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ccil541's review against another edition
4.0
I don't think I knew quite what to say after reading this book. I read it about a month ago, and it's only now that I feel qualified to discuss it. It's such a complex web and it takes some parsing. It's not quite as labyrinthine as L.A. Confidential, but it's sufficiently complex that you need to take your time.
Ellroy's characters are always the best part of any of his book, and this is no exception. All three main characters - Mal Considine, Buzz Meeks, and the brilliant Danny Upshaw - are bastards. But they're the driven, obsessed kind of bastard that you encounter in all Ellroy's works, and you're entirely capable of liking any or all of them. Considine beats his wife - but will do absolutely anything to give his adopted son a good life. Meeks is a drunk and a bagman, running skeevy deals for Howard Hughes - but falls in love with a strong, smart woman and damn near gives up anything for love. And Upshaw, poor Upshaw, is a strikingly driven cop reminiscent of Ed Exley - except between his secrets and his conscience, Upshaw does things both good and bad that I don't think Exley would even contemplate. The twists and turns are both sympathetic and cynical; in one breath Ellroy lets the world eat a good man and laments his loss.
This book reads like a dry run for LAC - but it's vivid and engrossing enough to be amazing on its own. It's also the first time you see Ellroy's favorite villain, Sgt-at-the-time Dudley Smith. There is nothing sacred in The Big Nowhere, and that's the way an Ellroy book should be.
Ellroy's characters are always the best part of any of his book, and this is no exception. All three main characters - Mal Considine, Buzz Meeks, and the brilliant Danny Upshaw - are bastards. But they're the driven, obsessed kind of bastard that you encounter in all Ellroy's works, and you're entirely capable of liking any or all of them. Considine beats his wife - but will do absolutely anything to give his adopted son a good life. Meeks is a drunk and a bagman, running skeevy deals for Howard Hughes - but falls in love with a strong, smart woman and damn near gives up anything for love. And Upshaw, poor Upshaw, is a strikingly driven cop reminiscent of Ed Exley - except between his secrets and his conscience, Upshaw does things both good and bad that I don't think Exley would even contemplate. The twists and turns are both sympathetic and cynical; in one breath Ellroy lets the world eat a good man and laments his loss.
This book reads like a dry run for LAC - but it's vivid and engrossing enough to be amazing on its own. It's also the first time you see Ellroy's favorite villain, Sgt-at-the-time Dudley Smith. There is nothing sacred in The Big Nowhere, and that's the way an Ellroy book should be.
bb42's review against another edition
2.0
I really enjoyed Black Dahlia, especially as the familial dysfunction really kicked into warp-speed overdrive about 2/3 of the way through. This one didn't work for me nearly as well. The various plots seemed too contrived, the characters didn't resonate, and he withheld a lot of secrets until so far towards the end that I really didn't care about them by the time of the final reveal.
jeffmauch's review against another edition
4.0
Another nice piece of noir from a master. James Ellroy is a legend and basically crafted the gritty crime noir genre. The Big Nowhere starts slow, very slow, slow to the point that 40 pages in you're seriously questioning if you should just put it down, but then out of nowhere it all starts to come together. I had read other Ellroy novels in the past and knew to push through and I'm glad that I did. With The Big Nowhere you get the seedy, corrupted side of Los Angeles circa 1940s/1950s. It's told from a couple different characters and the chapters flip between them in first person. This is very confusing at first, but eventually it all comes together for you and becomes seamless. You have the perspectives of both police, criminals, and those that float somewhere in the middle. There's also a mix of murder as well as political crime to keep the story going from multiple angles. I can't speak enough of Ellroy's style in terms of period language and spot on descriptions of the attitudes of the era. I can't wait to dig into another of his works.
amelie_mackay's review against another edition
All things considered this is a good novel; I prefer it to The Black Dahlia and it had me gripped. I liked Danny’s character a lot, so much that I felt the whole narrative could have been made his. Yes, the other two men are important, but the homicide case was much more compelling than the communist witch hunt and that was solely Danny’s. I cared for Buzz less and less as the novel went on so by the end I did not care what happened to him. If the ending were different, he and Danny (and even Mal) could have been made the same person. So Danny being gay becomes this big thing in the novel… if Buzz is so endangered by his affair with Mickey Cohen’s woman, I do think we could have had Danny involved in a gay affair instead but whatever, I’m asking too much of a book written in the 80s.
As always James Ellroy definitely needs to cut out the slurs too— I get that it’s probably historically accurate to have that much casual hatred spewed but it could have been shown in different ways. (I’m curious to see if his more recent books are changed.)
I SHOULD have seen the ending coming, but it still upset me. Ellroy went for grittiness over justice (or just decency) once again.
