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L.A. Confidential
 
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L.A. Confidential (Paperback)

by James Ellroy (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 21.95
Price: CDN$ 16.02 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Description

From Amazon.com

James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential is film-noir crime fiction akin to Chinatown, Hollywood Babylon, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Jim Thompson. It's about three tortured souls in the 1950s L.A.P.D.: Ed Exley, the clean-cut cop who lives shivering in the shadow of his dad, a legendary cop in the same department; Jack Vincennes, a cop who advises a Police Squad- like TV show and busts movie stars for payoffs from sleazy Hush-Hush magazine; and Bud White, a detective haunted by the sight of his dad murdering his mom.

Ellroy himself was traumatized as a boy by his party-animal mother's murder. (See his memoir My Dark Places for the whole sordid story.) So it is clear that Bud is partly autobiographical. But Exley, whose shiny reputation conceals a dark secret, and Vincennes, who goes showbiz with a vengeance, reflect parts of Ellroy, too.

L.A. Confidential holds enough plots for two or three books: the cops chase stolen gangland heroin through a landscape littered with not-always-innocent corpses while succumbing to sexy sirens who have been surgically resculpted to resemble movie stars; a vile developer--based (unfairly) on Walt Disney-- schemes to make big bucks off Moochie Mouse; and the cops compete with the crooks to see who can be more corrupt and violent. Ellroy's hardboiled prose is so compressed that some of his rat-a-tat paragraphs are hard to follow. You have to read with attention as intense as his—and that is very intense indeed. But he richly rewards the effort. He may not be as deep and literary as Chandler, but he belongs on the same top-level shelf.

From Publishers Weekly

Ellroy's ninth novel, set in 1950s Los Angeles, kicks off with a shoot-out between a rogue ex-cop and a band of gangsters fronted by a crooked police lieutenant. Close on the heels of this scene comes a jarring Christmas Day precinct house riot, in which drunk and rampaging cops viciously beat up a group of jailed Mexican hoodlums. But, as readers will quickly learn, these sudden sprees of violence, laced with evidence of police corruption, are only teasers for the grisly events and pathos that follow this intricate police procedural. Picking up where The Black Dahlia and The Big Nowhere left off, the book tracks the intertwining paths of the three flawed and ambitious cops who emerge from the "Bloody Christmas" affair. Dope peddling, prostitution, and other risky business are revealed as the tightly wound plot untangles. Ellroy's disdain for Hollywood tinsel is evident at every turn; even the most noble of the characters here are relentlessly sleazy. But their grueling, sometimes maniacal schemes make a compelling read for the stout of heart.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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L.A. Confidential
82% buy the item featured on this page:
L.A. Confidential 4.5 out of 5 stars (93)
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Customer Reviews

93 Reviews
5 star:
 (64)
4 star:
 (19)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (93 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars The darkness steps lightly, Jan 16 2007
In L.A. Confidential, James Ellroy has concocted a darkness that permeates every chapter of the story. This darkness is both oppressing and liberating, it is suffocatingly lethal yet embraces with a soft velvet touch, it tosses and turns in tormented souls or lies dormant in troubled minds. This darkness blurs the line between good and bad, conceals the past and distorts the present, and provides a backdrop that places in the limelight, the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles in the 1950s, the glowing light of the Nite Owl, the gaudy neon signs, the golden curls and satin gown of Veronica Lake look-a-like, Lynn Bracken.

James Ellroy's razor sharp wit carries the plot at a quick pace with his fragmented style of writing. The short sentences and omission of unnecessary words sets the tone of the story; there is no place for dilly-dallying in the cutthroat world of cops and robbers. The fragments are smart, vague and perfectly timed, often leaving the reader to figure out what is on the character's mind. Ellroy is somehow able to achieve elegant flow and continuity with curt sentences and short chapters.

Ellroy balances the graphic violence portrayed in the story with the subtlety of the storyline. He draws pictures of dramatic characters, in speech and gesture and in their actions. Yet, the story he spins is full of subtle twists and turns and you may be lost if you are not careful. The author likes to tease the reader by dropping clues long before the resolution, as if to say, "I dare you to figure it out." For example, we are introduced to David Mertens in one of the first chapters, long before we are able to perceive his significance in the novel.

Originally attracted to the book because the movie remains one of my favorites, I found that the movie does the book justice. Rarely has the book-to-movie conversion succeeded in capturing the essence of the book. The only other example I can think of is The English Patient. However, I must say that my image of the book was influenced by the performances of Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey as well as the other outstanding members of the cast.

