Ever since I discovered James Ellroy, his particular and signature writing style, and his world, I've never stopped telling myself that reading his work is like swimming naked in a glass of whisky on the rocks — it's good, it's pleasant, it's powerful. You get high, you want to stay there for hours and hours, you want to spend the rest of your life there. You are overwhelmed with a sense of freedom.

And that's how I felt when I read THE COLD SIX THOUSAND — the second part of the UNDERWORLD USA trilogy, preceded by the huge, legendary and mythical AMERICAN TABLOID.

950 — or rather, 951 pages of pure happiness, of an endless journey in post-Kennedy America, in an America prey to despair and panic, which has seen its idol, its young and handsome President, tragically assassinated. 951 pages of an Ellroy who perfectly masters his pen, History with a capital H, and who takes a malicious pleasure in mixing it with fiction, so much so that the readers find themselves lost in wondering if this or that event really took place and unfolded as described.

In this intense second instalment, we meet again our two favourite sidekicks from the previous volume — Ward J. Littel and Pierre "Pete" Bondurant. A newcomer enters the scene : Wayne Tedrow Jr.

As for the first of the trio, Ward Littel seeks repentance after having hurt and betrayed (in a way) RFK and will venture for 5 years to repair his mistake. Through his encounter with Arden-Jane Bruvick Breen Fentress (aka the real femme fatale of the book) — forgive my clumsiness, this woman has a number of identities that I no longer know in what order they are arranged — he seems to find a second life, a new lease of life, and then everything falls apart. He finds himself trapped, bruised, wandering in a fog all day long in search of answers and explanations. Ward is particularly symbolic, moving, we immediately feel affection for this big guy and we pray inside that he finds peace and can breathe again... Of the three characters, he is the one who is the best developed, who has the best background and the best story. And the end of his rocky adventure, full of twists and turns, brings tears to our eyes, so predictable is it, but we still had a little hope that he would make it.

Pete Bondurant, my favourite — for the record, I so enjoy saying his name out loud to make it sound like a dense, complex entity — Pete Bondurant with gallons of blood on his hands, Pete Bondurant in love, Pete Bondurant snuggled up with his redheaded wife Barb. I cannot properly explain his journey as it is so full of twists and turns. What can be said is that Pete arrives, and it has to be said, at the end of the road. He's tired and he's constantly rehashing the past. He puts himself at the service of the Mafia — represented by the famous Sam Gianncanna, Carlos Marcello, John Rosselli, Moe Dalitz —, carries out missions and "dirty jobs" for them, and watches them foment, finance and set up the most famous coups in history (the assassinations of JFK and RFK, the Vietnam war, Las Vegas) without ever getting its hands dirty.

All these events will get the better of him. And his wife, Barbara Jahelka Lindscott Bondurant (B.B, as I like to call her, like Brigitte Bardot, B.B), will make him understand it. She poses as a voice of reason, as an Ellroyan goddess. Like Bassinger in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, she is in charge of her sulphurous and scarred hero's redemption — and this, Pete will be forced to accept.

And the last one. Wayne Tedrow Junior. Son of the legendary Wayne Tedrow Senior. He is a 29 year old young man (at the beginning of the book) who tries to get out of his father's overwhelming shadow to make a name for himself. We are directly thrown into their complex relationship, which teeters between love, admiration and hatred, and we can easily guess (in a way) — but are not really sure — how it will end. His journey is brilliantly conducted and plotted, and we always look forward to what happens next.

All the other great characters are also there, each one equally complex and interesting. Dwight Holly (a newcomer), J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

The text is raw, simple and cold. We shriek with disgust at the racism and hatred towards the Communists present in the book, too, according to James Ellroy, « reflect the violence of that time ». And I can only say one thing : it is brilliantly done. The author recapitulates the events of TABLOID, recalls who did what, who killed whom, how this or that event took place, making the reading of the first volume almost — and I mean almost — dispensable. But I still recommend it, as the book is excellent and — yes, I'm saying it — perfect (on absolutely every point).

THE COLD SIX THOUSAND is defined by the word "betrayal", which defines the relationship between the different characters. Barbara Jahelka Lindscott Bondurant betrays Pete, her husband, by taking drugs ; Pete Bondurant betrays his wife by pursuing his criminal affairs and by his failing heart ; Ward Littel betrays J. Edgar Hoover by funding MLK, AACES, and supporting RFK ; J. Edgar Hoover betrays Ward Littel by having him watched, tapped and trapped ; Wayne Jr. betrays his father by sleeping with Janice ; Wayne Senior betrays — or rather, uses — his son by manipulating him into committing dirty covert operations ; John Stanton and the Mafia betray Pete Bondurant by embezzling money from their criminal activities in Vietnam and Cuba ; Arden-Jane Bruvick Breen Fentress betrays Ward Littel by spying on him. I could go on for hours as this pattern is so perfectly executed.

What I really didn't like about this second volume was the absence of some very important characters. Bobby Kennedy, LBJ and Howard Hughes — they're there, I would have liked more, but they're there anyway. They're there without being there, and that's a shame. I would have loved Bobby to have the same level of presence in this book as he had in AMERICAN TABLOID, I would have loved LBJ to be as present as JFK was in AMERICAN TABLOID, and I would have liked so much to follow Howard Hughes as he took over Las Vegas and turned into a blood-drinking Earl Dracula — I so wish he could have been as present in this book as he was in AMERICAN TABLOID. I was particularly looking forward to this second book for that, and I was very disappointed.

But besides that, I have to say one thing : Ellroy is brilliant ! We travelled between Vietnam and the hell of its war, Las Vegas, Dallas, Cuba, Washington, Los Angeles, and many other places throughout the book — I finished the book in a daze. What the hell, it was good and I'm still in it !

