Order THE BIG NOWHERE here
(also reviewed)
Order THE BLACK DAHLIA here
Order WHITE JAZZ here
Order MY DARK PLACES here
Order SHAKEDOWN here
"A homicide is a homicide, sir."
"You're smarter than that, deputy."
I've discovered James Ellroy in my early twenties and he's been one of my favorite authors ever since. I've read hundreds of novels since (that number most be getting close to a thousand) and he is still ahead of the pack in my heart because he can channel his compelling personality, his dirty, deviant mind and his obvious storytelling mastery into something so cohesive and unique, other writers cannot even copy him *. Every hardboiled author dreams of writing the ultimate era novel, but the ultimate era novels have already been written and they form James Ellroy's immortal L.A Quartet. I've been dragging my own L.A Quartet experience because I didn't want it to end, but I finally closed the cycle and read THE BIG NOWHERE. It turned out to be a peculiar timing to read this precise novel, which is, by the way, a hidden gem in James Ellroy's legacy.
A Jazz musician turns up dead in Hollywood. This stiff ain't like the other, though. His eyeballs have been are missing and his genitals have been horribly mutilated by his attacker. Sheriff Deputy Danny Upshaw is in charge of the investigation, and it leads him right into another investigation lead by higher ranked cops Dudley Smith and Mal Considine, on the communist influence in the film industry. The post-war Los Angeles of James Ellroy is prey to every opportunistic peddler, looking to advance their status and take control of this New World. THE BIG NOWHERE is about the ideological war that would dictate the future of America and ultimately settle the conservative, traditional values as part of its identity.
THE BIG NOWHERE is the darkest James Ellroy novel I've ever read. That's why I would rank it right up there with THE BLACK DAHLIA and L.A CONFIDENTIAL as his best material (they were all written back to back, so it makes sense). Ellroy is renowned for his unique, lively depictions of post-war America, and in THE BIG NOWHERE, they are more apparent in some narrative strands than some others. The psychological depth of Danny Upshaw's storyline is unparalleled in what I've read of James Ellroy's work. It's unparalleled in most fiction I've read, to be honest. It was the first time Ellroy tried to be visceral, to my knowledge, and he has a very unique way to avoid melodramatic pitfalls. The majority of his characters are men of their time, but Danny Upshaw is universal. He's a hero lost in a sprawling ideological labyrinth. He is key to THE BIG NOWHERE both emotionally and plot-wise. James Ellroy smartly uses him to alter the reader's perception of everything else.
* We'll come back on that.
A Jazz musician turns up dead in Hollywood. This stiff ain't like the other, though. His eyeballs have been are missing and his genitals have been horribly mutilated by his attacker. Sheriff Deputy Danny Upshaw is in charge of the investigation, and it leads him right into another investigation lead by higher ranked cops Dudley Smith and Mal Considine, on the communist influence in the film industry. The post-war Los Angeles of James Ellroy is prey to every opportunistic peddler, looking to advance their status and take control of this New World. THE BIG NOWHERE is about the ideological war that would dictate the future of America and ultimately settle the conservative, traditional values as part of its identity.
THE BIG NOWHERE is the darkest James Ellroy novel I've ever read. That's why I would rank it right up there with THE BLACK DAHLIA and L.A CONFIDENTIAL as his best material (they were all written back to back, so it makes sense). Ellroy is renowned for his unique, lively depictions of post-war America, and in THE BIG NOWHERE, they are more apparent in some narrative strands than some others. The psychological depth of Danny Upshaw's storyline is unparalleled in what I've read of James Ellroy's work. It's unparalleled in most fiction I've read, to be honest. It was the first time Ellroy tried to be visceral, to my knowledge, and he has a very unique way to avoid melodramatic pitfalls. The majority of his characters are men of their time, but Danny Upshaw is universal. He's a hero lost in a sprawling ideological labyrinth. He is key to THE BIG NOWHERE both emotionally and plot-wise. James Ellroy smartly uses him to alter the reader's perception of everything else.
"What do you want?"
"I want to supervise the triple homicide case I'm working - for the County and the City."
Mal thought of Ellis Loew balking , other City hotshots he could grease for the favor. ''I think I can manage it."
Dudley came over, clapped Upshaw on the back and winked. ''There's a woman you'll have to get next to, lad. You might have to fuck the pants off of her."
Deputy Danny Upshaw said. "I welcome the opportunity."
It was a weird moment to read THE BIG NOWHERE, since season 2 of TRUE DETECTIVE is on television and it's recently been under fire for swiping major plot details from the novel. The similarities are indeed eerie and there might be some explaining to do, but both works are so different in their tonality, it's easy to enjoy them both for what they are. THE BIG NOWHERE has these provocative era quips that make James Ellroy so flavorful to read. There is a strong ironic aspect to the novel, too (clashing with the darkness of the Danny Upshaw storytline), openly mocking the American Communist scare of the 1950s. One could argue that James Ellroy is the ultimate writer for white men and that what some would find hilarious, other would find infuriating, but I'm a white man myself so I wouldn't know. I've never taken the political stance of Ellroy's novels seriously, though.
Noir and Hardboiled literature are often erroneously linked to fedoras, Jazz bar and the America of Old and most novels trying to reproduce this era in our age and day fail miserably. It's because the contemporary standard for historical hardboiled fiction is James Ellroy's L.A Quartet and he effortlessly does it so much better than anyybody else, that even when he deliberately tries to sound gimmicky, you sound gimmickier than him. Ellroy is inimitable. That's how powerful and transcendent his writing is. That's how perfectly defined his identity as a writer is. My reading of THE BIG NOWHERE cemented, for me, the L.A Quartet as one of the most amazing series I've ever read and I should be getting hammered and parade naked in the street because there's a second one being written right now.
BADASS
* We'll come back on that.