I actually agree with a fair amount
of what you say. Ellroy's public persona is obviously an
dreadful joke, and I am not very comfortable with his use of
his Mother's death as material. On a more technical level, I
would also agree that he could use a few hours of
concentrated work with a copy of Strunk and White. In his
defense, however, I would point out that this could also be
said of a few other powerful writers - Jim Thompson, for
instance, who has numerous annoying and sometimes amateurish
stylistic tics. For me, Ellroy's obvious deficiencies are
usually outweighed by his ability to write about really ugly
characters with a certain degree of symapthy and
understanding. Of course, if I had to hang out with him much
I might be less tolerant.
James
At 01:43 AM 5/21/00 EDT, Bob Randisi wrote:
> I will have to admit that I have known James since
before BROWN'S
>REQUIEM was published. He called me one day, out of
the blue, to ask
questins
>about an agent he was considering approaching. I
answered as best I could,
>and he went on from there. He ended up at the
Mysterious Press, where Otto
>Penzler, for some reason, also became an
"enthusiast." But Otto didn't work
>on the books, and only saw them after they were
edited. The simple fact of
>the matter is that, technically--no, I won't say it's
a fact. That would be
>pretentious of me. In my opinion he has never been
technically sound as a
>writer, relies too heavily on shock value--not only
in his writing, but in
>his personal appearances. All that howling . . . yes,
I have found James
>pretentious, but while I may admire his passion, I
have never actually been
>able to see it come across in the work. I will aoso
admit to not having read
>a lot of his recent work, but our opinions are often
formed early on, aren't
>they?
>
> I was never able to get into T. Jeff Parker's work
until I read WHERE
>SERPENT'S LIE and THE BLUE HOUR. I gave him a second
chance. So I may have
to
>give James one--someday. For now, I think he has gone
very far on passion
>and shock value, and has--luckily for him--struck a
chord with the right
>people, "literary" people--not to mention movie
people.
>
> James has worked very hard for his success, and
probably deserves it--I
>just don't think he's the Literary Icon a lot of
people seem to think he
is.
>There are better writers out there than James--just
as there are a LOT of
>better writers out there than me. That IS a
fact.
>Bob Randisi
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>
>
James Michael Rogers
jetan@ionet.net
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