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814 ratings, 4.20 average rating, 86 reviews
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published
April 24th 2001
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 592 pages
isbn
037572737X
(isbn13: 9780375727375)
description
We are behind, and below, the scenes of JFK's presidential election, the Bay of Pigs, the assassination--in the underworld that connects Miami, Los An...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 996)
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
central north carolina
while ellroy's chandler-on-crack routine is exhausting stylistically [mock sample excerpt: "this spic commie was a real cooze hound. dig his geeked-out arsenal: 20 30.06 shells, three silencer-rigged .45s, a rapemobile-mounted shotgun. agency/outfit sanctioned figured kemper boyd."], _american tabloid_'s dark reimagining of early-60s optimism as a cesspool of cynical political power plays underscored by mixed alliances, double- and triple-crosses, and the reduction of the era's most &q...more
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Read in April, 2008
Kennedys- Plus
Debauchery- Plus
Casual Racism- Minus
Conspiracy Theories- Plus
Extreme Violence- Plus
Moral Subtext- Ehhh.
Great book. Ellory is becoming one of my favorites. Basically and interwoven story involving mafia hitman, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, 2 wayward FBI agents, Howard Hughes, and Jimmy Hoffa. Castro fits in there somewhere. It's a quick read, with very few chapters over 10 pages. The action stays consistent throughout.
Debauchery- Plus
Casual Racism- Minus
Conspiracy Theories- Plus
Extreme Violence- Plus
Moral Subtext- Ehhh.
Great book. Ellory is becoming one of my favorites. Basically and interwoven story involving mafia hitman, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, 2 wayward FBI agents, Howard Hughes, and Jimmy Hoffa. Castro fits in there somewhere. It's a quick read, with very few chapters over 10 pages. The action stays consistent throughout.
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Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
Gritty crime novel fans
This is a wild roller coaster ride through the dark underbelly of America, beginning in the late 50's and going through the day Kennedy was assassinated. The characters are crooked FBI agents, Teamsters, J. Edgar Hoover, Jimmy Hoffa, Bobby Kennedy, Sam Giancanna, Howard Hughes, clandestine government operatives and Mafia hitmen for hire. Ellroy is like the Cormac McCarthy of crime novels. There are no easy exits and few redeemable characters. His work is graphically violent and expertly craf...more
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Read in May, 2008
Somehow Ellroy takes the quick and dirty writing style he perfected with LA Confidential and masterfully expands his plot ideas of corruption, greed and power to a national level.
The story follows two rogue FBI agents and an ex-LA cop during the late 1950s and early 1960s. These three men navigate their way through shady parts of American history and play central roles in FBI searches for communists, the Bay of Pigs, JFK’s election, RFK’s hunt for the mafia, and Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamst...more
The story follows two rogue FBI agents and an ex-LA cop during the late 1950s and early 1960s. These three men navigate their way through shady parts of American history and play central roles in FBI searches for communists, the Bay of Pigs, JFK’s election, RFK’s hunt for the mafia, and Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamst...more
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When you get a recomendation like this how could you not want to read the book:
"A Vietnamese Communist is called Vietnam Cong-San in Vietnamese, which was shortened to Viet Cong by the Americans, then further shortened to VC, which, in military call-sign, is Victor Charlie, and thus we have “Charlie”.
God bless you James Ellroy for finally solving that mystery for me. Have you ever read him? I can’t remember. I’d loving suggest you read him soon, specifically American Tabl...more
"A Vietnamese Communist is called Vietnam Cong-San in Vietnamese, which was shortened to Viet Cong by the Americans, then further shortened to VC, which, in military call-sign, is Victor Charlie, and thus we have “Charlie”.
God bless you James Ellroy for finally solving that mystery for me. Have you ever read him? I can’t remember. I’d loving suggest you read him soon, specifically American Tabl...more
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Historical fiction at its best. Starting before JFK's campaign, this book is engaging and fun. From Hollywood to Washington DC, to NYC, and Miami, Ellroy incorporates salient American pop-culture history into a convincing (if sensationalist) storyline. Bay of Pigs, the Italian mafia, the Kennedy's, and J Edgar Hoover, this hysterical narrative, seen through the eyes of 2 intelligence officers working under Hoover at the FBI, weaves fact and fiction into a delicious mixture. If you harbor any n...more
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Read in June, 2006
Christ! Reading this book is like getting into a boxing ring with the Champ. Not as engaging or stylistically different than WHITE JAZZ, American Tabloid does deliver the goods in high-Ellroy fashion. Tackling the early 60s during the era of Camelot, Ellroy drags us head first into the Mob world of that era with doses of the bent FBI schemes that came about due to J Edgar Hoover's iron grip on the organization for far too long.
Graphically violent to a fault, but precise with the characteriz...more
Graphically violent to a fault, but precise with the characteriz...more
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Read in January, 1998
Ellroy is a kind of conscious primitive in the noir genre. His sentences are never more than 10 words long and read like they were written by reporters for Confidential Magazine in 1957. At a reading for the Texas Book Festival in 2004, I saw him clear out most of a room with unrestrained cursing and politically incorrect references to "dune coons" and the like. As a personality, he is clearly not for everyone.
