American Tabloid is a book that works with the – maybe – most mysterious and hectic political period of America, between late fifties and mid sixties. That means the rising of the Kennedy dynasty, the Cuban revolution, the fight against organized crime and the role in all these of the FBI, the
mafia, the Kou Klux Klan. Through this labyrinthine scenery, many first class and well known people pass before our reading. The patriarch Joseph and his promising sons John and Robert Kennedy, the ambiguous and dominant J.E. Hoover, famous crime bosses like Sam Giancana and Carlos Marchello, the dubious syndicate man Jimmy Hoffa, the “aviator” Howard Hughes. Along with them, appears a range of fiction characters starring though in very realistic episodes. CIA and FBI current and former agents, ex law enforcements, lawyers, and many secondary members of the underworld: blackmailers, “entertainers”, bodyguards, and so on. All these people get involved in an endless conspiracy game including face offs, the overthrow of Castro regime, drug dealing and money laundering and finally the
assassination of JFK. Ellroy’s writing grabs you by the throat from the first page. His style is anything but formal, looking more as recorded dialogues. The paragraphs and the sentences are awkward small but help the rapid plot to roll out easily. The bombing with information,
facts, and gossips from a first perspective may confuse, however, on a total examination they rather provoke our eagerness and agog. There are no moral issues,
good and bad guys, or classic love
stories. Nevertheless, Ellroy’s characters seem to act perfectly natural in a corrupted, fatal and irreversible environment. The whole book has clear no intention to lecture. The finishing of it leaves no space for optimistic thoughts, hopes and other humanitarian values. Ellroy in any case has declared his disapproval of ethologic and customary way of writing like Raymond Chandler’s detective stories (the
hard but good cop, the bad crook, the fatal girl, etc). However, some of the author’s efforts could be undermined by reasonable doubts from the
readers. The usage of existing persons and hypothetic documents creates disbelief about the resemblance to true facts. In this way the book could be dismissed as another fiction detective story. Ellroy attempts to overcome this using all means: harsh language, brutal reality, extreme level of detailing and describing of everything. Despite the belief that every worthy book should interest both of the genders, the hard scenes and the overcomplicated political backstairs could tire or even keep away women readers. Same thing could happen as well to everyone who will take this book for another film noir story. A minimum knowledge of the described era, or a least interest in politics and conspiracy theories is a useful prerequisite that will fit the reader quickly into the air of the book. In a different case though, the exhausted and unstoppable rhythm of Ellroy will certainly do the job.
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