Mark wrote:
>So you only have a problem with Cold Six Thousand?
The rest of his
>novels are over a decade old. I'm kidding, of course,
since much of his
>mainstream acclaim has come in that time
frame.
Good one! Let me make that "two decades," then.
>In fact, it started at almost exactly the same point
I started being fed up with him. American
>Tabloid embodied and exaggerated everything that had
come to bother me
>about him, particularly the overwriting, the
sloppiness with period --
>if you're going to write historicals, do your
research, check for
>anachronisms -- and the homophobia and racism that
increasingly seemed
>to be the author's not the characters'.
This is very insightful. I'd felt it, but couldn't articulate
it, so I left it alone. Having read it, I whole-heartedly
agree with it.
>"But that's what it was like then" does not fly for
me when every character seems to hold the exact
>same bigotries -- it's either bad characterization or
more sloppy history.
Or both.
>I really liked his early books when I read them --
his depiction of the
>varying degrees of corruption, with no one completely
clean, added
>shades of grey to an increasingly black or white
hardboiled world;
>unfortunately, like everything else in his writing,
it eventually became
>mere schtick -- but I haven't reread any of them, and
doubt I will.
I liked "Brown's Requiem" for the reasons you list above. As
for schtick, I reference every interior monologue of the main
character in "White Jazz," the corrupt junkie (? can't recall
if he actually was one, it's been so long) cop with the
incestuous thoughts toward his sister, or all of the things
running through Jack Vincennes' mind in "L.A. Confidential."
That "go down, go deep" mantra really got old quickly for
me.
>Brian, you've expressed your dislike of Pelecanos
numerous times before,
>which is fine (I've expressed my opinion of Ellroy a
number of times),
>but I have one question -- you have mentioned quite a
few of his titles
>in making your case, but why do you keep reading him
if he bothers you
>so much? I have no interest at all in reading
Ellroy's Cold Six
>Thousand to see if it confirms my antipathy for
American Tabloid.
I have? I think I only referenced "Right As Rain." To my
recollection, I have only read that one and (on the advice of
a friend who thought I might like a different Pelecanos after
I told him that I didn't like "Right As Rain") "King
Suckerman." Didn't like it, either. After two strikes, you're
pretty much out for me, reader-wise.
Let me finish by saying that I am only talking about whether
or not I liked these writers, not whether or not they're good
people, fine human beings, or successful writers. Obviously,
taste is relative, and I like stuff that other people with
impeccable taste would dislike.
Your Mileage May Vary-
Brian
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