Customer Reviews

The Big Nowhere

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

James Ellroy's so-called "L.A. Quartet" (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz) is one of the seminal bodies of work in American crime fiction. I have chosen to include a review under "The Big Nowhere" not because I feel it is the best book of the four (L.A. Confidential has a broader scope, takes greater risks, and is more compelling); simply, none of the other books moves me as much as this one does.

Danny Upshaw, Mal Considine, and Buzz Meeks are among the most vividly-drawn and complex characters ever found in a crime novel. Despite the glaring character flaws in each one of them, some of which border on repugnance, I still manage to empathize with them completely. Ellroy is an absolute master when it comes to tying characters' actions to their various motivations and desires. This gives his works a depth that goes beyond the mere telling of a story. The ways in which Upshaw, Considine, and Meeks relate to the action--the ways in which they internalize it and bend it to their own specific set of needs--force the reader to take a personal interest in them. They are no longer merely the vehicle to draw the reader into the action, as most "detective" characters are in this genre; instead, each one provides a distinct point of view of the action, shaping it as much as they are shaped by it. Not since Philip Marlowe went to jail for Terry Lennox--and Marlowe's own ideals--has a crime novel so tightly woven plot with character.

The story itself is too complicated to do justice in a brief review so I won't even try. The sheer number of subplots and ancillary characters could fill out the entire oeuvre of lesser writers, but Ellroy seamlessly integrates it all into a story that will have you playing the angles long after the book is finished. In fact, a second reading is almost necessary to catch all the nuance.

If you're a fan of detective fiction, these books are required reading. Even if you're not, Ellroy is a fine writer on any level. If you're squeamish at all, you should take a pass.

'The Big Nowhere' is my personal favorite Ellroy novel. As in the epic 'L.A. Confidential', the book's tortuous plotlines follow three cops tortured by their obsessions, converging in a dark night of the soul like no other in American literature.

The miracle of this book is that it is an intensely moral drama. Danny Upshaw is one of the most tragic and driven characters in modern literature. But not even Danny is as ironically fascinating as Buzz Meeks. Buzz is as corrupt as they come, but there is a glimmer of goodness in him that brightens to a terrible fire. His fate lies just around the corner in the prologue to 'L.A. Confidential.' Mal Considine's obsessions were born in the liberation of the death camps after the war, and he is indelibly marked by the horror. His one grasp at goodness is something (someone) that is always just beyond his reach.

I won't give anything up. The action is a series of plots centered around each of these three men. The plots converge into an unspeakable horror. But the horror of wanton crime is only a reflection of the horror within the darkest reaches of the soul. in 'The Big Nowhere', Ellroy does what Auden prescribed in his great poem "September 1, 1939:" in the depths of the darkness, and without sentimentality or pity, he nonetheless "shows an affirming flame."

I was debating whether to give this book four or five stars. The only reason being is that the story is pretty complex, a lot more so than The Black Dahlia, but if your the type of reader who can plow through a book in one or two sittings (which I am not) then I'm sure it'll be easier to keep all the charcters and the information fresh in your mind. Although I did have to do a lot of back tracking here and there to feel caught up with all the names and references, I gave it the 'five star benifit of the doubt' because 'what a story' it is! Plus, there is a fine summation of everything and everybody at the very end. I loved 'The Black Dahlia' and this book too and Ellroy certainly kicked it up a notch here. I enjoyed the movie L.A. Confidential and will read it next and I heard DePalma's doing a 'Black Dahlia' movie, but to put 'The Big Nowhere' to film would be very challenging: Communism, the mob, teamsters, the LAPD, the morgue, a pin-up, a pimp, prostitutes and a plastic surgeon, a shrink, crooked cops, taxidermists, nasty four legged creatures, heroin, a homicidal maniac and Howard Hughes. A word of advice, DO NOT read to far into the review pages here because someone gives away a major part of the story in their review. I wish someone idiot-proofed the reviews at Amazon to stop one like that from ruining the story for others. But even though I found out the fate of a certain character, I still was surprised and enjoyed this book entirely.