As always James Ellroy definitely needs to cut out the slurs too— I get that it’s probably historically accurate to have that much casual hatred spewed but it could have been shown in different ways. (I’m curious to see if his more recent books are changed.)
I SHOULD have seen the ending coming, but it still upset me. Ellroy went for grittiness over justice (or just decency) once again.
kadomi's review against another edition
5.0
When I started this book, it took me quite a while to get into it. The L.A. of Ellroy's L.A. Quartet is a deeply gray world and none of the three protagonists of this novel jumps out to be a beloved protagonist. There's mysogyny, sexual violence, racism, homophobia. It's harsh.
But wow, when it grabs you, it runs away with you and never lets go.
The story starts on New Year's Eve, it's now 1950, and a gruesomely mutilated body is found in Griffith Park. Danny Upshaw is a young and highly motivated cop who investigates the murder, and just like the cop in Black Dahlia, gets obsessed with the case. Soon there are more mutilated bodies found, and it's obvious quite early on that the victims are homosexual men. As he investigates, Danny gets swept up with the other two protagonists. There's Mal Considine, a Lieutenant fighting for custody of his step-son, and Turner Meeks, the most corrupt cop, who works as a pimp and bodyguard for Micky Cohen and Howard Hughes. All three protagonists get to work on a possible grand jury to search out Communists in Hollywood. As it turns out, the communists are somehow involved in the murder case in unexpected ways.
By the end of it, I was devouring this book, even taking it along to work to read in my breaks. The sympathetic character turns out to be an unusual one in the end, and there is definitely no happy end in sight. At times it's a bitter pill to swallow, and I definitely need a lighter read next, but it did not disappoint me
4.5 stars
But wow, when it grabs you, it runs away with you and never lets go.
The story starts on New Year's Eve, it's now 1950, and a gruesomely mutilated body is found in Griffith Park. Danny Upshaw is a young and highly motivated cop who investigates the murder, and just like the cop in Black Dahlia, gets obsessed with the case. Soon there are more mutilated bodies found, and it's obvious quite early on that the victims are homosexual men. As he investigates, Danny gets swept up with the other two protagonists. There's Mal Considine, a Lieutenant fighting for custody of his step-son, and Turner Meeks, the most corrupt cop, who works as a pimp and bodyguard for Micky Cohen and Howard Hughes. All three protagonists get to work on a possible grand jury to search out Communists in Hollywood. As it turns out, the communists are somehow involved in the murder case in unexpected ways.
By the end of it, I was devouring this book, even taking it along to work to read in my breaks. The sympathetic character turns out to be an unusual one in the end, and there is definitely no happy end in sight. At times it's a bitter pill to swallow, and I definitely need a lighter read next, but it did not disappoint me
4.5 stars
arossp's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
imthechillalex's review against another edition
5.0
Big step up from Dahlia for me, which was already great. You can really get a sense of Ellroy starting to feel out his style and literary pet interests (particularly cop-machismo).
I think this really is one of the great post-war novels, not in the broader sense that it’s one of the great novels after WW2 but that it strikes a great position on the millieu of Post-WW2 America. That the quest for red baiting was unequivocally more evil than the communism they were trying to stop (and most “communism” the LAPD tries to snuff is any kind of activism to keep the rich and politicos happy). Essentially, this is a look at how fascism started bubbling right under the pristine surface. Coming over to the states, interpolating and fusing itself with Americana instead of being defeated in Germany.
I think if I were to make some objections, Ellroy’s handling of ethnicity and homosexuality at times is a bit glib— but it mostly resorts to these as a way to understand the headspace of these crooked, racist cops.
Who would have guessed the ending would have gotten me to actually feel a little bit of something for a scumbag like Buzz Meeks?
I think this really is one of the great post-war novels, not in the broader sense that it’s one of the great novels after WW2 but that it strikes a great position on the millieu of Post-WW2 America. That the quest for red baiting was unequivocally more evil than the communism they were trying to stop (and most “communism” the LAPD tries to snuff is any kind of activism to keep the rich and politicos happy). Essentially, this is a look at how fascism started bubbling right under the pristine surface. Coming over to the states, interpolating and fusing itself with Americana instead of being defeated in Germany.
I think if I were to make some objections, Ellroy’s handling of ethnicity and homosexuality at times is a bit glib— but it mostly resorts to these as a way to understand the headspace of these crooked, racist cops.
Who would have guessed the ending would have gotten me to actually feel a little bit of something for a scumbag like Buzz Meeks?
evie5120's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bossbg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
jackpumpkinhead's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Frequently boring for long stretches of UAES paranoia, but Upshaw is a great character to follow and Meeks grows on you. The murder case at the heart of the book is the best part, and it was a solid conclusion. I just can't act like I didn't have to force myself to read huge chunks of this, which was not a problem with Black Dahlia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Murder, Racism, and Hate crime