What do you think?
Rate this book
True Confessions
In 1940s Los Angeles, an unidentified murder victim is found bisected in a shadowy lot. A catchy nickname is given her in jest—"The Virgin Tramp"—and suddenly a "nice little homicide that would have drifted off the front pages in a couple of days" becomes a storm center. Two brothers, Tom and Des Spellacy, are at the heart of this powerful novel of Irish-Catholic life in Southern California just after World War II. Played in the film version by Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro respectively, Tom is a homicide detective and Des is a priest on the rise within the Church. The murder investigation provides the background against which are played the ever changing loyalties of the two brothers. Theirs is a world of favors and fixes, power and promises, inhabited by priests and pimps, cops and contractors, boxers and jockeys and lesbian fight promoters and lawyers who know how to put the fix in. A fast-paced and often hilarious classic of contemporary fiction, True Confessions is about a crime that has no solutions, only victims. More important, it is about the complex relationship between Tom and Des Spellacy, each tainted with the guilt and hostility that separate brothers.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
74 people are currently reading
2699 people want to read
About the author
John Gregory Dunne
20 books139 followersJohn Gregory Dunne was an American novelist, screenwriter and literary critic.
He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and was a younger brother of author Dominick Dunne. He suffered from a severe stutter and took up writing to express himself. Eventually he learned to speak normally by observing others. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and worked as a journalist for Time magazine. He married novelist Joan Didion on 30 January 1964, and they became collaborators on a series of screenplays, including Panic in Needle Park (1971), A Star Is Born (1976) and True Confessions (1981), an adaptation of his own novel. He is the author of two non-fiction books about Hollywood, The Studio and Monster.
As a literary critic and essayist, he was a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. His essays were collected in two books, Quintana & Friends and Crooning.
He wrote several novels, among them True Confessions, based loosely on the Black Dahlia murder, and Dutch Shea, Jr.
He was the writer and narrator of the 1990 PBS documentary L.A. is It with John Gregory Dunne, in which he guided viewers through the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.
He died in Manhattan of a heart attack, in December 2003. His final novel, Nothing Lost, which was in galleys at the time of his death, was published in 2004.
He was father to Quintana Roo Dunne, who died in 2005 after a series of illnesses, and uncle to actors Griffin Dunne (who co-starred in An American Werewolf in London) and Dominique Dunne (who co-starred in Poltergeist).
His wife, Joan Didion, published The Year of Magical Thinking in October 2005 to great critical acclaim, a memoir of the year following his death, during which their daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, was seriously ill. It won the National Book Award.
He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and was a younger brother of author Dominick Dunne. He suffered from a severe stutter and took up writing to express himself. Eventually he learned to speak normally by observing others. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and worked as a journalist for Time magazine. He married novelist Joan Didion on 30 January 1964, and they became collaborators on a series of screenplays, including Panic in Needle Park (1971), A Star Is Born (1976) and True Confessions (1981), an adaptation of his own novel. He is the author of two non-fiction books about Hollywood, The Studio and Monster.
As a literary critic and essayist, he was a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. His essays were collected in two books, Quintana & Friends and Crooning.
He wrote several novels, among them True Confessions, based loosely on the Black Dahlia murder, and Dutch Shea, Jr.
He was the writer and narrator of the 1990 PBS documentary L.A. is It with John Gregory Dunne, in which he guided viewers through the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.
He died in Manhattan of a heart attack, in December 2003. His final novel, Nothing Lost, which was in galleys at the time of his death, was published in 2004.
He was father to Quintana Roo Dunne, who died in 2005 after a series of illnesses, and uncle to actors Griffin Dunne (who co-starred in An American Werewolf in London) and Dominique Dunne (who co-starred in Poltergeist).
His wife, Joan Didion, published The Year of Magical Thinking in October 2005 to great critical acclaim, a memoir of the year following his death, during which their daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, was seriously ill. It won the National Book Award.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
July 27, 2010
I chose this book primarily because the author, John Dunne, was Joan Didion's husband of 40 years & because it's considered a classic of contemporary literature, with a goodread readers' 4 star rating. After 60 pages of ignoring foul language & depressingly brutal crime scenes, I could take no more & stopped reading. Dunne's refusal to adhere to correct grammar, sensible punctuation, and his anachonistic style (all acknowledged in his forward)do add shock value, but coupled with the crude language I was left disgusted. It may well have been a best seller in its day & even be on current college reading lists, but I wasn't willing to expose myself to anymore vulgarity & obscenities, in order to discover the novel's supposed merits or to see the unraveling of the main plot mystery and social commentary.
