Going where Oliver Stone fears to tread, James Ellroy takes another giant

leap above his “crime novelist” label with his latest book, American

Tabloid. Ellroy sets out to “demythologize” the Kennedy era and

“embrace bad men and the price they paid to secretly define their time.” He

succeeds in this attempt with chilling results.

The heroes of this book are three Ellroy-style bad men. Kemper Boyd is an

FBI car thief who infiltrates Bobby Kennedy’s McClellan Commission for J.

Edgar Hoover. Along the way, he picks up work on the side from the CIA and

the mafia. Ward Littell is an actual honest FBI man, dreaming of busting

the mob but stuck on pointless “Commie detail.” Pete Bondurant is a

free-lance mob enforcer and personal assistant to megalomaniac millionaire

Howard Hughes.

The lives of these men weave together as they come to hate, trust, aid and

deceive each other through the years before the Kennedy assassination.

Their careers grow, collapse and grow again in the world of wire taps,

strategic murders and carefully placed lies.

Ellroy’s world is full of 1950s macho violence. The patriarchal system is

in full effect. Any obsession, desire or ideal is a weakness to the men

pulling the strings in this hidden-power driven society. Redemption is

possible only through strength, and strength comes at the expense of many

traditionally-revered ideals.

It’s an ugly world, but it becomes vital and poetic in Ellroy’s hands. As

in his last novel, White Jazz, he has mastered a blunt, no-nonsense

style of prose, moving in its stark, straightforward exposure of the story.

His sentences have no fat– they throw out short, sharp images that pummel

the reader with vivid images. The language cuts through the complexity of

the story and grabs the imagination. There is no escape from the rushing

tide of events, for either the characters or the reader.

Most impressive is that Ellroy accomplishes this novel of rude, violent

beauty in the current era of politically correct egg-shell walking. He

doesn’t shy away from currently-feared “bad words.” He shows bad men for

what they are, and in their own language.

Did I mention I liked the book a lot?