James Ellroy - White Jazz

White Jazz ends James Ellroy's LA Quartet series, of which I've read three (White jazz/the big nowhere/LA Confidential). Of the books I've read by Ellroy, White Jazz is by far the most experimental. Comprising the stream-of-consciousness of a ruthless cop & ruthless hitman, Dave Klein, it is not always an easy read, but it's rewarding if you stick with it, despite momentous incomprehensibility. I'm hardly a big admirer of crime fiction. Ellroy's novels are not mainly interesting in a whodunnit-way. They are fascinating because of the worlds they evoke. The blood-splashed, sin-indulging LA of the fifties, in this case. Cops/politicians/prostitutes/mob men/drug dealers/Hollywood folks - in James Ellroy's LA, their paths intersect in a throbbing mishmash of corruption, greed and survival. White Jazz is all dense text. Fragments of dialogue. Great dialogue. Tons of characters. Plots that make up a sinewy tangle where ends might meet (or not).
Most of all White Jazz prides in its style. Ellroy's use with words is shimmering, pulsating, disintegrating. White Jazz is a nightmare, impressionist almost-dream state of mind. Dave Klein's story starts off like this, and it might give you an idea of the style:

The job: take down a bookie mill, let the press in - get some ink to compete with the flight probe. Some fruit sweating a sodomy beef snitched: fourteen phones, a race wire. Exley's memo said show some force, squeeze the witnesses at the hotel later - find out what the Feds had planned. In person: 'If things get untoward, don't let the reporters take pictures. You're an attorney, Lieutenant. Remember how clean Bob Gallauder likes his cases.' I hate Exley. Exley thinks I bought law school with bribe money. I said four men, shotguns, Junior Stemmons as co-boss. Exley: 'Jackets and ties; this will end up on TV. And no stray bullets - you're working for me, not Mickey Cohen. Someday I'll shove a bribe list down his throat.

White Jazz is about many things. Rivalries within the police department. Rivalries in the world of crime. And then it is also about obsession, memory and inner demons. Dave Klein is an asshole, doing what he can to survive, dealing with whomever will grant him profits/a moment of security/who will not snitch on him. And then I haven't said anything about his relation to women. Classic Ellroy territory.

White jazz is to be adapted to the big screen. Great news - I hope. It will be interesting to see if the more "experimental" aspect of the novel will have any impact on the movie (for some reason, I doubt it). The list of actors has been revised many times as there seems to have been lots of problems all through the production process. But dammit, Nick Nolte as Dave Klein would have been perfect (George Clooney - no way.)