Customer Reviews

The Big Nowhere

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I started 'The Big Nowhere' about a fortnight after finishing 'The Black Dahlia'. This is fiction at its best. The characterisation is superb, the sense of impending doom inescapable and the tension palpable. I think that this book narrowly beats L.A. Confidential in terms of entertainment and plot, and only narrowly fails to rank alongside the Black Dahlia. The Upshaw character is every bit as vivid as the main characters in the Black Dahlia and Clandestine, and by the end of the book Considine and even the initially dispicable Meeks have set themselves up as tragic heroes. A must read book.

I chose this as the first Ellroy to read and could not have been more pleased. I am now looking to buy the whole set based on this experience.

What a great story -- muscular prose, rat-tat-tat dialogue. Amazing.
The depth and breadth of the characters on display here is startling; I found myself with a person's name on my mind -- trying to put a face and a place to the name -- only to realise it was actually a 'person' from this book.

If, like me, the only other crime books you have read were the traditional 'hard boiled' detective novels of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett et al, be prepared for a shock. This is not as out-there as Paul Auster's 'City of Glass' (from 'The New York Trilogy') but no less compelling.
Everything about this book is more robust, more immediate .. more 'modern', if you like .. but still evokes a similar sense of 30's - 50's USA in general and Hollywood sleaze in particular.

Gripping stuff!

10/10

Having read The Black Dahlia, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand in that order, and enjoying them all immensely, it seemed logical to continue Ellroy's L.A.quartet with The Big Nowhere. I wasn't disappointed - the characterisation is superb, you actually find yourself mourning them when/if they get killed - the plot is complex, but ultimately rewarding. As with all great books I found myself slowing up towards the end, not wanting to finish it. I began L.A.Confidential the same day I finished TBN so as to avoid Ellroy withdrawal symptoms.

Forget The Black Dahlia - this is the first of Ellroy's newer, more ambitious books. While Dahlia may have carried him into marrying true crime with crime fiction, with The Big Nowhere he makes the more important move into multiple protagonists, which allows for one of the greatest plot devices of his later works - but I won't tell you what it is in case you haven't read it. The shock when reading the climax of the second section for the first time is a rare and incredible feeling when reading a book, and this was Ellroy's first try.

The Big Nowhere is also tied far more strongly to LA Confidential and White Jazz (the latter half of the LA Quartet) than Dahlia, fully involving the reader in the heroin conspiracy and introducing Dudley Smith properly for the first time since the earlier, far less impressive novel Clandestine.

If you're reading Ellroy's books sequentially, you're in for a treat. This is where the pace really picks up.

Not a book for the fainthearted, this. James Ellroy is famous for his bleak worldview, albeit one spiced with black humour, but this is Hollywood Noir by way of pure horror. It's the most pounding, breathless read I have had in quite a while, all written in Ellroy's brilliant, relentless style. The author's stated aim is to show there was far more to the post-WWII period than its innocent, apple-pie image, and he's not kidding. This is a slice of period life straight from the American underbelly.

Los Angeles in early 1950 and the American Establishment is in full-blown paranoia about Communist activity in the Hollywood unions. While the police search for informants for their Grand Jury investigation, a bestial serial killer is on the loose in the jazz and gay underworld of LA. Three flawed cops form an unlikely alliance to solve the interwoven cases, while pursuing their own sleazy ambitions. Ellroy paints a picture of endemic police corruption, but his three anti-heroes find a kind of skewed integrity amid all the cynicism.

With a huge cast of ancillary characters, the plot is at times so labyrinthine and multilayered that you have to keep flipping back to reorient yourself with a particular name. This doesn't stop the narrative hurtling forwards over 450 pages, and the twists and turns don't let up until the final paragraph. The writing is high-quality throughout: intense, punchy, original. I felt dizzy and quite hungover when I finished this book.

Outstanding, I look forward to reading the next instalment of Ellroy's LA Quartet.

I think this is one of the greastest crime novel of the 20th century. What makes it stand apart is its superb characterisation. There is no boring character in this book and everyone has thier fault. The story is so complex I won't bother to explain it, but after reading this book, you will feel punch drunk and amazed! This book makes me wonder about the author, he's got amazing imagination (no doubt about that!) but it left me wondering whether I would shake his hand if I meet him or run away from him.

Okay, let me start by saying that this is a FIVE-STAR crime thriller, the reason I've given it 4/5 is because Ellroy has, believe it or not, published even better gems than this.

I won't go into the plot too much but suffice to say that high-society L.A & Hollywood come 1950 have never been as edgy, dark or morally rotten to the core as they are here in Ellroy's hyperactive mind. The beauty of his stories is that the writer seamlessly intertwines genuine American history with accurately fleshed out fictional crime, complete with humanly flawed characters who are convincingly multi-dimensional (there is no such thing as 'good guys' and 'bad guys' in the Ellroy universe), but isn't afraid to full-out slap you in the face with the morbid reality of homicidal behavior & political subterfuge on such a scale that you utterly believe that what you are reading REALLY happened.

If you've never encountered an Ellroy novel before then this is a good place to start: read slow at first to absorb the gargon - flip back to re-read certain passages every now and then so that you grasp everything that's going on, it will be worth the effort I assure you.
Ellroy's prose is more 'standard', not as staccato as he was from the 90's onwards, which doesn't detract from the authentic reading experience that is typical Ellroy but just makes it a more suited novel for those who are new to his writing.

The second book in the 'LA quartet' including The Black Dahlia, LA Confidential, and White Jazz. They dont have to be read in order, but you might as well because once you've read one you will want to read the rest.
The Big Nowhere centres around the search for a particularly gruesome serial killer, but as in all of Ellroys books, there are sub-plots and stories running parralel which cris-cross each other. 1950's LA brought to life seen from its degenerate underbelly looking up.
Modern Chandler/Hammett with a unique style, not for the faint hearted.
cant recomend highly enough.

I read The Black Dahlia first and thoroughly enjoyed it, but was not disappointed with this book, far from it. The storyline had me hooked from the start, the characters are so vivid, they stay with you long after you have put the book down. A very enjoyable book on a few different levels, a great read. I'm going to try L.A. Confidential next...

I won't bother doing a synopsis, as this book is just too complex. I will say though, if you are squeamish stay away, this book is so hard, if you bit it, you'd break your teeth. It begins with the gruesone discovery of a body, covered with bite marks, and a gelatinous substance oozing from where the eyes were. This murder appears to have nothing whatsover to do with the Communist witch hunts that are taking place elsewhere, but as it unravels expect many surprises, as 3 cops becomed embroiled in a mystery so complex, it will tie your brain in knots figuring it out. A real classic.