So, the final volume of Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy is out. I'm not reading any reviews of it. Anyone have it yet?
A profile/interview for the new book:
A profile/interview for the new book:
Ellroy’s latest novel, the final installment in a trilogy about U.S. history in and around the Kennedy presidency, might have been easier to construct if he had done research on a computer (which he doesn’t own), picked up tips from other historical novels (which he doesn’t read) and settled for a breezy, economical tale, the kind that can be digested on a plane ride to Cleveland, instead of a 691-page doorstop with more characters than a Cecil B. DeMille epic and language that might shock a rapper.
But that’s not Ellroy. He needs to struggle. He needs to sweat, even if that means dedicating eight months to a 397-page outline before the writing process even begins. If the reader has to do the same, that’s just fine with him.
“You cannot write a book this big, this coherent, without superstructure,” he said. “It’s part of the dynamic of reading an Ellroy novel. You have to think. You have to come to the books with a clear head. I would rather that you read the book in fewer rather than many sittings because that approximates the obsessive state I was in when I wrote the book.”
Most days, he awakens at 5 a.m. after just three or four hours of sleep, pours himself a cup of coffee — the first of eight for the day — and mixes up a bowl of oatmeal. He’ll sit at his desk, surrounded by memorabilia from past books, and, with a black-ink pen, write in block letters on legal paper. He never moves on to the next sentence until the last one is perfect. Even then, he’ll pore over the draft with red ink in hand. When he’s finally satisfied, an assistant types it up (Ellroy never learned to use a typewriter) and Ellroy once again attacks the project with his red pen.
Mix in the occasional break for exercising in the bedroom or brooding in the living room, and you have a painstaking approach that Ellroy imagines might have been applied by Beethoven, whose portrait hangs in the living room aside black-and-white 1940s-era photos of his L.A. neighborhood. The painting, the only flash of color in his art collection, presents the composer as a burly brawler who could just as easily be the cover boy for a romance paperback.
“I aspire to be him,” said Ellroy, who ignores popular music. “He was fiercely determined.”
Rover reflects Ellroy’s aspirations of creating a memorable symphonic work with its four-act structure, recurring themes, powerful motifs and sense of rhythm. “I want to see an epic. I hate minimalism. I like grandeur. I like the arc of big lies. These are big people with big ideas.”
But that’s not Ellroy. He needs to struggle. He needs to sweat, even if that means dedicating eight months to a 397-page outline before the writing process even begins. If the reader has to do the same, that’s just fine with him.
“You cannot write a book this big, this coherent, without superstructure,” he said. “It’s part of the dynamic of reading an Ellroy novel. You have to think. You have to come to the books with a clear head. I would rather that you read the book in fewer rather than many sittings because that approximates the obsessive state I was in when I wrote the book.”
Most days, he awakens at 5 a.m. after just three or four hours of sleep, pours himself a cup of coffee — the first of eight for the day — and mixes up a bowl of oatmeal. He’ll sit at his desk, surrounded by memorabilia from past books, and, with a black-ink pen, write in block letters on legal paper. He never moves on to the next sentence until the last one is perfect. Even then, he’ll pore over the draft with red ink in hand. When he’s finally satisfied, an assistant types it up (Ellroy never learned to use a typewriter) and Ellroy once again attacks the project with his red pen.
Mix in the occasional break for exercising in the bedroom or brooding in the living room, and you have a painstaking approach that Ellroy imagines might have been applied by Beethoven, whose portrait hangs in the living room aside black-and-white 1940s-era photos of his L.A. neighborhood. The painting, the only flash of color in his art collection, presents the composer as a burly brawler who could just as easily be the cover boy for a romance paperback.
“I aspire to be him,” said Ellroy, who ignores popular music. “He was fiercely determined.”
Rover reflects Ellroy’s aspirations of creating a memorable symphonic work with its four-act structure, recurring themes, powerful motifs and sense of rhythm. “I want to see an epic. I hate minimalism. I like grandeur. I like the arc of big lies. These are big people with big ideas.”
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