LA Confidential [Paperback]

Definitely a masterpiece. Superlatives become a bit useless when you're this affected by a book. I had weird dreams whilst reading it and every now and then particularly nasty scenes still pop into my head. All in all it's not a particularly 'nice' book - but the style, rhythm and language are so well delivered that I found it impossible to stop reading, once I'd got used to the slang (an arcane mixture of 50's Americana and cop-speak e.g. cooze, statch rapo) The slang examples give you a taste of the subject matter, I don't think the film really does - the whole novel is so much darker and intense. I find that statement quite surprising since when I saw the film I was staggered by how dense it was. The novel is just so much more.

A few statements:

Complex - understatement of the year! I thought the film was complex! The screenplay has stripped away vast tracts of criminal conspiracy. If they'd been more faithful they would have had a 16 hour masterpiece, but I guess it would have been difficult to sell!! It's worth using a notepad to keep track of characters names and details. Every character has some role to play.

Punchy - no wasted dialogue, in fact no wasted adjectives or other grammatical niceties. A scene from the film that lasts ten minutes is dispatched in one page (chapter 20 I think). I re-read that chapter about ten times, showed it to my friends who had also seen the film. That single chapter is the best example of Ellroy's writing. He builds characters, motives and locations so well that every so often he can accelerate the action by stripping away everything until all that's left is the core action. And, man the action is good!

Dark - there are no such thing as goodies and baddies for Ellroy. The good guys are often particularly nasty. Some bad guys have legimate reasons for acting as such. The only common demoninator is that nearly everyone is corrupt. For this reason I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone unless I knew they'd like it. Sounds a bit paradoxical I know. This is a nasty book in places but when you consider that Ellroy's mother was murdered when he was very young you start to realise he may trying to exorcise his own personal demons.

So if you're a big fan of noir, like Millenium, Seven, the Big Heat and other such like then I think you'll like it.

How can anyone say that the film stuck closely to the book? They are completely different and both completely amazing works of art in their own medium and own right. For a start, the film as I remember it is over a time span of, at the msot, 2 years whereas the film is vitually the whole of the 1950's.
As this is a review of the book, I will shut up about the film, but you should see it.
The book is quite simply the best novel I have ever read. I am scared to read any other Ellroy novels, for fear that they just will not compete.
It takes a while to get used to the staccato style but once you do, you realise the brilliance in it - it makes you think in the main character's thought processes, not in narrative action. The character development is quite stunning, one minute you side with Exley, the next with White, the next with Vincennes. and none of them are anywhere near perfect, all flawed characters, we empathise and sympathise at different times. One minute I hated Exley, the next I was almost crying for him.
The ending is, in my mind, better than the films, although (and I am trying not to spoil it for you), there is some unfinished business that makes you mad, until you realise that it is more realistic. The last paragraph before the short ending chapter is quite magnificent in summing up Los Angeles in the 1950's, using the metaphor of 2 of the less major characters.
When I first read it, I was actually in LA which made it all the more real, and it was only after I had travelled up to Alcatraz and seen that Mickey Cohen was a real person (he did time on the island), that I realised some of the bit-part players were 'real-people'. This only serves to make an already confusing book more confusing as you never know which events in the book really happened and which didn't. Further, the Raymond Dieterling character is extremely similar to Walt Disney, which, considering what happens in the story, is quite spooky, and Ellroy must have sailed close to the wind in terms of libel.
There is no way that the book could have been exactly copied into film format, without it being a 12 hour epic (I wouldn't mind though!), as the book has so many charatcers and subplots, 3 hours is just not enough. On the second read I discovered more and understood more and I 'm sure by the tenth read I will still be discoveing new things. The first time you read the book, once you have finished, you fell like you have climbed Everest - -you really do have to concentrate. But it is entirely worth it. This review is garbled and it is only because I am still so excited by the book that i am just typing as I think.
Read it then watch the film. Or the other wat around. It doesn't really matter.
One last thing...you will never look at Mickey Mouse in the same way again!

This was my introduction to Ellroy, and crime writing in general. I was encouraged to read the book as a result of watching the film, and was more than rewarded, as the scope of the book far surpasses the film. Nothing is wasted, after the first read the novel seems amazingly complex, yet nothing is unnecessary, this is a tightly written book. It survives and improves on re-reading, as further links between characters and events are discovered. The characterisation is enough to keep you interested, they are beautifully rendered and provoke strong emotion in the reader, you actually care about them. While graphic at times and quite dark, the novel does not depress, it is realistic. Ellroy portrays his LA world in such depth that I was strongly encouraged to read more of his work, and was similarly encouraged by The Black Dahlia, and now intend to work through pre-LA Confidential Dudley Smith work.