Just Finished Reading: White Jazz by James Ellroy

LA. 1958. The FBI have begun gathering information on sports gambling in the south of the city. When a prime witness commits suicide under suspicious circumstances whilst in protective custody suspicion naturally falls on the LAPD. When evidence is lost and witnesses are killed in apparent gang-related hits it becomes increasingly clear that a wide ranging turf war is being fought. The only surprising thing is that both sides in the conflict are the police. Right in the middle of things is Lieutenant Dave Klein, police officer, lawyer, slum landlord and hired mob gunman. Caught between the two opposing forces and manipulated by both he needs to understand what is happening around him just to stay breathing. In an effort to save his own life and that of his sister he must play both sides off against each other knowing that the consequences of failure are deadly – to everyone around him.

I struggled with the first 50 pages of this book. I generally find Ellroy a tough read but this was tougher that I expected. The problem was the writing style – not only the liberal use of late 50’s slang but the staccato sentences used, I imagine, to represent the main characters thought processes. Once I got the hang of the style I settled into a fairly easy, and occasionally fast, read. However, I cannot honestly say that I enjoyed this book. As my regular readers know only too well I do like characterisation almost above plot itself and although the characters in this novel are well drawn with fully formed internal lives, hopes and fears I could not find a single one of them I liked in the least. I failed to indentify with a single characteristic of a single character. That in itself is a rare event and one which I do not like. The plot was interesting enough and convoluted enough to be of more than passing interest but, I had no real investment in the characters who moved though it. My enjoyment of the book was, therefore, minimal. I must also warn those of a nervous or delicate disposition that this novel is heavily laden with homophobic, misogynistic and racist imagery. If you are in the least bit offended by such things I strongly advise you to avoid it. If you are made of sterner stuff then you might derive some pleasure from this work. I however derived very little.