Dick Contino's Blues And Other Stories
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Product Description
Book Description
James Ellroys epochal first collection of short fiction
Product Description
Dick Contino - 50s accordian player, a star in the making, is destroyed by a draft-dodging scandal. His life is on the skids until he comes up with the idea of resurrecting his career with a fake kidnapping scam.
meanwhile a serial killer is on the loose in Los Angeles...a killer who is closer to Contino than he suspects - a killer who wants in on the kidnap - for real...
Plus five previously unpublished short stories.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This collection of short stories is a nice survey of Ellroy's developing writing style throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s. The tales are sufficiently violent and shocking to please Ellroy aficionados, and they do justice to his reputation as one of the best living crime writers. Ellroy writes like his heroes act: quick, heartless and brutal, and there is a lot of soul in this little book. The stories are an curious mix, including some that feature characters from his LA novels (sometimes without any continuity with the novels, as if the stories are happening in a parallel universe), and an unusual story with a contemporary setting (Gravy Train). The best is the eponymous novella about the 1950s accordion player, originally written for Granta magazine, which illustrates the essential features of Ellroy's dark world.
Format:Paperback
This is a great collection of miniature pieces that will be particularly enjoyed by already-converted Ellroy fans. The pieces take you deep into Ellroy-world: post-war LA and its entertainment and crime underworlds. It's full of memorable characters, many of them bit players in bigger Ellroy novels. And, of course, superb dialogue.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As you might expect, this collection isn't up to the standard of his later work. Dick Contino's Blues is entertaining enough, but, despite the typically racy mix of draft-dodging, serial killers and accordions, it doesn't feel quite as edgy as any of the LA quartet (or the later Contino story published in GQ, and the Crimewave collection). Some of the short stories show a surprisingly light comic touch, with tales of a deceased mobster's dog sitter, love triangles featuring Howard Hughes & Mickey Cohen (filmed for TV with James Woods as Mickey C and, um, Gary Busey as Buzz Meeks), and the inevitable death, scams (possibly scamola?), lesbians, drugs and all that jazz. If you're an Ellroy fan, then you should find this interesting, if insubstantial, but if you're not then this isn't likely to convert you.
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