I do think that the staccato style of writing is more than
just style,
more than an effort to seem different. It's a great device
allowing
Ellroy to control the pacing, slow it down or speed it up
(and boy can
it get crazy-fast!). I like the way it forces the reader to
work a bit
harder the usual, to fill in gaps with details imagined out
of whole
cloth; I'd bet we all came up with very different images of
people and
places from this story. More than the usual variety, I mean,
since so
much is left to the reader.
Down-side: the ending just happens too quickly. And that plot
made _The
Big Sleep_ look like a drive down a dead-straight desert
highway! The
idea that the woman married to an FBI guy would (a) be
hanging around
Contino seems out of place and (b) why didn't she get her
husband and
the FBI in on things? But the ride is well worth these
misgivings.
Keith Logan logankeith@hotmail.com
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