James Ellroy

One of my favourite authors is James Ellroy.

He's American. He writes detective and political noir like you wouldn't believe - unless you have read some of it.

Although he mixes history and fiction in a way that makes it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, he lays America open like a bleeding wound. His novels have some of the most sordid dialogue and action I've ever read, yet there is a strong sense of personal morality throughout.

If you have never read Ellroy then your brain is a virgin. Sorry... his work is that amazing.

He is also an interesting subject in interviews. Before I go out and buy his new novel Blood's A Rover, I thought I'd share some of his answers in an interview about how he wrote it, because they're hysterical:

" Yes, it’s been eight years since my novel, The Cold Six Thousand. I was that long between books for a variety of reasons, all of which are determining factors in the Beethovian greatness of Blood’s A Rover. One, my marriage had to go in the shitter–as I rigorously held on to the friendship of my beloved ex-wife and most astute critic, Helen Knode. Helen convinced me to write a more emotionally and stylistically accessible novel–one that plumbed the murky recesses of my tortured, tender and perverted heart!!! Two, I had to become deeply embroiled with the transcendent woman, Joan, who re-taught me American history from the ground up. Three, I made a conscious decision to write an entirely different kind of novel–one that explored spiritual and political conversion on an all-new level, while, of course, adhering to readily identifiable and identifiably groovy Ellroy shit!!! "

" I met Crutch in ‘99, dug his wheelman/P.I. spiel and impulsively co-opted him to the book. It was a smart, instinctive move on my part–because Crutch hipped me to a world I did not know existed, and his relative youth in 1968 played in perfectly to my dramatic design: DIPSHIT KID AS SECRET VOICE OF AMERICAN HISTORY!!!!!!!!! "

"...for years now, I haven’t read fiction, I just lay around in the dark, brooding, listening to Beethoven and waiting for women to call me on the phone. I’m a genius!!!!! I’m sui generis!!!!! I’d be insufferable if I wasn’t such a sweet-natured and groovy guy. "

" I have never understood where I got the Demon Dog moniker. Maybe it’s because I chase cats, wear designer flea collars, drink toilet water, bay at moons, and urinate to mark my turf."

There's more where that came from on the net....