I've been working my way though the latest Jame Ellroy Blood is a Rover. It's long, it's complex, and it's puzzling, all things that I like in a novel. I also like his style, the stripped down language, the crazy titled unfair world. It's filled with damaged people driven by guilt, fear, hunger and primal needs to scream at a chaotic world. I love that his writing makes me think in the same patter and that I can hear the voice of the charceters in my head, the only other writer who has done that in the last couple of years is Megan Abbot (who's latest is hovering around the top of my TBR pile).
In a lot of ways I am taking my time and savoring the book, it's been eight years since his last and I fear that it will be at least another five before we see fiction from him again. Sure I wish that he would come up with a Hard Case Crime style 200 pager, but I don't know how likely that is.
Anyway, one of the reading commitments I have made this year is to read at least one Donald Westlake novel each month, and as I watch the days of august fall away I am finding my time cut short for the month, and have decided to take a break from Rover and read The Mourner by Richard Stark (a Westlake A.K.A. for those not in the know).
1 comment:
I've only read two Ellroy novels. MY DARK PLACES was one of the scarier books I've ever read. He's like an adrenalin rush and I'm too tired for it.
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