February 7, 2014
This is a novel of twos-- two brothers, two "houses", a woman severed in two pieces. They are the Spellacy brothers, Tommy the cop, Desmond the priest. The "houses" are the LAPD and the Catholic Church. The butchered woman is Lois Fazenda, lowlife, hooker, vagrant. Never a character in the book, Ms. Fazenda becomes the focal point for John Gregory Dunne's sprawling novel of crime and corruption in 1940's L.A.
Detective Tom and Father Des have a love/hate relationship. As brothers, their fierce competitiveness fuels their undoing. A failure in love, Tommy finds solace only in sex. The celibate Father Desmond, equally lonely, lives his brother's sex life in a sordid, vicarious fashion. (Tommy's girlfriends tend to find themselves in Desmond's Confessional.)
One can't help but think of John Gregory Dunne's troubled relationship with his well known brother Dominick. Brothers, writers, competitors, they loved and respected one another even as they fought and feuded. Good old Irish Catholic boys, masters of the Grudge. Much of this unfolds in the pages of True Confessions.
It becomes a contest as to which entity is more corrupt, the Police or the Church. It's a shameless money-grab from cover to cover.
I was struck by the honest, gritty depiction of the 1940's L.A. gutter. Mr. Dunne was the product of privilege, of Princeton, of copious Connecticut money. But he nails the sewer of Los Angeles. The narration and speech are faithfully ugly and racist. There are Mexicans, Negroes, Chinamen, Jews who enter the dialogue in the most disgusting of terms. Never a prude, I encountered sexual metaphors in this book that made me say, "ouch."
But it is the Irish, the Catholic Irish who drive the book. The Church has the power to select the Chief of Police. Father Desmond can save Detective Tommy from a corruption indictment. In return, Tommy can cover up the arrests of priests driving drunk. When Father Gagnon dies of a heart attack in the arms of a black hooker, it is Tommy who moves the body to a more appropriate venue. The cops and the church are a two-headed beast. The Police Department and the Archdiocese are dueling snake-pits.
This feels like classic L.A. Noir, and it is. But for me it is more, it is a red-blooded American novel that just happens to be about crime. Earlier, I referred to the book as "sprawling." Indeed it sprawls outward in countless threads. But in the world of Mr. Dunne everything is connected. The myriad tentacles of his plot find their way back through cops, bishops, contractors, hookers, bums, informers-- all the way back to its nexus which is the bisected body of Lois Fazenda who was tortured to death. If the top half of her body, the brain and heart, fell into the lofty domain of Father Des, the bottom half, the nether regions, was Detective Tommy's turf.
There is plenty of sin to go around here. Tommy is a serial adulterer and a vindictive prick. Desmond, a ruthless, careerist priest, falls prey to "the heresy of self." For him, Pride is the worst sin of them all. Flannery O'connor would approve.
In the end they reconcile, proclaiming themselves just "a couple of Harps." But they would be wrong. More to the point, they were just a couple of Americans.
Dunne's Los Angeles seems to spring from a relentless anger. Cops. Priests. A pox on both their houses.
May 25, 2009
By far the best L.A. murder mystery I have ever read. Every word was a treat.
April 22, 2009
An overlooked genius. John Gregory Dunne's characterization of Hollywood in the 1940's presages James Ellroy's without the hyperbole.
July 16, 2014
A masterpiece of crime fiction.
March 7, 2015
The hardest of hard-boiled novels--made all the harder by its moments of restraint--a masterwork of grit, suspense, and narrative control, not to mention a wonderful evocation of Los Angeles and a near-definitive dictionary of racial slurs and terms for female anatomy. While it can be tough to swallow in places, that's also the art of it. George Pelecanos points out in the introduction that the reader is free to judge the characters if they want, but the author refuses to.
What makes this book so compulsively readable is not the murder mystery, though that's tantalizing enough: a young woman chopped up and left on a street corner, a la the Black Dahlia. The further we go in this story, the more we realize that the solution doesn't matter. This is a crime from which it is impossible to extract justice, a crime that by its nature can only divide and separate and bifurcate those who come in contact with it.
