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James Ellroy, thinking machine

Scott Dickensheets

Wed, Oct 21, 2009 (5:32 p.m.)

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An Afternoon With James Ellroy
October 24, 2 p.m., free.
Clark County Library main theater
507-3400, lvccld.org

“There are greater writers out there, and more gifted writers,” James Ellroy told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “What I am is a thinking machine. I see myself as emblematic of extreme drive and ambition and focus.” In his novels—including his new one, Blood’s a Rover—Ellroy works his prose like a boxer on a speed bag: short, pummeling sentences, merciless momentum, frank brutality. But his isn’t gratuitous or faddish; he wasn’t kidding about that “thinking machine” business. He pours his hard, bleak worldview into large, intense books, vast social-historical panoramas that trace the soul-rot of mid-century America. “Big-ass, shit-kicking, profound books,” as he told RS. He should be a lot of fun live.

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