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Title: The Cold Six Thousand : A Novel by James Ellroy ISBN: 0-375-72740-X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.37 (93 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Story, but Ellroy slips a bit
Comment: The works of James Ellroy became a bit of an obsession for me after I read the prequel to this novel "American Tabloid". It was grand, epic, and full of detailed characters that showed the seedy underbelly of the "innocent age" of American History. "The Cold Six Thousand" is the second in a planned triolgy of books on this era. It too is epic in scope and vision, and it too tells a great story, but something is off about this book, and to me it seems that the story is TOO big, and for the first time I can think of, Ellroy give us a poorly drawn main character.
First, the story. It is entertaining throughout, and there is never a dull moment. It picks up directly where "American Tabloid" left off, Dallas on the day of the Kennedy Assasination, with two of the consiprators and main characters from "Tabloid", Pete Bondurant, Mob Muscle and sometimes CIA operative, and Ward Littell, Lawyer to the Mob and Howard Hughes, and newly reninstated operative for J. Edgar Hoover. Bondurant has just gotten married and is in town to watch the fireworks. Littell is flown in by Hoover to make sure and FBI connection to the assasination is erased. A third main character is also introduced here, Wayne Tedrow, Jr., a Las Vegas Cop who has been paid the titular $6000 to kill a pimp running from the mob in Vegas. With his usual style for conspiracy and plot, Ellroy weaves all of these stories into the same fabric, as coincidence and circumstance draw these three together over the 1960's, covering a Mob plot to bilk Howard Hughes, Heroin smuggling in Vietnam, and various other 60's conspiracies that Oliver Stone would love to call his own. Ellroy is definitly writing fiction. He's not spinning a yarn he thinks is the truth, he's just telling an interpretation of what MIGHT have happened. And it's gripping reading, written in his now-perfected staccatto prose. However, the story is actually too big. Too many plot threads are woven together to get these three main characters together again and again. By putting them at the center of every big event of the 60's, Ellroy is simply asking too much of the reader. The consipracies are too vast and too connected, unlike the rather simple JFK assasination theory offered up in "Tabloid". While this novel remains intense, it drifts too much too often to rank among his finest work.
The second problem is teh character of Wayne Tedrow, Jr. He is too simply drawn, his motivation and desires too obvious for him to be as deep and conflicted as Bonderant and Littell. All we know is he hates his father but has his father's rage. And that's all there is too him. For Ellroy, who has painted such marvelous characters such as Edmund Exley and Buzz Meeks in previous work, this is almost sad. But it is forgiveable as Littell just gets more and more conflicted and complicated, and Bonderant has to make incredibly difficult decisions.
I would give the book 3 1/2 stars if I was able, but since I can't, I give it a 4, because it's closer to a four. Ellroy still hasn't written a BAD novel in my opinion, but I prefer even "The Black Dahlia" to "The Cold Six Thousand", which probably puts me in the minority. It's is still a great read, if not a great book, and for any Ellroy fan I recommend it. If you're new to Ellroy, pick up "American Tabloid" or "The Big Nowhere" first, and if you like what you read, head over to this one. You need to know Ellroy before you can truly enjoy it.
Rating: 4
Summary: if you know, then there you go
Comment: have you read Ellory before? have you put in your time in the L.A. books? Have you traced the evil that was dudley smith from his intro (not officially in the L.A. books, but if you know, then there you go) to when he took a wolverine to the face? If so, then you may be ready for this. M-16 prose, chain-saw whiplash violence, a kracked, krazy, kaleidescope view of the dekades that shaped amerika. No joke, if you haven't been on the bus, then this one will leave you behind and wondering what's up. I wasn't down with "Tabloid" -- too much plot and not enough of the pulse of the bad men who shape the world we call life. But this one runs the pulse like a spurting artery. Annoying prose? You know it. Strobe-light, beatnik jazz-like, hop-head krazee? That's just the beginning. The demon dog's going deep into what makes amerika the place it is. It simply isn't for you if you haven't been on the ride before this. All you've have is guestions and wonder what the hell's up. But if you've been listening to the white jazz and wolverine blues for a while, this is the apotheosis. Don't get me wrong -- Big Nowhere, LA Confid and White Jazz blow white hot compared to this, but for the dark places of the '60s, from Saigon to West LV and how they touch today, Ellroy's ride is rough, rambunctious and strangely vulnerable. You'll shudder, you'll wish for a shower, but you'll come through to the dawn with a burned-pure soul that's earned. Bring on the next.
And really, can you not but wish that the big dog would turn his eye on what's been going on with today's unknown, unsung bad men, in places distant, dusty and shaped by bad, bad, power (and golf)?
Oh, yeah -- and for the first time, cats (CATS) get their moment in the light -- and they make the dogs look like pussies.
Rating: 3
Summary: Relentlessly violent jaunt through the Sixties
Comment: I've only read this book, not knowing it was part of a trilogy. For another great (shorter) trilogy, check out Ellroy's L.A. NOIR; three novels with psycho-genius cop Hopkins and his psycho-genius antagonists. With THE COLD SIX THOUSAND, I think Ellroy is trying to pull off a sometimes impressive feat that often falls flat.
The first page grabbed me. That's all you'll need. The characters are wonderful. Wayne Jr.'s evolution in Ellroy's morally dead world is often fascinating. Big Pete is a great, almost operatic figure. You find yourself empathizing with these characters who are really horribly racist, spiritually empty fascists and psychopaths. The intrigue is the fuel that keeps you going. I'm just glad he didn't drag it out with some spin tying in John Lennon's murder.
That said, the darn thing is too long, and not particularly well-written. Good editing would have pared a lot of redundancies. The clipped sentences Ellroy deploys get mind-numbing, and feel very contrived most of the time. I don't know what he's up to, but it comes off as some Hemingway-meets-meth style that simply aggravates. Eventually, the pattern gets so old that you find your eyes floating over them. At least they're grammatically correct for the most part, and don't destroy the overall narrative (check out T. Harris' ludicrous HANNIBAL for that effect).
Repetitive phrasing is aggravating. Any sentence longer than four words is something along the lines of: "[Wayne/Pete/Ward] went and *braced* said [someone/something], which *vibed* très boocoo [hophead/Fed/swish/Klan/etc.] blah blah blah." Everything and everyone seems to be getting *braced* at any given moment. Insane. I'm serious; entire pages are filled with that basic sentence patter over and over. Ellroy might be trying to get us into the speech patterns of this world, but it mostly comes off as contrived. That and obsessively stupid klannish konversions of words to 'k' beginnings: "The krappy kotten krop was karted to Karson City." Ick.
But don't let that deter you. And if you don't like it, don't give up on James Ellroy. He and Elmore Leonard are the best at what they do.
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Title: American Tabloid : A Novel by James Ellroy ISBN: 037572737X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: White Jazz : A Novel by James Ellroy ISBN: 0375727361 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Big Nowhere by James Ellroy ISBN: 0446674370 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Black Dahlia by James Ellroy ISBN: 0446674362 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: Clandestine by James Ellroy ISBN: 0380805294 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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