From the outset, True Confessions defeats our expectations. We're accustomed, these days, to detective stories in which the sad-sack, gruffly likeable investigator doggedly, obsessively pursues the killer. For our detective, Tom Spellacy, solving the case is the last thing on his mind most of the time. He's got other problems. Rather than casing suspicious locales or staying up all night digging through old files, or whatever it is a fictional detective should do, he's eating lunch at the Biltmore and going to the fights and doing little favors for his pals, like moving a priest's corpse out of a brothel. He works the murder during work hours, but mostly he's worried about his wife in the loony bin, his mistress, a mobster he's at odds with, and his brother, the monsignor. Not until the end does he really knuckle down. And Tom does crack it. But it turns out that solving the case solves nothing.
What matters is the relationship between two men, Tom Spellacy and his brother, Monsignor Des Spellacy. A couple of Irish toughs from Boyle Heights who know how to operate in the worlds they've chosen. Tom works all the angles when it comes to hookers, pimps, mobsters, and fight promoters. Des does the same with cardinals, pastors, laymen, and the many crooked businessmen glomming onto the Catholic church.
Almost without you noticing, Dunne layers these characters and crafts something moving out of their relationship. At times the book seems to be nothing more than an almost dreamlike series of conversations, at once philosophical and earthy, rendered with dazzling readability and style. But you've got to have the stomach for it, because these people don't talk nice. If you want a couple of stand-up guys to root for, you're out of luck with the Spellacy brothers. What you get here are complicated, witty, smart, often ugly people at war with their deep affection for and resentment of one another.
And that's the really hard stuff. Not hookers and murderers and corrupt cops. Those things are easy. Family, faith. Brothers. That's hard-boiled.
What makes this book so compulsively readable is not the murder mystery, though that's tantalizing enough: a young woman chopped up and left on a street corner, a la the Black Dahlia. The further we go in this story, the more we realize that the solution doesn't matter. This is a crime from which it is impossible to extract justice, a crime that by its nature can only divide and separate and bifurcate those who come in contact with it.
From the outset, True Confessions defeats our expectations. We're accustomed, these days, to detective stories in which the sad-sack, gruffly likeable investigator doggedly, obsessively pursues the killer. For our detective, Tom Spellacy, solving the case is the last thing on his mind most of the time. He's got other problems. Rather than casing suspicious locales or staying up all night digging through old files, or whatever it is a fictional detective should do, he's eating lunch at the Biltmore and going to the fights and doing little favors for his pals, like moving a priest's corpse out of a brothel. He works the murder during work hours, but mostly he's worried about his wife in the loony bin, his mistress, a mobster he's at odds with, and his brother, the monsignor. Not until the end does he really knuckle down. And Tom does crack it. But it turns out that solving the case solves nothing.
What matters is the relationship between two men, Tom Spellacy and his brother, Monsignor Des Spellacy. A couple of Irish toughs from Boyle Heights who know how to operate in the worlds they've chosen. Tom works all the angles when it comes to hookers, pimps, mobsters, and fight promoters. Des does the same with cardinals, pastors, laymen, and the many crooked businessmen glomming onto the Catholic church.
Almost without you noticing, Dunne layers these characters and crafts something moving out of their relationship. At times the book seems to be nothing more than an almost dreamlike series of conversations, at once philosophical and earthy, rendered with dazzling readability and style. But you've got to have the stomach for it, because these people don't talk nice. If you want a couple of stand-up guys to root for, you're out of luck with the Spellacy brothers. What you get here are complicated, witty, smart, often ugly people at war with their deep affection for and resentment of one another.
And that's the really hard stuff. Not hookers and murderers and corrupt cops. Those things are easy. Family, faith. Brothers. That's hard-boiled.
August 4, 2019
Ubistvo Elizabet Šort, poznatije kao Crna Dalija, više puta je obrađivano u književnosti, na filmu i TV-u. Verovatno je ipak najpoznatije po romanu Džejmsa Elroja i nesrećnoj adaptaciji Brajana De Palme. Iako nikada nisam bio toliki ljubitelj ove knjige, koliko Elrojevog poznijeg opusa, on mi je skrenuo pažnju na ovaj roman supruga slavne Džoan Didion.
Džon Gregori svoju knjigu bazira na ubistvu Elizabet Šort, ali se tu svaka sličnost završava. Pronađena devojka je pretesterisana na sličan način i vodila je poročni i slobodni život nalik Šortovoj, no čak je i njeno ime promenjeno u Lois Fazenda.
