jupiterjens666's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
zoesiapie_'s review
4.0
Ho iniziato questo libro con tanto entusiasmo. Volevo leggerlo e volevo amarlo. Le prime 80 pagine però sono state lente, cruente e troppo reali. Non l'avrei abbandonato perché leggo anche i libri che non mi piacciono.
Poi il libro si è aperto, si è approfondito ed è diventato il libro che volevo leggere. La trama è meravigliosa, i personaggi sono crudelmente reali: Bud con i suoi problemi con gli uomini che picchiano le donne, Ed che cerca in tutti i modi di emulare il padre e poi Jack che si è disintossicato dalla droga.
Lo stile di Ellroy è pulito e il contesto che crea è valido. Dalle sue parole traspare perfettamente il razzismo degli anni '50 e la crudeltà degli uomini.
L.A. Confidential è un libro bello, le ultime cento pagine si leggono veloci veloci e non ci si riesce a staccare. Vuoi sempre chiederti "perché?". Le risposte arrivano solo alla fine, con un finale straziante. L.A. Confidential è bello, profondo e racconta la perfetta corruzione di una città americana degli anni '50.
Poi il libro si è aperto, si è approfondito ed è diventato il libro che volevo leggere. La trama è meravigliosa, i personaggi sono crudelmente reali: Bud con i suoi problemi con gli uomini che picchiano le donne, Ed che cerca in tutti i modi di emulare il padre e poi Jack che si è disintossicato dalla droga.
Lo stile di Ellroy è pulito e il contesto che crea è valido. Dalle sue parole traspare perfettamente il razzismo degli anni '50 e la crudeltà degli uomini.
L.A. Confidential è un libro bello, le ultime cento pagine si leggono veloci veloci e non ci si riesce a staccare. Vuoi sempre chiederti "perché?". Le risposte arrivano solo alla fine, con un finale straziante. L.A. Confidential è bello, profondo e racconta la perfetta corruzione di una città americana degli anni '50.
marco5599's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Many names. Multiple angles. Cases all over the place. Confusing, maybe. Challenging, perhaps. Nothing wrong with that. Everything wrong with these characters though. All dirty. Dirty somehow. What a bunch. This L.A., man. Makes Sin City look like Utopia. Hardcore noir. Pitch black. Blood red. Written in a rat-tat-tat style. Raw like a burning abrasion, sleazy like a giallo flick. No, strike that. Sleazier. I mean, the rollerskating thing. Try erasing that from your memory. Not gonna happen. Not soon. Or try getting Dudley Smith out of your head. Mr. Intimidating. Impossible. Unforgettable. Like so many characters in this book. My kind of jam. I need a shower.
joyshak's review
4.0
Read this one because I really loved the movie. Good read with interesting characters. His writing style is so quirky that sometimes I have to be "in the mood" for his books. I truly do love them.
shanthebookish's review
4.0
Did not enjoy the book as much as The Black Dahlia or The Big Nowhere but it has a great ending. The storyline was hard to follow at times but it all comes together eventually. Looking forward to the last of the quartet, White Jazz.
andrew_russell's review against another edition
2.0
Some might say that the short, explosive phrases in this book lend themselves to the page turning experience of the crime genre. Not me. For me, this book had the potential for a great storyline that, through extremely poor writing, never quite made it.
The book had its moments but most of the time, trying to find the thread of the story was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, on a dark night, in the fog, blindfolded. Bloody difficult. Convolutedness for self indulgences sake rather than that of the reader.
Ellroy's writing was like a first draft that he had never made the effort to read through and get edited. It was as though he sat down with the basic skeleton of the story in his mind and let it all fall out onto the page. No thought of emotion, characterisation or even ensuring that the reader might just understand what the ballyhoo he was on about. Just get the words on the page. Not a good writing technique.
Gratuitous examples of bloody murders, gore, rape, sex and every other disgusting aspect of life, do nothing to enhance this.
