Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! Highly recommended hard-boiled crime writing.
Review: As an enthusiast of dark, humorous fiction, I took to Ellroy immediately. And this book is the best of his that I have read (except, perhaps, American Tabloid). Ellroy has trimmed the fat from his prose, and the book comes on hard and fast, with enough plot twists, cussin', blood, guts, and grit to jolt even the most blase reader. In White Jazz, I find Ellroy's closest literary equivalent to be Celine--it shares a common bond to Celine's frantic energy, sylistic indulgences, obsessions, and amoral fatalism. This is a brilliant walk down a very dark path. Not recommended for the sqeamish, the politically correct, or those who do not like experimental writing styles.
Rating:
Summary: Forget everything else
Review: Forget Ginburg, Kerouac and all the rest- Ellroy is the poet of the 20th century and White Jazz is his best yet. He's like Burroughs on crystal meth riding an A-bomb into 1990s south central. He proves once again characterization, story and setting ALL matter and can be equal elements. Thanks to the man behind the James Joyce glasses.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: While a difficult read because of Ellroy's short incomplete sentences, this book filled my expectations. It was a great follow up to LA CONFIDENTIAL, and tied up all the loose ends of the LA Quartet. Ellroy's novels are always worth and this doesn't disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate noir novel -- even darker than his other books.
Review: I've become a somewhat obsessive fan of Ellroy's novels -- his style is immensely enjoyable (for some), his plots are always intriguing, and his characters are always engaging. These characterizations are definitely true of "White Jazz." I do have to say, however, that this novel is even darker than his others and I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much as I did "The Black Dahlia," "L.A. Confidential," or "American Tabloid." At the end, I didn't feel completely satisfied (but do you ever really feel "satisfied" after reading Ellroy?!!) -- I kept hoping that there would be something more. Still, if you enjoy Ellroy's style, then this one's for you -- it's dark, hard-hitting, cynical... Basically, it's everything you'd expect from Ellroy! Dave Klein is one of the most complex and intriguing of Ellroy's characters and that's says a lot! Although I despised him, I also felt sympathetic towards him... It was very similar to how I felt towards Jack Vincennes, Bud White, and Ed Exley in "L.A. Confidential."
Rating:
Summary: Cutting Edge is putting it mildly. Dave Klein, Anti-Villain
Review: L.A. in the Fifties? Ellroy has re-invented cops and robbers and re-defines modern prose fiction and our concept of the hero while he's at it. Reading this book is kind of like having bottles broken over your head and liking it enough to look for more. Go, Mr. Ellroy.
Rating:
Summary: MAKES EVERYTHING ELSE SEEM BLAND
Review: I first tried to read White Jazz in 1994 and could not cope with the chopped, ultra-hard-boiled style. But after easing myself into Ellroy via his earlier books, I found White Jazz utterly compelling and moving. His characters faults and virtues are so strong and intensely conveyed that I now have a problem reading anything else - it's all just too bland compared to Ellroy. The violence isn't heroic and glamourous, it's ugly and disturbing - like it should be. The plot is, as usual, very convoluted. Although the details are convincing, the story as a whole isn't. But it doesn't matter - style and imagery makes up easily for this. A masterpiece, again.
Rating:
Summary: BEAT UP AND CUT UP AND SCARRED UP AND DRUGGED UP
Review: Ellroy takes his already twisted prose on an even moremindbending direction. The words follow the pacing of the plot and nearthe end Elloy is saying more with bullet-spit invectives than most authors can in a whole story. Single words hit with the weight of paragraphs, paragraphs read with the impact of chapters and the whole hurtling bloody mess slams you upside the inside of your skull like a sock wrapped roll of quarters. 'Nuff said! -Jumpin' Johnny Victory
Rating: 
Summary: So long, stinkbook.
Review: This book stinks. Pe--yew. I normally enjoy Ellroy's flashy style, his from the hip dialogue and narration; Ellroy's style tends to attract today's short-attention spanners. But, this reads like Ellroy's normal style hopped on the speed his characters like to pop. You must have to be on meth to be able to follow this garbage. Not to mention unoriginal, un-interesting characters, lame plot. James better watch out or he'll become the john grisham of the "90s pulp fiction" novels.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best Crime Novels Ever Written
Review: Ellroy is a master of hopped-up, drugged out and damaged English. His prose reads like the straight whiskey or speedballs his characters inhale like food and water. I do not know if our culture is a better place because of him and I know my psyche is not in its best shape since a recent bout of reading him, but I know this: White Jazz joined the pantheon of great crime novels the moment it was published. Hammet, Chandler and even Thompson would be wigged out and frightened by Ellroy's tough as nails realism and characters over the edge of morality, but they would recognize him as a member of their club without question or hesitation. In this book, Ellroy's writing is at its improvised, scatty best. His prose has a swinging rythm unlike anything I have ever read: it has patterns, ebbs and flows. He builds to crescendos which have a feeling of inevitablilty but also manage to shock, scare and thrill the reader with a force unlike anything I have ever read. Read him, but do _not_ read all his books at once, as I've been doing (I feel like a menace to myself and maybe society.... ;)
Rating:
Summary: The unique vision of James Ellroy
Review: Ellroy writes like a Baudelaire on benzedrine.
His vision is that of a merciless Gnostic, where
redemption wears a cheap suit and comes crashing
through the door of your cheap apartment at 3 AM.
Very Bleak..At times very funny. But the novel's
oblique plot ultimately self-immolates.
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