Roman naizmenično prati dva brata, policijskog inspektora Toma Spellacyja i njegovog brata Desmonda, monsinjora katoličke crkve.
Iako su Istinske ispovesti roman o istrazi zločina, bilo bi tačnije reći da je to roman o korupciji raznih vrsta. Pored one očekivane, u policiji, kojom se i Elroj dobrano pozabavio, Dan je temeljno obradio i onu od koje se zazire, u katoličkoj crkvi. Čitajući Ispovesti, uviđamo da gotovo nema razlike između toga kako protekcije i razna kupovanja funkcionišu među svetinom, klerom ili policajcima. Dijalozi visokih crkvenih zvaničnika mnogo više podsećaju na politička trgovanja i cenkanja negoli na razgovore velikih vernika. Čitalac će, između ostalog, saznati i zašto sveštenici više pate od hemoroida nego ostali ljudi: sedenje na tvrdoj klupi tokom slušanja ispovesti i zadržavanje gasova su glavni krivci.
Dan na virtouzan način koristi mnoge trope krimi romana -- Tom Spellacy je bio u vezi s vlasnicom bordela (i seksualnoj i poslovnoj), a trenutno spava sa ženom čiji je život spasao na dužnosti, a politika i birokratija se beskrajno mešaju u rešavanje zločina -- ali njemu polazi za rukom da sve pomenuto ne bude kliše, već nešto što se zaista dešava ljudima od krvi i mesa.
Najveća vrlina ovog autora su izuzetni dijalozi. Malo je pisaca u stanju da piše ovako auditivne dijaloge koji naprosto odzvanjaju u ušima, dok likovi zapravo govore onako kako niko ne priča u stvarnom životu. Bez obzira na to da li je u pitanju razgovor policajaca u vezi sa istragom ili njihovo usputno ćaskanje, stiče se utisak apsolutne autentičnosti. Takođe, reč je glavnotokovskom romanu, krcatom epizodama i detaljima iz životâ protagonista, ali se istovremeno narativna nit nigde ne prekida i priča ne trpi.
Ispovesti je 1981. ekranizovao Ulu Grosbard, sa Robertom Denirom i Robertom Duvalom u glavnim ulogama, ali se čini da bi ovakav predložak zadovoljila tek mini serija od desetak epizoda.
Džon Gregori svoju knjigu bazira na ubistvu Elizabet Šort, ali se tu svaka sličnost završava. Pronađena devojka je pretesterisana na sličan način i vodila je poročni i slobodni život nalik Šortovoj, no čak je i njeno ime promenjeno u Lois Fazenda.
Roman naizmenično prati dva brata, policijskog inspektora Toma Spellacyja i njegovog brata Desmonda, monsinjora katoličke crkve.
Iako su Istinske ispovesti roman o istrazi zločina, bilo bi tačnije reći da je to roman o korupciji raznih vrsta. Pored one očekivane, u policiji, kojom se i Elroj dobrano pozabavio, Dan je temeljno obradio i onu od koje se zazire, u katoličkoj crkvi. Čitajući Ispovesti, uviđamo da gotovo nema razlike između toga kako protekcije i razna kupovanja funkcionišu među svetinom, klerom ili policajcima. Dijalozi visokih crkvenih zvaničnika mnogo više podsećaju na politička trgovanja i cenkanja negoli na razgovore velikih vernika. Čitalac će, između ostalog, saznati i zašto sveštenici više pate od hemoroida nego ostali ljudi: sedenje na tvrdoj klupi tokom slušanja ispovesti i zadržavanje gasova su glavni krivci.
Dan na virtouzan način koristi mnoge trope krimi romana -- Tom Spellacy je bio u vezi s vlasnicom bordela (i seksualnoj i poslovnoj), a trenutno spava sa ženom čiji je život spasao na dužnosti, a politika i birokratija se beskrajno mešaju u rešavanje zločina -- ali njemu polazi za rukom da sve pomenuto ne bude kliše, već nešto što se zaista dešava ljudima od krvi i mesa.
