American Tabloid

Members of the Senior Book Club were delighted to welcome NFP as our Guest Speaker recently. He opened the discussion with a brief introduction to the reclusive lifestyle of James Ellroy, whose pessimistic view of humanity pervades the novels. Exploring the ‘seedy underbelly’ of American society, ostensibly the novel charts the events leading to the assassination of JF Kennedy. However, this is not a ‘whodunnit’ by any means, providing instead Ellroy’s perspective on the events of the period. Rather, Ellroy explores the propensity for seemingly disparate historical events to feed off each other. Significantly, the novel concludes, not in Dallas, as one might expect, but in Miami, with the failed attempt on the life of the president. This, then, is a novel that explores how and why certain events take place; whether through a sense of determinism or mere chance and opportunity.

Ellroy’s choice of title for the novel was a particular source of debate and NFP drew attention to the fact that the style of the novel’s prose emulated that of American tabloids at the time. Whilst some critics feel that the excerpts of historical documentation included in the novel jars with its style, the group tended to feel that such excerpts were helpful in lending historical accuracy to the plot-line. The title also picks up on the novel’s themes: the merging of the public and private, the voyeuristic tendencies of the characters and the sensationalist attitudes towards drugs and violence interwoven throughout the text.

Significantly, then, this appears to be a novel in which there is precious little hope for humanity. There is no obvious hero. Although the characters each have worthy traits, these are often overridden by the more heinous flaws within the human psyche. Not, then, Book Club’s most uplifting choice of text, but certainly one which made us re-evaluate just what it is that motivates an individual.