American Tabloid

Rating:
Summary: Read this book, NOW!
Review: To say this is a great book is like saying Ingrid Bergman was sort of attractive. Ellroy is my favorite author, and this is, to date anyway, his magnum opus. With Ellroy it's never about the plot. Style and characters are what is most important. That being said, the story here is wonderful. Starting in the 50's it weaves fictional characters with Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover, JFK and RFK, and L.A. mobsters Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato. The three main characters (all fictional) range from a brutal, viscious lackey of Howard Hughes, a preppie Justice Department social climber, and a cowardly (at first) ethicial (at first) G-man. The way these three characters change and evolve is amazing. You may start off hating one, and later admiring him, and vice versa. This is one of Ellroy's constant themes: that nobody is all good, and nobody (well almost nobody) is all bad. His books are populated by people who do the right things, but for the wrong reasons, and people who do the wrong things, but for the right reasons. Ellroy's hard-boiled noir style brings these characters through events including the Bay of Pigs and the Kennedy assisination. It is a long book, and the last few chapters seem a little rushed, but it is a book that stay with you long after it is read. I'd like to see a movie made out of this one, it would make the dark L.A. Confidential seem like the SOund of Music.

Rating:
Summary: Pulp Fiction meets Camelot - What does John John think?
Review: A roaring ride of violence, corruption, lust, and betrayal during a time period when our parents worried about crew cuts, bobby socks, and high school dances. Normally, it would seem trite or laughable for a writer to play on the rumored steroetypes of famous personalities, but Ellroy not only plays each famous persona with outlandish audacity; he blows the roof off of all conspiracy theories with this one. Graphically violent, in language and action, this is not a book for your typical Kennedy junkie.

Rating:
Summary: A successful mix of fiction and history.
Review: This book is not for the faint of heart. Its irreverence is boundless and its dialogue would make a sailor blush. This Kennedy, Mafia, CIA, Hoover, Castro, Hughes story reads with a haunting believeability. Where truth and fiction begin and end will leave the reader wondering if the Warren Commission even came close to getting it right. Set within this framework are characters whose evolution within this roller coaster of events will hold the readers attention and interest. Ellroy is one dark ...

Rating:
Summary: Ellroy has myth of camalot destroyed with a nail studded bat
Review: American Tabloid is the most grusome book I have ever read. This is not a bad thing as the story takes the reader on an adventure of being inside the inner circle of Howard Hughes. The book is spellbinding in its violence. The political intrigue is solid as a brick wall. Also the nasty details of Jimmy Hoffa make the charactor more realistic. Big Pete Boudurant is the most entertaining of all the charactors as he rubs elbows and wisecracks with the elite of hollywood and washington.

Rating:
Summary: worshipful
Review: Every word is true, the two feds and the ex-cop are thinly veiled characitures of real conspiritors involved with the Kennedy assassination--at least that's the feeling you get once you finish. It is truly, that absorbing.

Rating:
Summary: Wildly entertaining, harrowing conspiracies.
Review: Ellroy builds on his earlier noir work with a fictionalized tale of some of America's most fascinating and notorious characters. He weaves original characters in and out of the lives of Jimmy Hoffa, JFK and RFK, J. Edgar Hoover and Howard Hughes. The Bay of Pigs and Dealey Plaza take their turns in the spotlight, and Ellroy captures Hughes's L.A. of the 50's and 60's, the Miami cabstands and Florida swamps dominated by angry Cubans and shifty CIA operatives. It's as violent and profane as the characters themselves. One forgets its fiction while devouring the many pages. Recommended for fans of Elmore Leonard, of William Roemer and of Don DeLillo. Ellroy's characters are even more complex and interesting than many creations of those other peers. It affects the reader as good and thoughtful art should -- one feels changed, more wary, paranoid even. Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: A well placed kick in the naughty bits of American nostalgia
Review: Horribly violent,disturbingly poignent, and wickedly corruptable, "American Tabloid" weaves a thin line between trash journalism and gospel truth, blurring the distinguishable and tearing the hell out of the "heroes" we put on a pedastel so long ago. Don't be mislead though. Anyone with an appetite for talk shows and pulpy tabloid newspapers will be forced screaming into the night with their pants around their ankles.Should your brain cell count be in the double digits, you would do best to avoid this book like the black death. However,should you be naturally driven to anything with even an iota of intellectual value, this book will crave all your desires, included the dark ones we all keep in the moist recesses of our consiousness. The book has everything that should be desired from a peice of writing; sleazy G-men, philandering politicians, slarlets with echos between their legs, and the most infamous crossdresser of all times, Mr.J.Edgar Hoover.It's not afraid to tear a new orifice into the so called "honorable" men we all grew up with and reveal then for the truly degenerate peices of wrong genetic material they are. Though the media then may have been payed "shut your mouth money", Mr. Ellroy is one whore who's not afaid to scream at the top of his lungs. If you know what's good for you, you'll listen to his cries

Rating:
Summary: Gritty....blood and guts.....lots of fun!
Review: If half the stuff in this book were true, JKF would have been shot at on a daily basis. I recently saw a hand-lettered sign that read "Hoffa" nailed to a light pole in Newark, N.J. Might be a good place to start digging

Rating:
Summary: Ellroy, heir to Chandler and Cain, makes the rest look naive
Review: In the years leading to the Kennedy Assassination, Hoover hunts the Kennedys, the Kennedys hunt Sex and Power and a couple of tarnished operatives try to stay out of the gears of Mob money and Power Politics. Cross and doublecross in an America that never had any innocence to lose. Ellroy is the clear heir to the best in American "hard-boiled" fiction. He hits here with another tale of violent, compromised men looking for a single good day. He makes the rest of the current writers sound like they came down with the rain

Rating:
Summary: Devastating..spectacular..stunning..outrageous...fantastic!
Review: A stylistic, linguistic, and historic eruption without peer -- almost hard to believe Ellroy had this in him (that ANYONE could have). I was shattered and spent at the end of this huge, devastating book. I can't recommend many modern books higher than this one. Buy, read and be prepared to breathlessly recommend to everyone you encounter.