Najveća vrlina ovog autora su izuzetni dijalozi. Malo je pisaca u stanju da piše ovako auditivne dijaloge koji naprosto odzvanjaju u ušima, dok likovi zapravo govore onako kako niko ne priča u stvarnom životu. Bez obzira na to da li je u pitanju razgovor policajaca u vezi sa istragom ili njihovo usputno ćaskanje, stiče se utisak apsolutne autentičnosti. Takođe, reč je glavnotokovskom romanu, krcatom epizodama i detaljima iz životâ protagonista, ali se istovremeno narativna nit nigde ne prekida i priča ne trpi.
Ispovesti je 1981. ekranizovao Ulu Grosbard, sa Robertom Denirom i Robertom Duvalom u glavnim ulogama, ali se čini da bi ovakav predložak zadovoljila tek mini serija od desetak epizoda.
July 22, 2012
I just finished True Confessions--the book a friend of mine (a retired economics professor) "made" me read. Four and a half hours on public transportation yesterday got me through the last half of the book. I finished off the final few pages this morning. And I'm relieved that I'm done. True Confessions is a meandering mess of existential navel gazing. Maybe if I was a Catholic, I'd care more about the heavy handed themes of guilt and sin and adultery, but the author's style makes it all half-baked claptrap. The story about the Black Dahlia-esque murder that is supposedly the core of the novel isn't even a quarter of the book. It's a loss leader. A trick to get you to read a festival of circuitous, seemingly endless ruminations by characters it's nearly impossible to care for or about. And so on.
True Confessions is so slow and meandering it makes chilled maple syrup seem speedy by comparison. And the author has all of his characters ruminate at great length about all manner of things...mainly corruption of one sort or another or some form of moral turpitude. To the author, it seems the need to ruminate is key to the experience of all thinking beings. And he captures that. And he RE-captures that. And he re-recaptures that. For example, he'll start a scene, then he'll stop in the middle for a seven page flashback. Then he goes back to the original scene and continues blithely on, expecting that we can follow his disjointed narrative in lock-step with the vagaries of his logical(?) processes. And he seems to pull some weird trick like that in every single chapter--sometimes more than once. The faux Black Dahlia murder investigation is only the thinnest excuse for these characters to tread on each other's toes again and again in their pursuit of the Great American Rumination.
Unless you have some vested interest in this hollow tome--or you lose a bet--keep this novel OFF of your reading list.
True Confessions is so slow and meandering it makes chilled maple syrup seem speedy by comparison. And the author has all of his characters ruminate at great length about all manner of things...mainly corruption of one sort or another or some form of moral turpitude. To the author, it seems the need to ruminate is key to the experience of all thinking beings. And he captures that. And he RE-captures that. And he re-recaptures that. For example, he'll start a scene, then he'll stop in the middle for a seven page flashback. Then he goes back to the original scene and continues blithely on, expecting that we can follow his disjointed narrative in lock-step with the vagaries of his logical(?) processes. And he seems to pull some weird trick like that in every single chapter--sometimes more than once. The faux Black Dahlia murder investigation is only the thinnest excuse for these characters to tread on each other's toes again and again in their pursuit of the Great American Rumination.
Unless you have some vested interest in this hollow tome--or you lose a bet--keep this novel OFF of your reading list.
January 10, 2008
True Confessions made me wanna get my hands dirty in the bowels of a city. Since I wasn't about to sign up for the police academy, I did the next best thing: I started searching for an apartment in the nitty-grittiest spot I could think of in downtown Portland (Voodoo Donuts).
November 13, 2013
A cross between a novel, a police procedural and a mystery. Set in LA in 1946. This is the crudest book I have ever read - filled with profanity, racism and sexual terminology. Very irish and very Catholic to the point where I did not understand some of the religious references. Still, a very compelling story about good and evil.
September 20, 2014
I was going to give it four stars, but then I added an extra one after reading so many prissy negative reviews by well scrubbed white women. Go back to reading those books where cats (Yum Yum and Snookie Pie!) solve the crimes. This book is out of your league.
December 31, 2024
Very disjointed and hard to follow. And having seen the movie ruined any of the suspense of it. Not Didion quality, for sure.
October 1, 2019
Here are the questions discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on Wednesday, September 25, 2019:
June 29, 2018
Wow--this is a GREAT book. It is sad, awful at times and deals with damaged people leading damaged lives for as long as they can. It is one of the best written novels I have read--truly reaches the unforgettable level. It was written in the 1970's with the story taking place in the late 1940's, and is written in the Crime Noir style. The first part of the book contains over-the-top racist dialogue from the dirty mouths of LAPD Cops. (The N-word is not used in this book but there are many other less volatile racial slurs for African Americans and Jews and Italians). The racism and sexism in this book was hilariously shocking, horrifying and clearly ironic. Therein lies John Gregory Dunne's genius--very few writers could have pulled that off.
