White Jazz [Import] [Hardcover]

JAMES ELLROY (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: CENTURY; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712634126
• ISBN-13: 978-0712634120
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,490,458 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

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prognosis: great, fine, off-kilter - odd book., November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: White Jazz: A Novel (Paperback)

White Jazz: novel, long, odd.

James Ellroy: author. Turns out a good sentence. Knows his stuff. Tough. Uncompromising. Not afraid of risks.

Style: Unusual. Off-putting. Jangled. Nervy. Hard to follow. Worth the trouble.

Dudley Smith: Ellroy's signature character. Evil. Obscene. Brutal. Good to see him again.

Problems: Confusing. Often. Get. Lost. In. Stacatto. Prose.

Plusses: Stream of Consciousness choice inspired. Gets in mind of Dave Klein. Doesn't judge him. Lets us into his world.

Overall: Don't miss. L.A. Confidential - Big Nowhere - Black Dahlia - White Jazz. Terrific. All.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Characters in Search of a Verb, September 1, 2002

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Jazz: A Novel (Paperback)

The rumor is that Ellroy turned in a 900-page first draft. When his publisher protested, the author cut down the book to its
present length by eliminating verbs, articles, adjectives, and most other parts of speech. The result is a breathless gallop through a darkly fascinating world of murder, incest, perversion, corruption, greed, and lust. And that's just for starters!

Reading WHITE JAZZ is like reading Anthony Burgess's CLOCKWORK ORANGE. The language is a mélange of English, LAPD crimestoppers' jargon, and 1950s pulptalk. Be prepared to deal with 187s, B&E, bootjacking, hinkiness, FIs, 459s, IAD, rebop, snarfing with soshes -- among other things.

What makes it all worthwhile is that Ellroy has a great story to tell, and he tells it well even if he invents his own language that only tangentially resembles English. Be prepared for harsh lights thrown into the darkest parts of the human soul. Be
prepared for almost universal corruption, varying only in degree. As you spiral into the depths with Ellroy, you can almost feel the walls converging and the floor dropping from under you.

This is a worthy conclusion to the author's Los Angeles Quartet. Be sure to read the novels in sequence for a sweeping panorama of 15 years of postwar degradation: THE BLACK DAHLIA, THE BIG NOWHERE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, and -- not least of them -- WHITE JAZZ.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Be Put Off - Riff On White Jazz, July 18, 2001

By 

Mark A. Schreiber "scribe23" (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Jazz: A Novel (Paperback)

Dig: Every book in the L.A. Quartet is a must. Every one of them. Feature you read just one or start in the middle, you're a chump. White Jazz - a great closer. Can't miss.

After reading the first three novels in the series, I was reluctant to read White Jazz. I was scared off hearing so much about Ellroy's deepening usage of staccato prose and unattributed dialogue. I was led to believe the book was almost written in an experimental language. Well, I am writing this review for one purpose: to keep people from being fearful of this amazing book. If you like Ellroy, and if you've enjoyed the quartet thus far, you'll love it.

Is White Jazz my favorite in the series? No. I still prefer L.A. Confidential, followed by The Big Nowhere. But White Jazz is much more evolved than The Black Dahlia. And as brutal and dark as it is, White Jazz has more laughs than all the other quartet novels combined. While the novel's halting presentation doesn't allow you to roll through the pages, that's almost a blessing, because every line is dense with nuance and information. You want to pay attention.

I absolutely recommend reading the series in order, and if you're through L.A. Confidential, you simply must complete the quartet. White Jazz strikes the perfect notes in capping the series, and ties up a few ends along the way. It is beautiful, savage, powerful and stunning.

Feature it's more challenging than a Grisham book. Feature that's a good thing. Dig: No big deal. Don't get scared off. Brass knucks/brain swelling/reading in bed. Big fun - big reward. CRAAAAZY.