What a roller coaster ride!

Getting into the rhythm is a bit like watching a production of Shakespeare - you have to get your ear attuned to the language, but once you achieve that, you are off and away and able to immerse yourself wholly in the experience. It takes a while to sort out the parallel plot lines and keep the characters in an orderly arrangement in your head. I even went back and re-read the first 3 chapters after about ten, and re-established them for myself (after that it was all quite clear).

I suspect this is a matter of coming to terms with Ellroy's style - once mastered it's not such a big deal. For that reason, LA Confidential, the next book, didn't leave me quite so breathless, but I suspect it may have done if it has been my starting point.

Ellroy's setting may be 1950s Los Angeles, and homage may being paid to the noir detectives of earlier eras, but his writing - both language and themes - is graphically contemporary. It has as much to tell us about current values as anything, as well as exposing the corruption and nastiness of a previous era. As someone brought up on a diet rich in the Hollywood dream factory (Dragnet, Perry Mason, and family sitcoms depicting the 'sunny' side of urban America where cops were your friend, and the ranch house in the suburbs an unassailable good) I love this exposition of the seemier side of life - which as contemporary events - eg the Rodney King bashing - show us are no less real.

The story was of personal interest to me - the Grand Jury investigations into unions and Hollywood. The hard-bitten cynicism of several of the bad-guy heroes adds edge and bite to the historical facts.

Straight after closing the covers on The Big Nowhere, I started LA Confidential, the next in the LA Quartet. I liked it just as much.

There is no clear definition of a 'goodie' or 'baddie' in an Ellroy characterisation. Some of the fringe characters seem to get away with being decent (and one-dimensional), but they are only there to serve other purposes when necessary to tie the plot together.

Once again, don't read it if you are squeamish about the bizarre and often distasteful things humans can do to one another. Not for the sanctimonious who don't want to believe ill of those we entrust with policing human excess either !

Anyone who loves detective fiction, is a fan of film and/or book noir, and likes a good read, and isn't turned off by some pretty graphic descriptions of mutilation and bizarre practices should like this.

The Big nowhere, a great murder mystery / Cops and bad guy's story set in Los Angeles in 1950. The Story revolves around 3 characters, Danny Upshaw, Mal Considine and Buzz Meeks. Danny becomes obsessed with solving murder of a homo sexual whose body was mutilated. Buzz Meeks and Mal Considine are brought together by Ellis Lowe along with Dudley Smith to investigate the communist influence in the Hollywood studios. Their lives and respective cases are loosely brought together, each character slowly and progressively brought together on the others case for difference reasons.

James Ellroy was originally brought to my attention (like many others I'm sure) by the movie L.A. confidential. I absolutely loved the movie and found out about the books that took place around the movie. I stared with "The Black Dahlia" which takes place prior to "The Big Nowhere" which takes place prior to "L.A. Confidential." I enjoyed The Dahlia enough that I decided to read the next in line and I wasn't disappointed. The big nowhere is substantially darker in nature than L.A. Confidential and if you have a weak stomach this book is probably not for you.

It was great to get a little back story on Buzz and Dudley who both appear in L.A. and I will have a little further appreciation for both characters when I watch the movie again, and Nowhere also has a little tie in with L.A. making that story a little more complete if you saw it prior to reading Nowhere.

The Good: Like Dahlia and L.A. the characters are believable. They are very grey. No one is completely good or likable. They are willing to do what they believe necessary to get the job done and each has his own reason for doing what they do and the reasons aren't always noble. Again no white knights in these stories. Very graphic. Some might view this as bad but to me it made the story feel real. It is hard to go into too much detail without giving the goods away and will just leave the good by saying the book was a good read and anyone who liked L.A. or Dahlia should give it a try.

