John Lau wrote to Ivan in response to him saying he wasn't
gonna touch an Ellroy book with a 10-foot stick after what I
said about him:
> now that is utter foolishness. while Ellroy clearly
isn't for everyone,
or
> may grow tiresome with over-exposure, he is
nonetheless one of the most
> important writers working in the genre today, for
good reason. he has his
> own voice, and he's expressing his own inner demons.
while I can see that
> some may not like the sound of that voice, or be
shown those demons, at
least
> he isn't merely retracing Chandler's footsteps. I
think the important
thing
> to take from miker's amusing comment about the shit
encrusted dildo, is
that
> he's read two or three thousand pages of the man's
work. there has to be
> something there for even a voracious reader like
miker to stick with that
> long.
************** Yeah! What John said! You can hate Ellroy or
you can love him, but you can't deny that he is a major
player in the hardboiled field nowadays. And I think that if
you want to have a feel for what's going on in the genre, you
have to read him. If for no other reason, at least enough so
you can say you hate him. He is a powerful writer and he
weaves good characters into a complex plot. When the right
month rolls around on our decade-by-decade thing, I hope to
reread THE BLACK DAHLIA and WHITE JAZZ.
Hey! I got this trivia thing thats bothering me. There's a
scene where they go into a club and eat barbecue and the hip
thing to do is wipe your greasy fingers in the little black
kid's hair. Hahaha! That's outrageous! Is that scene in WHITE
JAZZ or Earl Thompson's GARDEN OF SAND?
miker
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