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Summary: American Tabloid: Suspend your disbelief
Review: American Tabloid is amazing. This fascinating fictionalization of the Kennedy family and American politics features characters Kemper Boyd and Pete Bondurant, who leap off the pages and splash masculinity all over your brain.
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Summary: What a phenominal talented modern writer!!!!!
Review: If you think Ellroy's books are all too dirty, cruel, gross and bloody, it only proves that he writes too vividly well. His unique style sometimes surpasses the stories and becomes an enjoyment for a concious reader. Underneath the machine-gun styled short burst words and lines, lie the in-depth 3D separate picture-in-picture fade-ins and fade-outs, once you grap it, you would never let go and want to gulp every sentence that delievers a vivid picture. These kind of controlling usage of English words is a patent monoply of James Ellroy, so far, no other writer could successfully imitate it. In this novel, Littell is another great tragic hero with conscience created by Ellroy, just like he created so many unique scumbags and lowlives in this book: triple-cross Kemper, killing machine Pete, later-demigodized Kennedy, disgusting Hoover...you name it; all patently created by master Ellroy. what can I say more, and how can I use more simplified English to saluuuuute him?!
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Summary: A great conspiracy theory. . . Thrilling!
Review: This is Ellroy at his finest -- he's a fantastic writer, certainly one of the best of our era. This novel assumes a broader perspective than his L.A. Quartet. His versions of JFK, RFK, Howard Hughes, and J. Edgar Hoover, the Bay of Pigs, etc. make for an intriguing look at American history! When I read this, I couldn't put it down and I highly recommend it.
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Summary: A brilliant historical-fictional chimera.
Review: American Tabloid is thoroughly entertaining, with a hypnotic storyline and richly delineated characters - nothing new for James Ellroy, after triumphs such as The Big Nowhere and L.A. Confidential. As in L.A. Confidential, Ellroy's characters undergo subtle yet unevitable metamorphoses. This book, like Oliver Stone's brilliant film JFK, employs a blend of characterizations of historical figures and fictional characters (though Stone's "fictional" characters, such as "X" and "Willie O'Keefe," were based, in part, on real people). One of the strengths of the book is that the characters are never secondary to the storyline; their motivations always seem genuine, which adds to the authenticity of the story entire.
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Summary: One of the best books of the decade
Review: Ellroy has an incredible gift. He can make history come alive for people who, like myself were not born for over 20 years after the events in this book took place. Granted that this is a work of fiction, it brings the feel of the times to the forfront with amazing style and grace.
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Summary: FANTASTIC!
Review: This book is tremendous -- I'm so glad that I decided to pick up "L.A. Confidential" (my first Ellroy novel) a few months ago. Since then, I've read six more, including "American Tabloid." I have to say that it runs a CLOSE second to "L.A. Confidential," which I'm partial to probably only because it was my first experience with Ellroy. "American Tabloid" was fascinating to me, partly because (since I'm only a teenager) I'm unfamiliar with most of the events of the 1950s that the book refers to. This gave me a crash course in recent American history and made it a hell of a lot more exciting, jaded, cynical, and distorted than any textbook possibly could. "American Tabloid" shows us a view of the Kennedys that sharply contrasts the reverent adoration of today's America. The other reason I was fascinated by "American Tabloid" was because of Ellroy's great characters -- the three main characters (Ward, Kemper, and Pete) undergo drastic transformations throughout the novel, making them alternately despicable and likable. Like his other works, the character development is this novel's greatest strength! This is a fantastic read -- absolutely unforgettable and compelling. It's a must-read for the Ellroy fan! If you liked his take on L.A., you'll definitely like his take on the great U.S.A. I can't wait for the next two of this trilogy!!!
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Summary: Ellroy is the Raymond Chandler of the late 20th Century!!!
Review: For years I have been trying to find an author to equal, if not replace Raymond Chandler as my favorite noir writer. I read several other noted authors, and none were really satisfactory. Even the much acclaimed James M. Cain didn't impress me all that much. Despite Tom Wolfe's raving about Cain being greater than Chandler. Nonsense!!! The only one to come close to Chandler, in that he held my interest was Chester Himes. Then I picked up Ellroy's American Tabloid, and to my pleasant surprise I found the writer I was looking for. Ellroy has all the prose, descriptive style, and genius that Chandler had, but with a late 20th Century flavor. The novel was excellent from start to finish, I read it in three days. In the tradition of Gore Vidal, Ellroy has written, an excellent historical novel, on the late 1950's and early 60's. I have now read all of Ellroy's works, and look forward to his newst work LA Noir to be released some time later this year. Since reading Ellroy I have discovered Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Charles Willeford. All very good noir writes, but still not near Chandler or Ellroy. Anybody who enjoys hard boiled noir at its best, must inculde James Ellroy's books in their library.
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Summary: Excellent!
Review: American Tabloid is a close second to James Ellroy's Black Dahlia. All the major late '50's early '60's players are here, the Kennedy's, Hoover, Hoffa, Sam G. Ellroy portrays American crime and politics like it is, and always will be, rotten to the core! Great book. Pick it up!
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Summary: One of the most excellent books I have read in a long time!
Review: No matter how I start this, it'll be hard to describe the amount of pleasure I got out of reading this book. The best I can do is that I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone. It'll give you a new angle to look at some of the pivotal points of the late 50's\early 60's if you're familiar with them, and if you're not, you will be as familiar witht them at the end of this book as you are with the back of your hand. The two strongest points of American Tabloid are : 1. The writing. It's superb. Brutal, straight-to-the-point-, yet eloquent at the same time. Ellroy has an amazing command of the language that makes people respond. 2. The characters. You will marvel at how Ellroy makes you care for his characters as they rise, then fall, and rise again. All-in-all, the setting, the plot, the characters, all come together to make this one fantastic novel you will be raving about to your friends after you finish it, which should be all of 2 days, since it's all but impossible to put down. BUY THIS BOOK!
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Summary: Interesting but frustrating
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely for around 200 pages. Many of the characterizations, particularly Hoover and JFK, were dead-on, and Ellroy's perspective was compelling. About halfway through, however, the book starts to unravel. The plot becomes baroque and ultimately incoherent and the violence is so routine and excessive that it is ultimately cartoonish. In fact, I think it's fair to say that this book is essentially a cartoon version of Libra..
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