Ben's Reviews > The Black Dahlia

Ellroy, heard enough about him recently? Another GR craze. I’ve been putting off this review for two weeks now, and honestly, I still don’t want to write it. The thing is, while I only enjoyed this to an “OK” level, I really can understand the commotion surrounding the guy. He wrote this with great insight and intensity; it has a brilliantly complex storyline, and it is very well executed. The web of connections are aplenty, it has a ferocious acuteness to it, and there was a period of time during my reading when I was enthralled, flipping through the pages at a rapid-fire pace. For this short period of time I couldn’t put it down; it felt much like a thriller. But I couldn't keep my focus. Too many quick, concrete details. Not enough depth. Not for me.

And of course Ellroy the man, the persona, is fascinating. I wish I had his balls, his level of testosterone, his blunt but articulate, poignant way with words. His passion and intensity. (There’s that word again, but you can’t avoid it with him: Ellroy = intensity.)

And he is more than a genre writer-- one need only look to this novel’s boxing scene, or think about some of its overriding principles of chaos, corruption, and selfishness to see this. If you’re into crime, noir, detective, or mystery novels, you’re crazy not to try this. I couldn’t help but notice that most of my GR friends liked it, giving it four or five stars-- but most of them had it on a genre-related shelf. In other words, they were probably predisposed to liking it, probably having read and enjoyed other books that display similar themes. And yet, the average rating for this book from all of those on GR is 3.54: that’s pretty low compared to most books, and I think it says something about the chances of you liking this. And yet again!!!--- one need only read Montambo’s review of My Dark Places to see that you could still like Ellroy’s stuff without digging any of the genres he fits into (or transcends).

So I can’t say that you won’t like The Black Dahlia if you’re not into any of those genres, but I’d also say that you’re more likely to, if you are. And it bears repeating that his writing does go beyond any simple, narrow, genre-related category.

But, me? I’m done with Ellroy. For me he fits into a group of writers that I realize are great, but I just the same, happen to not enjoy. Updike, Morrison, some of McCarthy; there’s a number of them out there, and I’m adding Ellroy to the list.

Cheers.