As a writer, he could be onto something about the "underground h...more
As a writer, he could be onto something about the "underground h...more
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Read in July, 2000
recommends it for:
EVERYONE
i've been meaning to read it ever since having noted Time mag voted this book as the novel of the year back in 1995. finally in 2000 i kicked myself into gear and picked it up and couldn't let it down till i was done - all spent, wired and pumped with literary rush only ellroy can deliver.
his style of writing is hyperkinetic - i say it's hemingway on steroids...or speed. it's tense, terse, sharp and slick.
this is a must read for everyone. it's a sprawling historical novel of an epic...more
his style of writing is hyperkinetic - i say it's hemingway on steroids...or speed. it's tense, terse, sharp and slick.
this is a must read for everyone. it's a sprawling historical novel of an epic...more
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This book is a sizzler. For those that have read "L.A. Confidential" and "My Dark Places", this one is a must. Ellroy hints at his alliterative style with all out story-telling as he combines the best of what you already love in the writings of both Hammett and Chandler, in a shameless love letter to the noir detective genre. He has a blast as only Ellroy can, simultaneously lampooning and legitimizing events surrounding the ill fated Kennedy-Camelot legend and using the wack...more
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One of my favorite epic crime novels, and definitely my favorite of all of Ellroy's books. It has always struck me as the flagship for Ellroy's central message that no matter what you might think you remember, things really weren't better back then. Honest.
American Tabloid manages to tie together the 50's and 60's from a organized crime / political power perspective, and has a number of concurrent subplots that actually work well from a structural perspective. Every time I reread this, I...more
American Tabloid manages to tie together the 50's and 60's from a organized crime / political power perspective, and has a number of concurrent subplots that actually work well from a structural perspective. Every time I reread this, I...more
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Read in January, 1994
Savage and brilliant.
James Ellroy turns from crime drama to political thriller in this brutal but exhilarating ride through the dawn of the Kennedy era. Ellroy's prose has been carved down to the barest essentials, so hard-boiled it makes Hemingway look verbose, but it remains tightly controlled through all its labyrinthine machinations, with a clarity that borders on the poetic. Merciless, gruesomely violent, and certainly not for the faint of heart, but one of the finest novels of t...more
James Ellroy turns from crime drama to political thriller in this brutal but exhilarating ride through the dawn of the Kennedy era. Ellroy's prose has been carved down to the barest essentials, so hard-boiled it makes Hemingway look verbose, but it remains tightly controlled through all its labyrinthine machinations, with a clarity that borders on the poetic. Merciless, gruesomely violent, and certainly not for the faint of heart, but one of the finest novels of t...more
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recommends it for:
Everyone
Read this book. Ellroy's style of writing is in your face and to the point. This story revolves around the build up to the JFK assasination and features both Kennedys, J. Edgar Hoover, and Howard Hughes as central characters. The story is so complex and so intricate that its impossible to give any sort of complete synopsis. The best I can do is that if you like pulp fiction style stories, with gritty characters, set in a historical context, you won't find anything as good as American Tabloid.
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Read in January, 2006
Ellroy is the king of the declarative sentence. He packs more punch (not to mention plot) in each line than most writers get into full paragraphs. This is a masterpiece of alternative history -- weaving together a rich and scuzzy crew of mobsters, revolutionaries and corrupt feds who conspire to bring down JFK. There are so many characters, so much plot that at times it's impossible to keep pace. But Ellroy always gets the story back on track. For pulpy shock value alone, nothing beats this.
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Read in August, 2003
A sprawling, epic, down-and-dirty conspiracy theory for New America. Ellroy's staccato sentences provide a fast-pulsed heartbeat; his hip-jive lingo and brash, troubled characters wrap his story in a hard-boiled skin; his ideas border on the insane, but he uses history and tone of the era to give them credence. All in all, one of my favorite books of all time. If you enjoy it, make sure to check out the "sequel" The Cold Six-Thousand.
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Read in July, 2008
Incredible. Ellroy leaves the 1950s of Los Angeles and steps into a much wider arena. This concerns nation-wide Mob activity, political intrigue, and the influence of the criminal underworld in the 1960s. Corruption, Heroin, violence, murder, and political assassination are masterfully woven, covering Las Vegas, The Bay of Pigs, and the death of JFK. Ellroy is perhaps one of the greatest American authors of the last century.
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The most memorable book I've read since "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". I have generally zero interest in historical fiction as it seems to be the worst of both worlds, but this is totally compelling. If it doesn't explain the JFK assassination, it gave me a snapshot of the era that I haven't seen elsewhere. Ellroy is an amazing writer, this is the first book I read of his and easily my favorite to date.
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Read in January, 2008
I love Ellroy. Love his use of language, the way he develops his storylines, the detail in his characters. This is a 'factional' story from the Kennedy era and one really gets a feel for the characters and their motivation throughout. Having said that, it's a dense book and I think I'm going to reread it as I found it difficult to remember who was who! Still, this is American crime writing at its very best.
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Read in January, 2005
You'll never look at Cuba the same again. Or the Kennedy years. Or the Rat Pack. Ellroy's writing is lean, mean and full of gristle. It has a beat to it that winds you up, and you feel the sweat, the blood the dirt. Not for those with weak constitutions or easily insulted. No one gets off easy - slimy cops, whiny punks, ineffectual women, bloated drug dealers, slimy tabloid reporters.
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