The only character in the book to triumph in the end is an African American, portrayed as extremely intelligent, decent, and dedicated.
The Title has a least 4 meanings: The first meaning is an ironic reference to the magazine for young women which was first published in 1922, the second meaning is a reference to the Catholic Confessional, and the third to criminals confessing in the course of Police Work, and the fourth, to the honest admissions we make to ourselves and to others (if we have an intimate enough relationship with that person).
The story's prinipal characters are the Spellacy Brothers--two Irish Catholic brothers in Los Angeles--one a Police Lieutenant, one a Catholic Monseignor. There is a homicide case that proves to be the downfall of one of them, and the shame of the other.
I won't lie--this is a dark book, but a very worthy read. If you liked Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (I didn't), you will also like True Confessions (which I liked because of the laugh out loud shocking humour).
The real reason I highly highly recommend this book is that it is the ONLY book I have read which actually explains WHY men can be such dicks to women. Tom is not a very good man. He treats the women in his life pretty shabbily. He always puts his needs first. Yet Tom is a sympathetic character and I loved him (I also loved his brother Des and the Cardinal).
Tom's fear of intimacy and inability to attain it while still craving it at some level made him a tragic figure. So if you are a woman, and any man has ever slapped you or abandoned you or didn't text you back, and if you want to forgive that man or at least endeavor to understand him so that you can let him go forever--Tom just might help you to do that.
The only character in the book to triumph in the end is an African American, portrayed as extremely intelligent, decent, and dedicated.
The Title has a least 4 meanings: The first meaning is an ironic reference to the magazine for young women which was first published in 1922, the second meaning is a reference to the Catholic Confessional, and the third to criminals confessing in the course of Police Work, and the fourth, to the honest admissions we make to ourselves and to others (if we have an intimate enough relationship with that person).
The story's prinipal characters are the Spellacy Brothers--two Irish Catholic brothers in Los Angeles--one a Police Lieutenant, one a Catholic Monseignor. There is a homicide case that proves to be the downfall of one of them, and the shame of the other.
I won't lie--this is a dark book, but a very worthy read. If you liked Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (I didn't), you will also like True Confessions (which I liked because of the laugh out loud shocking humour).
The real reason I highly highly recommend this book is that it is the ONLY book I have read which actually explains WHY men can be such dicks to women. Tom is not a very good man. He treats the women in his life pretty shabbily. He always puts his needs first. Yet Tom is a sympathetic character and I loved him (I also loved his brother Des and the Cardinal).
Tom's fear of intimacy and inability to attain it while still craving it at some level made him a tragic figure. So if you are a woman, and any man has ever slapped you or abandoned you or didn't text you back, and if you want to forgive that man or at least endeavor to understand him so that you can let him go forever--Tom just might help you to do that.
November 5, 2019
Got this from PW article:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...
well, this book is a product of it's time and also of it's (setting) time. and I can't read it. The first page , as many first pages are, only 3/4 of an actual page of type. And in it, I think there is almost every racial slur. and then you turn the page. I just can't get past it to read the story. It stops me every time. I know that is a product of my time, and the characters are just being in theirs, and if it were sprinkled, I could maybe read it. And maybe they don't mean them as slurs, it's just categorizing for them, but they are slurs now. So, hard to read and get past, additionally, or tangentially, not that interesting.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...
well, this book is a product of it's time and also of it's (setting) time. and I can't read it. The first page , as many first pages are, only 3/4 of an actual page of type. And in it, I think there is almost every racial slur. and then you turn the page. I just can't get past it to read the story. It stops me every time. I know that is a product of my time, and the characters are just being in theirs, and if it were sprinkled, I could maybe read it. And maybe they don't mean them as slurs, it's just categorizing for them, but they are slurs now. So, hard to read and get past, additionally, or tangentially, not that interesting.
August 18, 2014
Dazzling! Although I have seen the film only a few years ago (it was not a "success" but I enjoyed it), this spellbinding novel was richer, more engrossing and filled with memorable scenes. Strangely, I could not finish another book by this author, but given how memorable True Confessions felt, I'm ready for more.
