The Cold Six Thousand

You have to experience these books. No one can tell you what it is like to read them.

Is it literature? I think not, the repetitive style, the lack of descriptions, the frankly non existant characterisation, the way key events hang at the end of sentances and moves on. We know next to nothing about what motivates these characters and why they are doing the things they do.

Is it Fiction? Possibly, but it is an alternative take on 60s america, following on from American Tabloid, and the death of the 1st kennedy. There are the usual conspiracies and people doing things that have been rumoured over the years.

The book concentrates on the aftermath of JFK killing. Jack Ruby, Bobby Kennendy, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffer, Hoover, Nixon, LBJ, Vietnam, race relations are all given the same treatments as in the first book.

All that has happened in this book is that we have moved from 58-63 to 63-68.

The book is near impossible to read as a standard work of fiction. However, there is something that drags you forward but I would say that you need to have real dedication to finish it. I cannot see how anyone can enjoy it.

Complex, annoying, interesting, unique.

Bloods a rover next and then that it is it for Ellroy.

So detailed I re-felt all the awful emotions of the MLK and RFK assassinations. Dark and brutal, this story weaves dozens of political and pop celebs into intrigue, blackmail, wiretapping, CIA "wet work" and good ole gumshoe muscle.

In a book where so much happens, it can be a bit boring. Endless violence, endless disparagement of women, blacks and gays, endless corruption. Despite Ellroy's rapid-fire pace, this book is almost seven hundred pages of noir and nothing else.

You knew the first book was leading to the death of JFK which was interesting as you tried to fit how the pieces would come together in the end. This sequel is much more about the evolution of the characters, and the larger events (RFK, MLK) seem secondary and don't carry the plot as much.

So with a bit less compelling overarching narrative, you're stuck with a bunch of terribly unlikeable people doing bad things to bad people. It's told well, but it feels like a lesser retread of the first book's themes, only this time with more racism.

This volume of James Ellroy’s alternate and hysterical history of the Sixties, stretches from the aftermath of the JFK assassination right up to the death of RFK. That was obviously a turbulent period in American history and it’s not surprising that this book at times feels rushed, as if trying to unpack too much at once. Which in a way is odd, as it also feels at points more style over substance. All of Ellroy’s various literary ticks are given full reign in this volume, to the level that someone not previously inured would probably get remarkably irritated.

Picking up where we left off at the end of ‘American Tabloid’ we’re again with Ward Littell and Pete Bondurant as they make their way through the seamy underbelly of Sixties USA. (Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover and a host of others are also along for the ride.) A new protagonist is added to the central troika, in the form of Wayne Tedrow Jr., who falls further into hate than most. His presence is one of the major flaws in this book, as he isn’t really a character more a collection of anxieties, grudges and murderous impulses. He’s therefore not an easy person to spend page after page with. And since we’ve already seen most of the idealism scraped away from Littell and Bondurant in the previous book, ‘The Cold Six Thousand’ often seems like unpleasant people doing unpleasant things again and again and again.

It’s not an out and out bad book, as Ellroy is far too good a writer to produce something that could be described as awful. But it is a truly misanthropic novel – written by a man who seemingly never saw a hero who didn’t have feet of clay – and substantially flawed by its own bombast.

Well, that’s these two re-read, I will get hold of ‘Blood’s a Rover’ for the first time shortly.

10/2 reread review - 4/5

Had the opportunity to listen to the full text narrated by Craig Wesson and it was a treat. It doesn't fundamentally change my opinion about the book, but you always catch new things with a reread, and being able to hear the excellent narration only enhanced the atmosphere. What's good is still good, and what drags still drags (Vietnam, unneeded!).

It's still the dog at his most frazzled, fried and frappéd, but when it lands, it lands goooooooood.



Original review

Masterpieces are difficult to top, but there's always elements that will survive .

Ellroy's second book in the Underworld trilogy loses steam, but instead gives us an incredibly vivid portrait of corruption, racism, and how petty grudges can turn the tide of History.

Starting in Dallas hours after JFK's ventilation, The Cold Six Thousand clocks a steady course throughout the middle period of the 1960s and ends with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy.

Dig, Ellroy really making good on his desire to show that the corruption spreads out from more than just LA. We get Mormon Mafia intrigue with Howard Hughes in Vegas, CIA heroin operations in Laos and even a couple revenge raids into Cuba for good measure

Dig, Freddy Otash being a fairly major character who is directly responsible for the events of 1968.

Dig, Pete B and his arc. The man deserved his ending.

Don't dig, the pacing. The book is just shy of 700 pages and could have frankly used a bit of an edit to remove maybe a hundred or so of them. It's all very moody, well-written and enjoyable, but there comes a point where we need to stop worrying about what's happening with random racists caught on FBI wire tap and get back to the main plot and conspiracy.

That would be my main complaint of the book as well. It just needed to dial in a little bit more and give us a little bit more of a focused picture instead of the grander one it delivered.

Quite frankly, the entire Vietnam sub plot probably could have been dropped. It feels like there had to be a Vietnam thread since the book takes place over the worst years of the war.

Elroy also tightened the language back up to LA Confidential levels. Makes sense, since he has a lot of ground to cover over the 5 years the book takes place. I really enjoyed how American Tabloid found the perfect balance between brevity and detail, and was disappointed that he leashed it back up for this one. I was able to get used to it by page 40 or so, but those first couple chapters were learning experience.

However, when it hits, it hits. The nuggets of the conspiracy that are teased out, the pain of seeing the novels antagonists plan out what they are doing while the main characters can only stumble into the traps they make. It's very tense at times and Ellroy is still a master of tone and language. There is a lot to read, but at no point does the quality dip.

Overall, it's not nearly as good as American tabloid, but considering American tabloid is probably the man's best work, it's understandable that it falls short. Definitely worth reading, just don't mind the ponderous pacing and let yourself get fully immersed in the mood of the 1960s underbelly.

Similarly to White Jazz, this is Elroy’s staccato prose on steroids. It always takes around 100 pages to get used to. The sentences are Spartan, often a few words, but as with all his other novels I’ve read, when the plot really kicks into gear, it’s as engrossing as any crime fiction available. An American tragedy plays out twice infront of our eyes and the late 1960s are portrayed as perhaps the most tumultuous period in American history

Tried very hard but couldn't finish this one (on vacation, no less). Much more fragmented and hard to digest than the brilliant American Tabloid. Has been on hiatus for almost 2 years now. Reminds me of White Jazz, and not in a good way. Heard mixed things about Blood's A Rover, but not in the mood to try it anytime soon.

Maybe you can, but I can't read a book consisting of three and four word sentences. I made it through perhaps fifteen pages. Here's a sample from page one, with no editing or deleting sentences between: "Kill that coon. Do it good. Take our hit fee. The flight ran smooth. A stew served drinks. She saw his gun. She played up. She asked dumb questions." I bought the book after reading Time magazine's critic rave review. Here's my dumb question: "Why he say that?"