait to find out what will happen next. There is no second guessing either - 'American Tabloid' avoids the obvious unerringly yet still manages to convince. What dark conspiracies lie beneath the public veneer of American politics is anyone's guess, but I'd bet my few meagre possessions on the fact that Ellroy knows a thing or two the authorities wish he didn't. And how he didn't get sued for libel, by any one of the dozens of real life figures that feature in the book (luckily most of them deceased) is beyond me. Fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Epic, brilliant
Review: Without question, this novel is finest thing Ellroy has given us to date. His version of history seems more accurate than what is printed in the history books. The "heroes" are multi-layered, complex, especially Pete Bondurant, who is possibly the hardest, meanest protagonist ever to gave the pages of modern fiction. These characters are not nice people, but we care about them; we want them all to survive their predicaments. Ellroy's rapid fire style is hitting on all cylinders here. His writing is a rhythm you have to get into, jibe with, otherwise it can be hard to follow. A few minor complaints: some of the historical exposition is laid on a bit thick at times, which makes for a few slow spots. Also, after a methodical, well textured first four parts, part five moves too fast, as if Ellroy himself was tired and just wanted to get the book finished. That said, READ THIS. It is one of the finest pieces of fiction to be published in the past thirty years. Whereas in most novels, an unexpected ending is satisfying, the ending of this novel is so haunting because we know what will happen.
Rating:
Summary: Savage, Dark, Awesome!
Review: Ellroy's "American Tabloid" takes the Kennedy-Bay of Pigs era and throws it in the shredder, hacking through the Golden Age myths of Camelot and the reader's pre-conceptions about the JFK presidency. America has never looked so seedy or corrupt. In a work that should be accompanied by a Quentin Tarantino-selected soundtrack, Ellroy spins a tale of duplicity, false alliances, and mutual interest that alternately unites and tears apart the men of the CIA, the FBI, the Mob, the Teamsters, and teven he insane Howard Hughes. The trio of anti-heroes who drive the story forward, Pete Bondurant (hand-cuff snapping hired muscle), Kemper Boyd (Kennedy wannabe from the CIA), and Ward Littel (fallen FBI angel) rub shoulders with the Kennedys, J. Edgar Hoover, and other infamous movers and shakers from the period. One hopes that Ellroy's exhilirating tale is not historically accurate, but Ellroy weaves enough historical detail that you feel as if "you are there, live!" If even one tenth of Ellroy's tale *is* true, then we are reminded how fragile and savage our American experiment with democracy really is.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing, epic, and mind blowing...
Review: I'm beyond words. It is pulp fiction at it's most riveting. It is history and conspiracy turned upside down. It is humanity in criminals and criminality in heroes and lots in between. I love Ellroy's style. This first bit of fiction of his that I have read and I can't wait to read the rest of his novels. He is amazing. The story is complicated, but you never get lost. It is "What if.." history. It is fact and lots of fiction, but it works. Just read it. If you love Ellroy, crime fiction, historical fiction, or just a good book...this is it.
Rating:
Summary: American Tabloid
Review: American Tabloid is one of the finest crime fiction novels in my library. Ellroy is a master of blending actual events with plausible and frightening characters. "Big Pete" Bondurant is a fierce animal that no sane man would want to face in a confrontation. Walt Borchard shines as an idealistic failure. I liked American Tabloid so much I bought the hardback and intend to read it again. This book isn't for the faint of heart - don't leave it laying around unsupervised children.
Rating:
Summary: American deathtrap
Review: The subjets covered in this book are both sensitive and explosive: the mafia, the teamsters, the FBI, the CIA and the Kennedy's. James Ellroy leads us through a maze of plans, counter plans, murder and mayhem. The three leading characters, all with very few redeeming traits, mixed together conspire and execute one of the crimes of the century.
When i finished reading this book i felt as if i had gone 15 rounds in the boxing ring. Exhausted, emptied by the speed and emotion of the narrative employed, the words leapt at me, it was impossible to put the book down , everything else i had read paled into nothing and dissapeared into the haze without trace. READ IT AND SEE WHAT I MEAN!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: BORING !!
Review: Incredible!! Seven hundred pages of violence, nasty words, treason, murders, knives in the back, despisable characters... That's all you've got here. This was the greatest waste of time in my entire life. I believe in the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. I thought it was very intelligent in Ellroy's part to mixture real and inmaginary characters. But I just don't need to poison my brain with all this junk.
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