Full disclosure - I find the Black Dahlia case fascinating (and of course horrible), but it is richly etched characters and (seemingly) authentic period/LA dialogue that captured my attention. A favorite character - the 80 year old Cardinal (another rogue in an endless parade).
I'm surprised at the "below 4.0" overall rating for this, the most satisfying novel I've read out of the last twenty,
Full disclosure - I find the Black Dahlia case fascinating (and of course horrible), but it is richly etched characters and (seemingly) authentic period/LA dialogue that captured my attention. A favorite character - the 80 year old Cardinal (another rogue in an endless parade).
I'm surprised at the "below 4.0" overall rating for this, the most satisfying novel I've read out of the last twenty,
November 26, 2017
I found this book through a recommendation on a crime podcast. I was expecting it to be more along the lines of the Netflix show "The Keepers" and I thought it was going to be non fiction, so I might have picked up the wrong book, not sure, but this one was quite difficult to read.
In the classic 'noir' style, the book follows two brothers and a murder in post war USA where corruption and the power of the Catholic Church is absolute.
Unfortunately for a contemporary audience, the language and racist slant in the book are very difficult to surpass. And it's certainly a crude depiction of a crime and it's suspects.
It might have made it into the 'best of' lists 50 years back but right now it seems a little off.
In the classic 'noir' style, the book follows two brothers and a murder in post war USA where corruption and the power of the Catholic Church is absolute.
Unfortunately for a contemporary audience, the language and racist slant in the book are very difficult to surpass. And it's certainly a crude depiction of a crime and it's suspects.
It might have made it into the 'best of' lists 50 years back but right now it seems a little off.
May 11, 2016
Once again I was lured to this novel by the movie based upon it, starring Roberts DeNiro and Duvall. The novel is deeper and less dramatic (no great surprise there) and I found it thoroughly involving on several levels. The murder mystery itself-- set in vintage Los Angeles and based rather loosely on the "Black Dahlia" murder case-- almost takes a back seat to the familial and ecclesiastic relationships being explored and the final solution to the crime is a bit more mundane and realistic; for Dunne, things just didn't all tie up neatly and comprehensively. I kind of liked that.
March 1, 2009
Definitely a classic of the hard-boiled variety, based on the famous Black Dahlia murder in 1940s LA. The language is harsh and violent and the characters aren't very likable but the comparison of the scandal-plagued, wildly corrupt LA police department with the innerworkings and politics of the city's Catholic churches is very interesting. Turns out - they're not so different.
March 4, 2018
After I saw the movie, "True Confessions," I had to get the book to compare. Very loosely based on the Black Dahlia murder in the 1940's, Dunne describes post-war L.A. and a very corrupt police department with raunchy (though accurate) language of the time. The relationship between the two "harp" (I had never heard this term) brothers, a monsignor and a police lieutenant, is very interesting.
October 24, 2016
I could not get anywhere in this book because of the convoluted cop jargon.
Read
October 9, 2022great stuff
July 25, 2025
This is what I'd call a "man's book": just rough, gritty, in your face and no holds back. I can't really explain what it is about Dunne's work, this is the second book I've read by him and I'm always torn between "am I enjoying this or hating it?", yet I keep reading because he just puts the hooks in and I want to see how it ends.
Some things this book explores:
-exposing how "human" the hierarchy of the Catholic Church (and religion in general) is: full of flaws, jealousies and greed just like the average human being
-the impact that "Christian guilt" plays in a person's life that was raised in a religion (even if they are no longer / never were religious)
-corrupt religious leaders / cops
Yes this was a story about a brutal murder (and oh, the descriptions) but also about relationships and the interconnectedness of everything.
Don't know who I'd or if I'd even recommend this one to, but steer clear if you aren't able to get over the way people used to talk in the 1940s because this book doesn't hold back.
As an aside: can people stop comparing Dunne's work to Didion's? Just because they were married doesn't mean they should be compared? It's so boring. They're two completely separate people.
Some things this book explores:
-exposing how "human" the hierarchy of the Catholic Church (and religion in general) is: full of flaws, jealousies and greed just like the average human being
-the impact that "Christian guilt" plays in a person's life that was raised in a religion (even if they are no longer / never were religious)
-corrupt religious leaders / cops
Yes this was a story about a brutal murder (and oh, the descriptions) but also about relationships and the interconnectedness of everything.
