Hollywood Nocturnes [Mass Market Paperback]

James Ellroy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

Gritty, strange, and darkly humorous short stories, along with a novella, portray mayhem, corruption, and sexual perversion in 1950s Los Angeles. By the author of White Jazz. Reprint. NYT. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ellroy's clipped and compelling noir realism, so effectively plied in such novels as L.A . Confidential and The Black Dahlia , shows itself to comparable advantage in short form here. The pick of the collection is "Dick Contino's Blues," the longest of the six previously published stories. Adrift in the hazy Hollywood '50s, accordion king Contino wades through nightclub gigs, broads, scandal and auto shows while saving a girl from "pinko" influences and from a publicity-grabbing fake kidnapping that unfortunately coincides with a serial killer's rampage-in-progress. Ellroy's rat-a-tat style expands slightly in "High Darktown," where an L.A. cop and former boxer follows an old enemy to a brutally violent resolution--while most of L.A. celebrates the end of WW II. In a foreword that exhibits the same high-heat style, Ellroy refers to the uneasy realities that underscore his prose, including his mother's unsolved 1958 murder in the City of Angels. Ellroy's narratives and approach aren't likely to please fans of clever-cat or subtle-English-spinster cozies, but he's required reading for those who take their crime fiction gritty, dark and a few degrees below boiling.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The night is a central character of this aptly titled collection. Set mainly in the 1940s and 1950s, the stories are populated by cops, criminals, floozies, hustlers, and zootsuited wiseguys who bring to mind black-and-white B movies and yellowed Police Gazettes. The hero of the longest piece is Dick Contino, the accordion-playing, benny-popping star of the drive-in classic Daddy-O. On the way to starring in this epic, Contino encounters the police officer father of a luscious teenaged tease, a down-and-out producer who nurses his weak heart with Cheese Whiz and crackers, and a psycho who is terrorizing the denizens of Tinseltown's lovers' lanes. The other stories in the collection cover much the same territory and seem to be ideas that didn't quite make it to the novel stage. A good introduction to one of crime fiction's grittier masters.
Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Dell Mystery (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044022098X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440220985
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,363,982 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ellroy run amuck, March 11, 2010

By 

C. Ackerman (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Nocturnes (Vintage) (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars ehh..., January 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Hollywood Nocturnes (Paperback)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars -, July 30, 2000

By 

Jacob Blair - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Nocturnes (Paperback)

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.