Varun Bhakay > Recent Status Updates

There's too much of an editorial bent to this, to be honest. The history is gripping, but I'm not in it for Applebaum being gleeful about the fate of certain "comrades", nor for her insights on Stalin's cabal. Leave such things to popular history writers like Stephen E. Ambrose, please.

I was really into it until it started to sprint to Trinity. Fascinating stuff nonetheless, and loaded with insights for anyone interested in the American obsession with Communism.

Ellroy needs to get it together with the telegraph-style prose. It's not stylistic, it's ludicrous to read. Adds nothing to the novel, unlike the effect it had on the earlier three (where it was admittedly a little reigned-in).