I would compliment Ellroy on the well researched characters of William Parker, Mickey Cohen and several others. Unfortunately no amount of research makes a good story without the fundamentals being in place. Research is backstory, the icing on the cake. This book was the cake equivalent of a stale bun.
The book had its moments but most of the time, trying to find the thread of the story was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, on a dark night, in the fog, blindfolded. Bloody difficult. Convolutedness for self indulgences sake rather than that of the reader.
Ellroy's writing was like a first draft that he had never made the effort to read through and get edited. It was as though he sat down with the basic skeleton of the story in his mind and let it all fall out onto the page. No thought of emotion, characterisation or even ensuring that the reader might just understand what the ballyhoo he was on about. Just get the words on the page. Not a good writing technique.
Gratuitous examples of bloody murders, gore, rape, sex and every other disgusting aspect of life, do nothing to enhance this.
I would compliment Ellroy on the well researched characters of William Parker, Mickey Cohen and several others. Unfortunately no amount of research makes a good story without the fundamentals being in place. Research is backstory, the icing on the cake. This book was the cake equivalent of a stale bun.
mr_wford's review against another edition
5.0
Some men get the world, some get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona
Ah, L A Confidential! What a great book and, I might add, a must read for any serious fan of the movie! It was my first Ellroy book and it was a dozy written in the strange style of incomplete sentences that he is known for, it tells the same basic story as the book but with way more angles and a much bigger time frame. Five years from start to finish. A number of big scenes from the movie are not in the book, including the scene that was the biggest bummer for me, so that was good, though I kept anticipating these scenes.
The movie seems to mainly reenact the earlier portion of the book, removing much of the wider plot and bringing it to a much more conscious conclusion. So rather than the book/movie combo being a disappointing pair where you are wondering what they are supposed to have to do with each other, I think that they complement each other nicely. Plus, from the sense I had reading the book (or was this just the movie living large in my mind?), the casting of the main characters was really quite good… But enough about the movie.
L A Confidential is the story of a seemingly random shooting at a coffee shop, and the quick attempts to get the case solved and closed. As our three main characters Ed, Bud and Jack, look into their own interests, more and more comes up that seems to be slightly connected. Of course, it turns out that there are lots of connections and lots more, and cover-ups and more murders ensue and it all turns into a grand conspiracy! I appreciate that, since assume that behind every official political (or governmental occurrence) there is way more going on that is not being divulged, this was a great glimpse (however fictional) into just how deep and corrupt the truth behind what we are told can really be.
Ah, L A Confidential! What a great book and, I might add, a must read for any serious fan of the movie! It was my first Ellroy book and it was a dozy written in the strange style of incomplete sentences that he is known for, it tells the same basic story as the book but with way more angles and a much bigger time frame. Five years from start to finish. A number of big scenes from the movie are not in the book, including the scene that was the biggest bummer for me, so that was good, though I kept anticipating these scenes.
The movie seems to mainly reenact the earlier portion of the book, removing much of the wider plot and bringing it to a much more conscious conclusion. So rather than the book/movie combo being a disappointing pair where you are wondering what they are supposed to have to do with each other, I think that they complement each other nicely. Plus, from the sense I had reading the book (or was this just the movie living large in my mind?), the casting of the main characters was really quite good… But enough about the movie.
L A Confidential is the story of a seemingly random shooting at a coffee shop, and the quick attempts to get the case solved and closed. As our three main characters Ed, Bud and Jack, look into their own interests, more and more comes up that seems to be slightly connected. Of course, it turns out that there are lots of connections and lots more, and cover-ups and more murders ensue and it all turns into a grand conspiracy! I appreciate that, since assume that behind every official political (or governmental occurrence) there is way more going on that is not being divulged, this was a great glimpse (however fictional) into just how deep and corrupt the truth behind what we are told can really be.
im_your_huckleberry's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
robhughes's review against another edition
5.0
Classic crime noir, hard to follow, almost indecipherable prose style yet I couldn't stop reading. It's interesting what Ellroy does, he builds the myth of LA through the true crimes that remain unsolved. Dark, violent and unforgiving.