Customer Reviews

HOLLYWOOD NOCTURNES.

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

James Ellroy is a strange bird. A novelist whose best work is his autobiography (the amazing _My Dark Places_), he comes across as someone you'd never invite into your home --- his politics are on the gross side and the guy is fixated on prostitution, drugs, the disgustingness of pornography, child killers, etc. --- and he keeps writing the same novel over and over and over. But he writes it so well. It's got this poppity pop style that has your eyeballs merrily skipping and dancing. . . until you hit one of his references to extreme depravity that leave you wrinkling your nose in disgust and your eyeballs moving even faster as they scan ahead to find a spot where you can pick up the story again.

Ellroy has done this same story so many times that there is now quite a range to the theme and variations, not all of which are top-notch: _Brown's Requiem_ (pretty good) to _LA Confidential_ (almost brilliant save his over-the-top libel of Disney) to _A Cold Six Thousand_ (so unreadable that it comes across as passive aggressive hostility toward the reader, like he's giving you the finger for having the temerity to buy his books).

Unfortunately the stories in _Hollywood Nocturne_ are close in spirit to _A Cold Six Thousand_. They are written in his typical lovely style and not the `See Dick snort coke' style of _A Cold Six Thousand_. But the plots of the stories are so egregiously ridiculous that it's hard not to laugh out loud. `The Dick Contino Blues' starts out strong but then it degenerates into a faked kidnaping plot gone wrong. Since the story is peppered with talk about serial killer on the loose in Hollywood, you'd have to be willfully naive to not be able to guess who's really going to do the kidnaping.

The self-parody hits its peak in `Gravy Train', a story about a guy (on probation of course) who is responsible for taking care of a white bull terrier that has inherited the fortune from a businessman who made millions (illegally of course) and given it all to his pooch Basko. There's an accidental dognaping by some burglars who also train fighting dogs (of course). Here's how Basko's rescue is described:

>Two burly shvartzes were fitting black leather gloves fitted with razor blades to his paws; Basko was wearing a muzzle embroidered with swastikas. I padded back and got ready to kill; Basko sniffed the air and leaped at his closest defiler. A hot second for the gutting; Basko lashed out with his paws and disemboweled him clean. The other punk screamed; I ran up and bashed his face in with the butt of my roscoe. . . I grabbed Basko and hauled ass.

What are we to make of this? Is this clever postmodern irony? Does Ellroy prefer to stick to the pre-Civil Rights era so that deranged ethnic stereotyping is somehow `authentic'? [ "burly shvartzes. . . embroidered with swastikas. . . " The aforementioned eyeballs go cross-eyed.] Is he making fun of us for reading him? Or is he just strung out on something?

Your guess is as good as mine.

As a another reviewer stated Ellroy is best with the novel format. I've read a lot of his books and it's taken me at least 100 pages to get into the stories, except for American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand.

"Dick Contino's Blues" is the best story in this collection. "High Darktown" is also good. The rest aren't very impressive. Having said that, I cannot wait until Ellroy's next novel.

Ellroy is a love/hate man. Love him or hate him, there isn't much in between. I do recommmend this as a starter book of Ellroy. The shorrt stories are easy to pick up, especially if you've begun from viewing the movie LA Confidential. If these are like pie to you, then move on to the books.

Hollywood Nocturnes is a set of standard-issue, James Ellroy short stories. It has all of the usual Ellroy hallmarks: long-ago Los Angeles-area settings, characters who are a mixture of good and bad (but mostly bad), and considerable suspense. Hollywood Nocturnes will not disappoint fans of hardboiled mysteries.

Not surprisingly, the stories vary a bit in quality:

The first two (covering about 150 pages) are a fictionalized account of the real accordionist Dick Contino's life in Hollywood during the 1950s. I didn't think these two were that great; Contino doesn't seem to be that interesting to me & I found the story completely unbelievable.

The third story, "High Darktown," is about the plan for a train robbery at the end of World War II. It was readable, but not Ellroy's best.

"Dial Axminster 6-400" is about two cops who are assigned to transport a prisoner - and find themselves in a web of lies. This probably was my favorite story in the book; it's vintage Ellroy: an intricate plot, heartless characters, and enough action to keep you glued to the page.

"Since I Don't Have You" is about a man hired at the same time by Howard Hughes and gangster Mickey Cohen to find the same woman. It's entertaining, but completely unbelievable.

"Gravy Train" is about a man assigned to "baby-sit" a dog in a Beverly Hills mansion. It's the only story set in the recent past and Ellroy's weakest effort of the book.

"Torch Number" is about a lowlife who wants to find a singer he had an affair with, while he helps intern Japanese-Americans in World War II. I thought that this one worked well.

Ellroy is not for everyone. He is very politically incorrect and his characters can be ruthless and stupid. Don't expect to find too many "feel-good" stories in this volume. At best, you will walk away with a feeling that the world isn't a complete disaster.

In short, I recommend Hollywood Nocturnes to hardboiled mystery fans; if that's you, you won't be let down.

James Ellory sacred the beejeezes out of me the first time I heard him read in public. He speaks like he writes--in the machine-gun, rat-a-tat, minimalistic style that permeates his characters' voices. I think something invaded his body when he was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He captures that underworld as if he had truly lived it. Or maybe it is the June 1958 cold-case murder of his mother that fuels his energy. Whatever it is, it has catapulted Ellroy into one of the best crime noir writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

There are rumors that he will finally have a new book later in 2007. It's been too long since the reading public has been titillated to a new work (Destination: Morgue! in 2004). Maybe in anticipation or as a reminder that Ellroy is still lurking out there, Vintage Books has released Hollywood Nocturnes, which was originally published in hardcover in 1994.

I don't think Ellroy does well with a short form. He needs a novel format to capture his characters and plots with his signature style. Although all six stories have night/darkness as a theme, that's not enough to carry the collection. I wonder how well this sold when it was originally published? Probably pretty well, since it's being re-printed.

There's something missing in these six stories that I can't quite put my finger on. They start to build but then about the time I was ready to settle in for a great read, the stories end. My personal favorite, and the best in the collection is "Dial Axminister 6-400."

Although the collection is disappointing from my point of view, it's still James Ellroy writing--and for writers, it's worth the struggle to watch a master practice his craft.

Armchair Interviews says: Interesting short stories written by a great mystery writer.

After reading about Ellroy's complicated novels during promotions for "L. A. Confidential" I thought I would start with some of his short stories. The longest is 'Dick Contino's Blues' which is told in a hipster tone that is very different from the following 5 stories. I was then very satisfied by the next story "High Darktown" which is exactly what I had hoped for. Gritty, smart and fast. I loved that story alot. The others never lived up to "High Darktown". Several subjects are started that appeared in L. A. Confidential, such as a story about Mickey Cohen and Howard Hughes called 'Gravey Train' which is told by Buzz Meeks in old age.

This is a collection of short stories by the master of noir, James Ellroy. Several of them are directly linked to his full-length novels, but not consistently. The main character of one of the stories says he is writing his memoirs as an old man, when I know for a fact he was whacked at the end of "The Big Nowhere". Also, Ellroy has a tendency, like a lot of writers, to forget who the characters are when he's writing dialog for them. In "Dial Axminster 6-400", he has an Okie white trash-type using the phrase "divergent angles"...gimme a break! Overall, these are great stories, with the exception of the last, "Torch Number". Skip it and finish the book early

I think it was Faulkner who said something along the lines of: I write novels because poems and short stories are too difficult. Of course, Faulkner could do anything he put his mind to when it came to prose. But Ellroy largely misses in this collection of L.A. stories. Each story or novella has a great array of characters and some semblance of the beginning of a plot. Yet each seems to peter out by the end and the conclusions are a mad dash to terminate the story in a quick but unsatisfying way. My theory is that Ellroy set out to write actual novels for each of these plots, but tired of the storyline or the characters and just ended them. Maybe I'm wrong--but if so, then I'll go with the original premise that it is harder to write a short story than a novel and maybe Ellroy should stick to the novel.

James Ellroy has done it again with the gritty, violent and disturbing collection of short stories, "Hollywood Nocturnes". My favorites were "Dial Axminster 6-400", "Since I Don't Have You", and "Dick Contino's Blues". All were wonderfully exciting as the always splendid Ellroy whips out razor-sharp prose about dirty cops, femme fatales, and smart-ass private investigators. A wonderful collection and another win for the best crime writer out there today, James Ellroy.

This is the second book that I have read by Ellroy and I am very happy with it. The short stories read quick and the action jumps from the pages. Ellroy is the Carravagio of authors. I highly reccomend!