Kansas City, 10/14/96
Ellroy reads Delillo. Ellroy grooves on Libra. Ellroy takes the challenge. Ellroy writes American Tabloid.
The crits love it. Time gives it best of year.
Follow the money. Write a sequel. Steal from yourself. Do it like White Jazz. Declare war on adjectives. Declare war on conjunctions concurrent.
Dig the short sentences. Keep it terse. Keep it hard. Repeat yourself lots. Don't let the prose get in the way. The story's where it's at.
Follow Bondurant. More work for Cuba. More work for la causa. More work in craaazy Vietnam.
Follow Littell. New girl. New job with the SCLC. Still a wild card. Still a closet liberal. Not going to end well.
Follow the Kennedys. Follow MLK. Keep it short. Keep it hard. Follow the story.
Dig it.
Rating: B (If you could survive this review, you'll probably like the book)
Reviewed by Padgett Arango