Rating: 
Summary: Pulp On Speed
Review: Dave Klein's as bad as it gets. B&E's, beatings, murders, erotic fixations on siblings, even slum-lording.He's a cop. And he's the main man in James Ellroy's WHITE JAZZ, an new-fashioned pulp tale juiced on speed. Ellroy's become famous for crackerjack plots, in-your-face bad cops, political backroom boys willing to deal, and a threadbare style north of Hemingway. All these elements are present in WHITE JAZZ. It's a fast read--sort of like flying through LA at 80 miles per hour (you catch a glimpse of things sailing by, but you never see enough of any one thing to truly take it in). If anything, this is the major problem with the book: you get hyped images but you never slow down long enough to see the view (Klein himself is a bag of unpleasant characteristics, never quite jelling into a character). This is due to the slash-and-burn style Ellroy deploys here. A master of whip-sharp declarative sentences, in JAZZ Ellroy pares down past the bone into the marrow; the result is often amusingly blunt, but in spots, confusing. The fleshing out of characters is a casualty of the style; sentence fragments do not a human make. The plot, too, is a bit much. Though it's probably based on actual events, Ellroy might take heed of Tom Clancy's view of fiction vs. reality: "Fiction has to make sense." In JAZZ, every law-enforcement agency is so out of control, credibility is broken about halfway through; the best way to enjoy the second part of the book is to imagine it as a satire. This is not to say there aren't good things in it. It's never boring, and there are some memorably twisted motivations among the bruises and gore. The final chapter is stinging and almost laugh-out-loud funny. On the whole, though, it's not a work worthy of the author of AMERICAN TABLOID.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Be Put Off - Riff On White Jazz
Review: Dig: Every book in the L.A. Quartet is a must. Every one of them. Feature you read just one or start in the middle, you're a chump. White Jazz - a great closer. Can't miss. After reading the first three novels in the series, I was reluctant to read White Jazz. I was scared off hearing so much about Ellroy's deepening usage of staccato prose and unattributed dialogue. I was led to believe the book was almost written in an experimental language. Well, I am writing this review for one purpose: to keep people from being fearful of this amazing book. If you like Ellroy, and if you've enjoyed the quartet thus far, you'll love it. Is White Jazz my favorite in the series? No. I still prefer L.A. Confidential, followed by The Big Nowhere. But White Jazz is much more evolved than The Black Dahlia. And as brutal and dark as it is, White Jazz has more laughs than all the other quartet novels combined. While the novel's halting presentation doesn't allow you to roll through the pages, that's almost a blessing, because every line is dense with nuance and information. You want to pay attention. I absolutely recommend reading the series in order, and if you're through L.A. Confidential, you simply must complete the quartet. White Jazz strikes the perfect notes in capping the series, and ties up a few ends along the way. It is beautiful, savage, powerful and stunning. Feature it's more challenging than a Grisham book. Feature that's a good thing. Dig: No big deal. Don't get scared off. Brass knucks/brain swelling/reading in bed. Big fun - big reward. CRAAAAZY.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best.
Review: I'm a big fan of a wide variety of fiction. Regardless of genre, I admire bold experimentation with prose technique. It doesn't get any better than Nabokov or Faulkner for me. I also like writers who tell far more conventional stories but do so with a flair for language, like Robertson Davies or, in the detective fiction area, Chandler and Hammett. The bottom line? Ellroy deserves to rank not only among Chandler and Hammett for quality of his crime fiction, but, with White Jazz, among Nabokov and Faulkner for the style of his language. White Jazz mainlines the experiences of the protagonist straight into your nervous system, white hot and unfiltered. It takes some adjusting. For the first thirty pages or so, my head hurt. Then something clicked and I was utterly blown away. Perhaps the most visceral read I've ever experienced. And aside from the style, the story is a gripping descent into the dark side of human nature, as typified by the crime and police world of 50s La. This is really as good as crime fiction gets, and some of the best writing from any author of the 20th Century. American Tabloid may be his most satisfying book in a lot of ways, but White Jazz is a work of art. Grim, disturbing art, to be sure, but I find that necessary at times.
Rating:
Summary: Six Characters in Search of a Verb
Review: The rumor is that Ellroy turned in a 900-page first draft. When his publisher protested, the author cut down the book to its
present length by eliminating verbs, articles, adjectives, and most other parts of speech. The result is a breathless gallop through a darkly fascinating world of murder, incest, perversion, corruption, greed, and lust. And that's just for starters! Reading WHITE JAZZ is like reading Anthony Burgess's CLOCKWORK ORANGE. The language is a mélange of English, LAPD crimestoppers' jargon, and 1950s pulptalk. Be prepared to deal with 187s, B&E, bootjacking, hinkiness, FIs, 459s, IAD, rebop, snarfing with soshes -- among other things. What makes it all worthwhile is that Ellroy has a great story to tell, and he tells it well even if he invents his own language that only tangentially resembles English. Be prepared for harsh lights thrown into the darkest parts of the human soul. Be
prepared for almost universal corruption, varying only in degree. As you spiral into the depths with Ellroy, you can almost feel the walls converging and the floor dropping from under you. This is a worthy conclusion to the author's Los Angeles Quartet. Be sure to read the novels in sequence for a sweeping panorama of 15 years of postwar degradation: THE BLACK DAHLIA, THE BIG NOWHERE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, and -- not least of them -- WHITE JAZZ.