The Bad: The only negative review I read about the book noted that the plot was too complex and became convoluted. This isn't totally untrue. You are reading 3 points of view on two separate cases and during the story a lot of names are mentioned and at points you may have to flip back a page of two to remember who someone was. The cases are complex and at times you may not feel like they are moving forward. Tough it out if you start feeling like this the pay off will definitely be worth it.

Overall a good book I recommend giving a read.

Well, for me at least (I heard of Ellroy from the movie LA Confidential - this book, I think, is from '89). I was utterly engrossed. I don't usually like mysteries or cop stories, but Ellroy is such a good writer that I easily kept up with the dozens of characters and half-dozen interwoven plots. No character is simple - even the good guys aren't really good guys (I suppose that is a cliche in this genre, but the main characters - Upshaw, Meeks and Mal - are like actual coplicated messy obsessive human beings with an epic gloss). Oh, I'm not being very articulate today - I really enjoyed the book. I could point out a few obvious flaws (scroll down for an astute reader review mentioning a parallel to the ending of Psycho). Just wanted to up the star-rating a little bit... if you would be just shocked! and horrified! by a book that deals with cop corruption, herion, mulitation, murder, guns, etc. then of course don't read The Big Nowhere. To the rest of us: even those who don't like this genre will enjoy the book. You don't know what's going to happen next and you can't wait to find out.

J. Green "socio-economo-ethnomusicologist" has copied and pasted the same review verbatim for three Ellroy novels ("Scott Turow for the louche set"). While Green may have read one of Ellroy's novels and found it lacking, the review is so bad that it is simply not credible that he or she actually read the other two books reviewed. This amounts to spamming and is not helpful to anyone trying to decide if the books in question are worth reading.

Wow. Five hundred pages of this stuff leaves you reeling. As somebody who's never read James Ellroy before, I picked up The Big Nowhere and was immediately captivated by it. The language Ellroy uses is sharp and fast, with sentences punched out so quickly and concisely that each paragraph is dense with info. The characters are extremely well drawn and are especially interesting because they have personal motivations for entering into and becoming involved in certain cases. The chapters involving Danny Upshaw stand out as the best.

The plot is labyrinthe. Suffice to say, it's about three cops who become immersed in police corruption, serial murder, Communist witch-hunts and the underworld of homosexual prostitution. The violence is brutal and Ellroy pulls no punches in his descriptions - the entire novel hits you like a freight train. It winds its way to an excellent conclusion and never seems forced or contrived. All the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together nicely.

After reading this I immediately moved on to the next one in the Dudley Smith series, 'LA Confidential'.

It starts with a brutal new years murder; 1950. Sheriffs Deputy Danny Upshaw grabs the chance to head the investigation and is a keen, intelligent officer climbing the ranks.

Mal Considine is a lieutenant who has been asked to take part in a special investigation of communist infiltration in the movie industry with promise of promotion and glory. He is teamed with the charasmatic, evil Dudley Smith.

Buzz Meeks is Howard Hughes' right hand man, bag man and ruffian who organises his "personal" affairs.

As the plot unfolds, more brutal slayings occur as the three mens lives become inexplicably connected; racing the book towards its tumultuous, bloody end.

Ellroys tenacious, griping and brutal style immediately holds your attention as you realise that each man has something to hide and everything to lose. There is a lot to take in, but that adds to the realistic feel of the characters and the timeframe of the book.

Buzz Meeks, for me, holds legend status as you end the novel not quite comprehending the enormity and unexpectedness of its conclusion.

This book sets the pace for the remainder of the Dudley Smith trio (LA Confidential and White Jazz the other two) and left me eager for more more MORE Ellroy! It comes close to topping American Tabloid. I highly recomend it!

This was my first exposure to Ellroy's works. In it, the way he presents crime, cops, criminals, civilians, reporters, and street life is so far removed from prior fiction. Everyone is demystified and shown as real (real messed up) people. It sets the stage for LA Confidential and White Jazz which are both good reads. I have since reread it several times and never get tired of the great characterizations and complex situations.