L.A. Confidential is a masterpiece on the workings of the human mind. The complexity of the characters makes it impossible to discern between good and evil. There is dedicated cop who resorts to extreme physical violence, the goody-two-shoes cop who will do anything for advancement, and the ex-hooker with a heart of gold. The finely interwoven web means that their fates are all intricately linked. Everyone is haunted by their ghosts, everyone has a history, and no one lives with a clear conscience.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Noir saga with mythic journey at its heart, Feb 4 2004
By Penelope Schmitt (Wilmington, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It's a spider web. It's a labyrinth, and the minotaur at its heart is both a psychotic murderer and the central selves of its three main characters. As a surface read, this novel is a stellar exemplar of the noir California genre. The Los Angeles it conjures up is both a nightmare and a reality (Johnny Stompanato, the gangster lover of Lana Turner, is a character, and his murder by Turner's daughter provides a final knife-twist in the plot). Ellroy's dark city exhibits more seething, foul vice crawling over itself than I have ever encountered between the covers of one book. Yet it turns out to be about the ultimate redemption, or at least coming to terms with self, of the three primary characters. Ed Exley, a privileged son whose apparently burnished war record is a sham; Jack Vincennes, whose weakness for pills and booze has led him into a shameful error he can't shake; and Bud White, who is trying to overcome his powerlessness to prevent his mother's brutal murder by finding wife-beaters and rapists and punishing them all to a bloody pulp. This trio of damaged and damaging cops all converge on an insanely ramified late night slaying at the Nite Owl cafe. It lines to prostitution, drugs, plastic surgery as a racket, harder than hard-core porn, organized crime, blackmail, extortion, and a host of petty and major criminals both inside the LAPD and outside. Ultimately, though, the lines go way further back by 35 years, to a series of child murders done to create a grotesque little eros--a thing composed of the wings of birds and parts of children. This horrific image should tip you off--you are in the presence of something more epic and mythic than mere noir. What these policemen are searching for and combating is the destruction of innocence and love--their own innocence and ability to love as well as the long-dead children. Ultimately, despite distrust, rivalry and even hatred, they combine forces and experience to untangle the whole ghastly mess. Vincennes dies redeemed by full confession to his loving wife, Bud pushes through tremendous temptations to succumb to Neanderthal violence to actually use his mind to fight evil, and Exley confronts his own and his father's secrets. The psychotic murderer at the root of it all proves to have been the kind of monster we keep inside ourselves--repeatedly altered by plastic surgery and imperfectly controlled by drugs, he keeps destroying until he is unmasked and dis-enabled. Finally--this IS a noir novel--the consciously wicked man remains standing, and powerful, at the close. Read it if you can. It's a hell of a trip to redemption.
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4.0 out of 5 stars The underside of 50's Los Angeles, Aug 16 2003
By Michael Dea (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential is a facinating look at Los Angeles in the 50's as seen through the intertwining stories of three LAPD cops. Plot and style are very much in the hard-boiled tradition. However Ellroy's clipped narrative style takes a bit of getting used to. As good as the book is, this is one of the few instances where the movie is better than the film. Mainly because the plot in the movie is much tighter and the ending more satisfying.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Still Reccomending yet a bit dissapointing...
"L.A Confidential" is the perhaps the most famous novel in Hollywood, L.A noir mystery writer James Ellory's career. Lisez davantage
Published on Aug 11 2003 by Taisei Fuma

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!
I've just finished "The Big Nowhere" (the book before "L.A. Confidential") and it's a marvelous read! But "L.A. Con" is still the GREATER book, in my opinion. Lisez davantage
Published on Jun 7 2003 by anna-joelle

5.0 out of 5 stars Sergeant Edmund J. Exley
In the MOVIE adaptation, the character of Bud White, the "thug"-cop who is only half-intelligent (in detective work, I mean) and prefers "speaking" with his fists, is given... Lisez davantage
Published on April 20 2003 by anna-joelle

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic and Exhilirating!!
James Ellroy is likely America's best active crime fiction writer. In his dark and disturbing vision of Los Angeles in the 40's and 50's the bad guys are pretty bad, but the cops... Lisez davantage
Published on Jan 12 2003 by James R. Mckinley

5.0 out of 5 stars dark and disturbing
More than any other writer since Jim Thompson and the early Greats (Chandler, Hammett, Cain), Ellroy is able to create a dark and disturbing world all his own. Lisez davantage
Published on Dec 12 2002 by David Group

5.0 out of 5 stars Tough as nails and well worth my time
LA Confidential begins as hardboiled as a book has ever begun. It's Los Angeles in the early 1950s with plenty of organized crime and questionable police tactics. Lisez davantage
Published on Nov 1 2002 by Thomas Stamper

5.0 out of 5 stars A Staggering Piece of Crime Fiction
Jame's Ellroy's "LA Confidential" is a remarkable book. Most people know of it only by it's excellent film adaptation. Lisez davantage
Published on Oct 31 2002 by Patrick A. Hayden

5.0 out of 5 stars Really like it
I read this straight after closing the covers on The Big Nowhere, and liked it just as much. The malevolent presence of Dudley Smith is omnipresent - even when he's not in a... Lisez davantage
Published on Sep 12 2002 by saliero

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent crime novel
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL is a great novel in its own right. In it, the reader will find an intriguing tale that is intricately woven. Lisez davantage
Published on July 19 2002 by Brandon T.

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite living author
I believe that this is THE greatest crime fiction book ever written and when I met Ellroy I told him so. Lisez davantage
Published on July 6 2002 by Marc Clapp

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