Hollywood Nocturnes
by James Ellroy
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Nobody plays accordion like Dick Contino. His skilled fingers can find beauty in even the schmaltziest borscht belt favorites, and with his matinee-idol looks he could be a real star. Right now, though, he's slumming it as the headliner in a Grade Z teenybopper picture called Daddy-O. He's too good for this movie, and finishing it is going to take him to a very dark place. Daddy-O and Dick Contino are both real, their stories dredged out of the past by James Ellroy, a master of historical show more crime fiction. In Dick Contino's Blues he takes us to B-List Hollywood in 1957-a time when movies were cheerful and dirty secrets lurked just off camera. Included along with the novella are five short stories, all in the author's inimitable tough-bitten style. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Probably really a two star book, but gave it an extra star on the off chance that I just wasn't in the right mood when I read it. If you've never read Ellroy before, I would not recommend this as your starting point. The stories did have a nice, pulpy feel to them, but I think short stories just are not his strength. Also, I don't really understand the title of the collection--fabulous title, but none of the stories with the possible exception of the final seemed to match what the title led me to expect.
All the stories were predictable. But, I don't read Ellroy for his novelty.
The exception was 'Gravy Train'. The humor was unexpected and the ending was great.
The exception was 'Gravy Train'. The humor was unexpected and the ending was great.
Ashamed to say, that this was my first foray into the dark world of Ellroy. It won't be the last. Not all the stories are classics (some could be left out altogether) and without a reread I would be hard pushed to name a favourite. If, like me, you're yet to read the long acclaimed master of L. A. Noir, this is as good as any place to start.
A la deriva en el brumoso Hollywood de los ciencuenta, Dick Contino, un acordeonista prácticamente acabado, trata de dar un empujón a su carrera perpetrando un secuestro perfecto: el suyo propio. La historia de Contino abre este fantástico libro compuesto por seis relatos ambientados entre 1947 y 1959. Es en Los Ángeles de los cicuenta, una ciudad poblada por policías, criminales, prostitutas, estafadores, cazatalentos en busca de estrellas, rateros, comunistas ocultos y chivatos que traen a la mente películas en blanco y negro y amarillistas gacetas de sucesos.
Jan 2, 2011Spanish
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Author Information
95+ Works 30,953 Members
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L. A. Quartet novels - "The Black Dahlia", "The Big Nowhere", "L. A. Confidential", & "White Jazz" - were international best-sellers. His novel "American Tabloid" was Time magazine's Novel of the Year for 1995; his memoir, "My Dark Places", was a "Time" Best Book of the Year & a "New Yorker Times" show more Notable Book for 1996. He lives in Kansas City. (Publisher Provided) James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles, California on March 4, 1948. His parents were divorced and he moved in with his father after his mother was murdered in 1958. The story of his mother's unsolved murder would become the basis for his 1996 nonfiction work entitled My Dark Places. He attended Fairfax High School, where he sent Nazi pamphlets to girls he liked and criticized JFK, while advocating the reinstatement of slavery. He was eventually expelled for preaching Nazism in his English class. He joined the army after his expulsion from school, but after realizing that he did not belong there, he faked a stutter and convinced the army psychologist that he was not mentally fit for combat. After three months, he received a dishonorable discharge and returned home. His father died soon thereafter. He was thrown in juvenile hall for stealing a steak from the local market. When he got out, his father's friend became his guardian, but by the age of eighteen, he was back on the streets. He was sleeping outside, stealing, drinking and experimenting with drugs. It wasn't long before he was thrown in jail for breaking into a vacant apartment. When he got out of jail, he started a job at an adult book store, his addictions growing progressively larger. He was misusing the drug Benzedrex, a sinus inhalent which nearly drove him to Schizophrenia and his drinking was ruining his health. He contracted pneumonia twice as well as a condition called post-alchohol brain syndrome. Fearing for his sanity, he joined AA, became sober and found a job as a golf caddy. At the age of 30, he wrote his first novel entitled Brown's Requiem, which was published in 1981. His other works include Clandestine, Blood on the Moon, Because the Night, Suicide Hill, Killer on the Road, and The Cold Six Thousand. His works The Black Dahlia and L. A. Confidential were adapted into feature films. Ellroy's title, Perfidia, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2014. 030i show less
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Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Hollywood Nocturnes
- Original title
- Hollywood Nocturnes
- Original publication date
- 1994
- People/Characters
- Dick Contino; Lee Blanchard
- Important places
- California, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA
- Dedication
- To Alan Marks
- Original language
- Inglese; English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 614
- Popularity
- 47,288
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.30)
- Languages
- 6 — English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 21
- ASINs
- 9
