LA's Reviews > American Tabloid

This is a LONG read, loaded with umpteen characters and written in choppy, gumshoe detective language. The basic run down -this is a chronologically presented story of three characters who played a role in the eventual assassination of JFK.

My curiosity about Jimmy Hoffa, Howard Hughes, J Edgar Hoover, the Mafia, the Cubans, and the government are what kept me reading, but the language and content was very much a throwback (read offensive). Here were lots of babes and their booberage, very violent murders, sex acts staged and secretly taped, derogatory terms for any minority you can think of, and JFK acting like a complete sex addict. Jimmy Hoffa, we learned, liked to slaughter sharks with a machine gun, reserving a baseball bat with spikes for close-up work. Howard Hughes was an incredible dope fiend who hated the Kennedys. Old Joe Kennedy, the former bootlegger, was involved in highly illegal dealings which ripped off working class families but made him a bundle - all while his sons were in DC.

The brick-hard tone and chipped little sentences are exactly in the style of writing in old tabloid newspapers in the late 50s and early 60s - the book feels authentic, but I confess to feeling frustrated during the middle section of this big thing.

If you like JFK conspiracy tales and can handle this very old fashioned noir language AND the book's length, go for it. Ellroy also wrote The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential, o if you enjoyed the movie adaptations, this too might be up your alley. My enjoyment was a 3.5 but will bump to 4 just for the style.