Destination Morgue [Import] [Paperback]

James Ellroy (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Century; Australia & New Zealand e. edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712662634
• ISBN-13: 978-0712662635
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,771,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed L.A. Qurtet - The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the Underworld USA trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand and Blood's a Rover. He is the author of one work of non-fiction, The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women. Ellroy lives in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars He's Taken It Too Far....., October 19, 2004

By 

Lee Harrell "Lee" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Destination: Morgue!: L.A. Tales (Paperback)

First off, I am a huge Ellroy fan. I've read all his stuff and honestly regard him of one of our great writers.

However, for whatever reason, he has gone way too far with his use of the language, especially in this book. Alliteration every once in a while is one thing, but lately, especially I would say since American Tabloid, it is starting to make his work unreadable. It seriously gets in the way of the story he is trying to tell.

If you want good, classic Ellroy...read the L.A. Quartet. This later stuff is getting to be a pain to read. Come on James, enough already. (Lee Harrell)

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Borderline unreadable fiction & some very good nonfiction, October 14, 2004

By 

Scott Bradley (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Destination: Morgue!: L.A. Tales (Paperback)

I'm a big James Ellroy fan from way back, but this new collection frankly tried my patience (it just BARELY earned the second of the two stars I'm giving it). The selection of non-fiction pieces (which originally appeared in GQ magazine) is pretty impressive, as the Demon Dog examines Robert Blake, Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley, and the author's own self-proclaimed "Life as a Creep"; on the other hand, the fiction is just dreadful. The Danny Getchell/HUSH-HUSH alliteration/rhyming/wordplay thing is writ large and awful here (it's like Dr. Seuss meets Charles Bukowski, and I DON'T mean that as a compliment), with an unusually large dollop of racism & homophobia that goes far beyond the usual good, dirty, non-PC fun of Ellroy's other books. Seriously - this stuff, especially the trio of novellas under the umbrella title RICK LOVES DONNA, would be unpublished (and unpublishable) if the byline weren't James Ellroy. Worth snagging, I guess, if you're an Ellroy completist like me (and, again, the nonfiction is overall solid), but I'd sure hate for the uninitiated to pick this up and think the fiction represents Ellroy's work. Here's hoping the conclusion of Ellroy's "Underworld USA" Trilogy is an improvement over DESTINATION: MORGUE.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ellroy treads water, January 28, 2006

By 

L. Alper (Englewood CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Destination: Morgue!: L.A. Tales (Paperback)

You probably found this book because you're a fan of James Ellroy's classic novels 'L.A.Confidential' and 'The Black Dahlia'. You may even have read his memoir, 'My Dark Places' and were looking for more great noir.

This isn't it.

'Destination: Morgue' was published in 2004, yet it is virtually the same book as his 1999 'Crimewave'. Sure, the stories have different titles, but here again he is covering the same ground about his early days that were discussed in more detail in 'My Dark Places' and the shorter magazine pieces published in 'Crimewave'. The fiction in both 'Crimewave' and 'Destination: Morgue' is also almost identical. Annoying alliterative novellas written from the viewpoint of "Hush Hush" reporter/publisher Danny Getchell. Riffs on the collusion between LAPD Chief Parker & Dragnet's Jack Webb. Novellas from the viewpoint of accordionist Dick Contino.

Although the similarity of the short fiction in both books is annoying, it's Ellroy's apparent enjoyment of debasing himself by continually retelling his years as a peeping tom/speed addict/ petty criminal that is a riff repeated too often. OK, the stories in 'Crimewave' were reprints of Esquire articles that were warm-ups for Ellroy's 'My Dark Places' so can be excused on those grounds. The pieces in 'Destination: Morgue' have no such validity. They seem to exist for the following reasons: (1) Ellroy gets some sort of perverted enjoyment out of exposing what a sleazebag he used to be (2) he made so much money & got so much acclaim for 'My Dark Places' that he keeps returning to the well whenever he needs pocket change (3) he's completely run out of ideas.

Reading Ellroy's early work was exhilirating because the stylistic control dazzled and the plots were so dense that they required a reader's full attention. Reading Ellroy's current work just makes a reader feel dirty, and in need of a bath. If you really feel the need to expose yourself to the psychic filth this book contains, do yourself a favor & get it from the library. I guarantee you that you will feel no need to spend money on this book, further encouraging Ellroy to continue repeating himself.