Don't know who I'd or if I'd even recommend this one to, but steer clear if you aren't able to get over the way people used to talk in the 1940s because this book doesn't hold back.
As an aside: can people stop comparing Dunne's work to Didion's? Just because they were married doesn't mean they should be compared? It's so boring. They're two completely separate people.
January 13, 2026
Viejo estilo, novela negra muy negra y algo liosa pero merece la pena, mejor que la película
October 13, 2019
Dunne has no writer's block when it comes to foul language, dark depressing scenes, and and endless, pointless ruminations. Strongly suggest to prospective readers you cross this off yout TBR list unless you enjoy garbage.
May 27, 2022
This is really a 3.5. How many books can you get out of the “Black Dahlia” anyway? Here is another one although this one the murder to look at the relationship between two brothers and there positions in two of the power structures of post WW 2 LA, in this case the police department and the Catholic Church. An enjoyable read with an ending that is designed to surprise you.
December 25, 2013
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERTS
I always loved this story since I saw the movie years ago. Then I realized there must be a book attached to the film and was thrilled to find a copy on Kindle. I actually think I liked the movie a bit more. What is there not to like with Robert DeNiro and Robert Duval playing brothers in this hard boiled story of morality and choice. So as I read it I kept seeing them in their roles. I wonder what it be like to read the book without ever having watched the film?
The basic outline is DeNiro plays a priest who is well ensconced in the hierarchy of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Duval plays a detective investigating the gruesome murder of a young woman. Inevitably the investigation begins to wash around the feet of some of the church's biggest patrons. This is not giving anything away. But it's clear from the beginning that despite appearances the cop, for all his sins, is the "good" brother and the priest is the one whose soul is a risk.
I'd read the book first and then find the film. It's hard to believe after watching how many crappy movies DeNiro has made when he was capable of this kind of nuanced, powerful acting.
I always loved this story since I saw the movie years ago. Then I realized there must be a book attached to the film and was thrilled to find a copy on Kindle. I actually think I liked the movie a bit more. What is there not to like with Robert DeNiro and Robert Duval playing brothers in this hard boiled story of morality and choice. So as I read it I kept seeing them in their roles. I wonder what it be like to read the book without ever having watched the film?
The basic outline is DeNiro plays a priest who is well ensconced in the hierarchy of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Duval plays a detective investigating the gruesome murder of a young woman. Inevitably the investigation begins to wash around the feet of some of the church's biggest patrons. This is not giving anything away. But it's clear from the beginning that despite appearances the cop, for all his sins, is the "good" brother and the priest is the one whose soul is a risk.
I'd read the book first and then find the film. It's hard to believe after watching how many crappy movies DeNiro has made when he was capable of this kind of nuanced, powerful acting.
December 31, 2022
True Confessions is the best book James Ellroy never wrote. Being something of a James Ellroy superfan, I learned of True Confessions because he mentions it as a huge influence in multiple interviews, along with Libra by Don DeLillo and Compulsion by Meyer Levin, both of which I already read. True Confessions is a gritty, LA detective story involving two brothers - a priest and a cop, with the real-life Black Dahlia murder as a backdrop. Dunne is an incredible dialogue writer and although the plot is often depressing and wince-inducing, True Confessions is a very good book and very much Ellroy-like withouot the signature Jazz-like dialogue. Highly recommend for any fan of Ellroy or the Detective/Crime genre.
August 20, 2019
This is one hellava good book. Turns the more normal cops vis-à-vis bad guys scenario around and shows us cops vis-à-vis Catholic holy men. Neither come out very well from the comparison, but it's a great ride all the way. Plus brother on brother love/conflict, a murder mystery and a beautiful female victim cut in half. Who could want more in a mystery? Haven't seen the movie yet, but I understand it's a good one. One suggestion: there are a lot of characters and sometimes their bios get confusing. Taking notes along the way so as to remember who did what would be helpful.
July 4, 2021
I came to this book via the 1981 film version starring Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro, screenplay also written by John Gregory Dunne along with his wife, Joan Didion. There’s a lot in the book that didn’t make it into the movie, some changes were made, but both the film and the novel are about corruption, of the soul and the intellect, material and spiritual greed, and the extremes by which two brothers are able to find redemption. It’s about the trials and tribulations we all put ourselves through just to prove that we are, in the end, only human, mortal like everyone else.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews