The L.A. Quartet: James Ellroy (Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classics)

I purchased this book in the Everyman's Library Classics Edition.The Everyman's Library Classics Edition books are, in my opinion, the best quality books available in the price-range.They are quality bound: with acid-free paper; dust jacket; and ribbon page marker.There are also a great range of authors available in this collection, and they are very reasonably priced.

A too,b of a book but perfect for long journeys

Top drawer crime writing

Pessimistic,downbeat,a tour de force of the LA slimy underbelly,where corruption rules,and even the good guys are tainted--not beyond saving,perhaps,but far from the typical hero.If you only know Ellroy from the movie of LA Confidential,you've missed a great deal,a supreme stylist,Ellroy pulls no punches in revealing a world that probably existed.It may be fiction,but there are enough facts to make you reappraise the whole Hollywood scene,and see just how sleazy it all really was.In short,a really nice version of a book series that is far from nice---but essential,nevertheless.

This is not the Full James Ellroy LA Quartet (as described in the title), and is only the third book in the series, LA Confidential.This would have been a fair price for four paperbacks but is extremely expensive for only one.

Per chi ama il genere, è un must!

This is a rather massive tôme, though despite its girth, it is light and easily held. I am no longer a fast reader, due to eye problems, but the type and its contrast on the page is ideal.It has been years since I read Black Dahlia, and I was and am impressed at how fresh it still feels. As a native Angeleno who grew up during the Hirst-papers’ feeding frenzy over the Dahlia scandal, I was too young to be aware of the extent corruption was such a significant part of the LAPD and the LA City Council. I only vaguely remembered the Zoot Suit Murders. Ellroy’s writing brings all that and so much more back into vivit, nearly photojournalist, relief. More importantly, to me, is the discovery that this, and its following novels in the LA Quartet are not documentaries, but they are stories within stories, with plots and counterplots artfully interwoven with fact and, at least to me, with apparent fact.

I could write a lot about these but I won't. At least, not now. I read "L.A. Confidential" at least 5 times in its German translation, and when I felt confident enough about my English, I read it another 5 times at least in the original. I bought this volume only because a) I love books from the Everyman Library and because I love James Ellroy's writing beyond reason. They are just great.

Supple edition