Rating:
Summary: All I can say is....wow.
Review: A big fan of Ellroy and crime fiction in general, White Jazz is the best out there. Lieutenant Dave Klein is the epitome of "anthero" and the thought of cops like him both saddens and terrifies me. The love interest is believeable, which is not easy to do in this bleak a story, and the prose style does resemble jazz, and is extremely rewarding after one gets used to it. White Jazz is Ellroy's most experimental and stylish novel to date, and highly recommended for someone looking for something beyond the Leonard/Lehane mold.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Ellroy's best...
Review: I am a big Ellroy fan. I have read almost all of his works. L.A. Confidential and the Black Dahlia are probably his two best. So far, I think this is his worst book. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I wasn't bothered by the violence or the plot, or the fact that Dave Klein is not much of a hero for a central character. He's even more flawed than Bud White. What made this book such a disappointment was the writing style. Even for Ellroy, it was too clipped, too abrupt. It was not only hard to read, but it sounded forced; like someone trying to write like the voice-overs in B-movie film-noir detective stories. It just didn't ring true.
Rating:
Summary: A climactic finale
Review: The final showdown that LA Confidential promised us comes together in this novel. Ed Exley and Dudley Smith finally go at it through a most unusual go between who doesn't know what hes getting into between these two, Dave Klein. Klein is a corrupt Vice cop in every way. He's out for himself. But when he gets drawn into the big chess match played by Exley and SMith he starts to question what hes been doing and who he is. A great finish to the authors LA crime novels. Don't be afraid of the style and prose. You'll get used to it quick.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Creeps, crooks, perverts, drug fiends and freaks...welcome to the LAPD. If you've never read Ellroy before welcome to his world, a rather dark and disturbing place.
This novel, like American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand, contains Ellroy's machine gun prose. It is at first off-putting, but ultimately terribly satisfying. His writing style is spare, no unnecessary words at all, brief descriptions that still give great detail. Fantastically drawn / evil characters that collide at the end. In short - bit weird but I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Stream of consciousness at its finest
Review: The story takes place in 1958 Los Angeles with all of the historical elements in place: The Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, gangster Mickey Cohen sliding into oblivion, cheesy independent horror movies, and of course the notorious police corruption/racism within the L.A.P.D.. (Be warned: No racial epithet is spared.) For those who don't know, 1958 was the pinnacle of corruption in Los Angeles and James Ellroy just tears into it with historical accuracy. Our hero or anti-hero, David Klein, is a crooked yet very intelligent, Lieutenant in the L.A.P.D.. He is also a bought and paid for, yet a reluctant strong-arm, for the mob. He has a law degree, some psychological problems too mainly centering on his beautiful sister who he is attracted to but as the story evolves, things change and you begin to root for him. The story is tense and violent, Our hero has been thrown out as "bait" between the Feds, the L.A.P.D., corrupt politicians, and of course the mob with all of the above trying to keep their secrets safe. Subsequently the tension just builds and builds and you wonder how the hero is going to pull it off. The ending is believable and very 1950's. The narrative alone is worth the read. In most detective fiction the narrative is written in first person but White jazz takes this a step further. It is written as if everything is happening instantaneously. At times during the actions scenes the narrative is stream of consciousness and as chaotic as the scenes themselves. During intense dialog sequences the lead character, David Klien, deconstructs the meanings and significances of the dialog as they are happening so you hear his thoughts and words almost concurrently. Though the narrative maybe hard for some, I feel this book is a real contribution to the detective genre and literature itself.
Rating:
Summary: Great, fine, off-kilter crime novel - decision? Must read.
Review: White Jazz: novel, long, odd. James Ellroy: author. Turns out a good sentence. Knows his stuff. Tough. Uncompromising. Not afraid of risks. Style: Unusual. Off-putting. Jangled. Nervy. Hard to follow. Worth the trouble. Dudley Smith: Ellroy's signature character. Evil. Obscene. Brutal. Good to see him again. Problems: Confusing. Often. Get. Lost. In. Stacatto. Prose. Plusses: Stream of Consciousness choice inspired. Gets in mind of Dave Klein. Doesn't judge him. Lets us into his world. Overall: Don't miss. L.A. Confidential - Big Nowhere - Black Dahlia - White Jazz. Terrific. All.
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