Reviews

The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh

ke5bm's review

2.0

This book was recommended to me by a co-worker. It was a very difficult read for me due to the pattern in which it was written and the use of many different names for the same people in some cases. However, I liked how the book hinted at how it would end, slowly put all the pieces together and finally ended with a bang. It definitely had some slow spots and isn't your typical law enforcement drama.

ruthll29's review

challenging dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

kmac07's review

5.0

Crazy book. Scathing for law enforcement of the time and oddly funny. Great antiheroes.

nealalex's review

3.0

Combines the violence of James Ellroy with the mean-spiritedness of a gross-out movie.

stevemcdede's review

5.0

this one got a little banged up.
sir, there's a little dew on the lily
now you can use him as a paperweight

5wamp_creature's review against another edition

4.0

Very entertaining and often humorous horror/thriller about LA cops. I think one may want to be a cop for good reasons, but soon one becomes as psychotic as the criminals one deals with. I think crime is an act of desperation or last resort. I think the cops can't/don't have empathy for criminals: they see criminals as a lower species that need law enforcement help the way a biting dog needs to be beaten--that is, a response that often does not remedy the problem.

I wouldn't recommend this book for you if didn't think Animal House was funny.

vinniesee's review against another edition

dark funny sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

thetamouse's review against another edition

4.0

I've read all of Wambaugh's books, always thinking that this isn't the kind of thing I read and always walking away harrowed and impressed.

This was my first and favorite balancing dark and funny in a way that 15 year old me couldn't resist.

baboon's review against another edition

4.0

interesting as precursor to connelly's harry bosch and as influenced by chandler, cain, hammet etc
his street cops are interesting but some (like the secrets of harry bright) less so...

squidbag's review against another edition

4.0

"Recommended" by a former police officer I know, this book is the 1975 scathing indictment of the LAPD in gruesome detail that will, with its rocket-propelled narrative style, take the reader from out-loud laughter to gutter-bound contempt and then into deep sadness. The black comedy in these pages kind of only works if you kind of don't give a fuck for most of humanity, which is kind of one of the underlying messages of the book - whether it can be taken seriously or not. The title is a euphemism for the group of cops that have "choir practice" on regular occasions when they vent either from being pent-up shitheads all time or from being just regular guys who wade through the depths of human depravity at its extremes. The book also goes to extremes - the explicitness would shame 50 Shades, and the brutality could teach horror scribes a thing or two. It's a masterpiece of critical character study and one hell of a read.