I have a feeling I'll be rereading AMERICAN TABLOID, because it's my favourite of the trilogy and I'm very keen to see JFK again. So I give THE COLD SIX THOUSAND a 4 out of 5 — it's very good, but not as good as its predecessor.

La lettura di Sei pezzi da mille è stata accompagnata dalla visione delle sei stagioni de I Soprano. Che trip, ragazzi.

The Cold Six Thousand picks up from where American Tabloid left off: immediately following John F. Kennedy's assassination. The broad sweep of history continues through the book - Cuba, Castro, MLK, RFK, Howard Hughes in Vegas, the Mob, J. Edgar Hoover and any number of Hollywood figures - are dissected and dramatised. The book takes us from JFK to RFK on one long death trip - with plenty of scalps on the way.

As ever, research and descriptiveness is vibrant and larger-than-life. There's a combination of staccato jive and verisimilitude which evokes a real sense of place. But this instalment contrasts Big History with smaller stories. Fathers and sons. Hitmen and victims. And love stories - whether they're between showgirls and killers, lawyers and Kennedys or Hoover and chaos. It seems altogether more nuanced than American Tabloid, and the little touches serve to flesh the experience out fully.

Ellroy's gift with this book - aside from the recreation of era, which is standard in his works - is that he presents truly despicable people in such a way that you can't help but love them. There's a sense the author has real affection for his characters - the racist Klan fucks, the mannered, deadly Hoover... they're the result of so much work you can feel the writer's pride in his creation.

For me, this shone through with the figure of Pete Bondurant: he is one cold motherfucker. He does terrible things. He exercises a freakish will - killing, maiming, torturing - but you can't help but like him. There's an element of "yay, bad guy!" at play but it's offset by how bad enjoying his head-kickings makes you feel. Conflicted doesn't begin to cover it.

The book is definitely hard going at times. Not that it's difficult to read - if powers along - but it's a cruel work, much more cruel than American Tabloid, the first in the trilogy. There's a rapaciousness at work that's insidious and almost all-encompassing. It's a real world of shit, of dark deals and cabals within cabals. It's dirty, wet work. In The Hilliker Curse Ellroy mentions how his disintegrating relationship (and mental state) contributed to the obnoxious tone of parts of the work.

But stick around for the ending. It rockets along with a mix of historical death, relationship breakdown and some of the most satisfying revenge you'll find. The cruelty pays dividends boocoo.

I really struggled through this one. I really enjoyed American Tabloid, but this was a but too much for me. The last 100 pages or so made it worth reading to the end, but at one point I thought I was going to just quit reading it. I read this right after reading American Tabloid, and I do want to finish the trilogy, but I am taking a break from Ellroy for awhile.

I think all the hate was really what got to me in this one. It was also more violent, so the hate and the violence made it a lot harder to read.

Hoping I enjoy Bloods a Rover a bit more.

La prima volta che fatico, ma tanto tanto, a finire un Ellroy, e non a causa del contenuto. Va bene sperimentare, ma senza sintassi si va oltre il grado zero del romanzo.

Read it if:
* You enjoy lengthy books and sprawling sagas
* You love thrillers that keep you on edge
* You want to be swept into a whirlwind of hidden truths, power struggles, key figures of 1960s America, and intricate triple-crossing schemes

Don’t read it if:
* You prefer simpler stories without too many details or an overwhelming cast of characters
* You dislike dark, unsettling atmospheres with little hope or faith in the future
* You disliked the first volume of the saga

Why 4 stars:
- [ ] Theme: 5 (The book’s theme is incredibly compelling because the author has fictionalized the historical events that unfolded between the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the deaths of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., which occurred just months apart. This novel weaves together real historical figures, including those responsible for the assassinations of these iconic leaders. It also features powerful figures such as the head of the FBI, Howard Hughes, key CIA operatives, and even well-known entertainers and real-life investigators. However, the spies in the story are entirely fictional, engaging in intricate webs of triple and quadruple-crossing intrigue)
- [ ] Plot: 3 (The novel has the feel of a spy thriller with a splatter twist, packed with power plays that are as strategic as they are ruthless. It delves into the grand schemes of espionage while also exploring the daily operations of petty crime that sustain them. This gives the reader a full-spectrum view of the criminal underworld, from high-stakes intelligence warfare to the gritty mechanics of street-level corruption)
- [ ] Characters: 4 (I really like the characters. There are two main operatives returning from the first book, along with a third newcomer. Though they aren’t exactly spies, they’re more like underworld fixers—navigating the murky waters between organized crime, the FBI, and powerful private figures like Jimmy Hoffa and Howard Hughes. They engage in constant double, triple, and quadruple-crossing, making their allegiances as fluid as the world they operate in. I find them fascinating, not just because of their skills but also because they have their own vulnerabilities—they’re not just hardened criminals. That said, I was disappointed that one of the key characters from the first book is gone, having died at the end of that story. By the end of the book, it becomes clear that these characters are merely pawns in a much larger scheme. The revelation is genuinely surprising, as even their own ambitions and desires turn out to have been manipulated for hidden, undisclosed purposes)
- [ ] Fun/adventure/surprise: 4 (I had a fantastic time reading this book—it was genuinely entertaining. There are plenty of thrilling adventures, but what I loved the most was the historical setting, which is by far its greatest strength. The only drawback is that, having read the first book, I already had a sense of the author’s structure for these massive, nearly thousand-page novels. That meant some twists felt predictable. Not everything, of course—there are still two or three solid surprises and a slightly different underlying message compared to the first book. However, some plotlines do feel a bit like copy-paste versions of what came before)
- [ ] Profoundness: 4 (The book has a surprising depth, as it explores the underlying sickness of our society—how everything ultimately revolves around money and power. Even as we recoil from certain dynamics, we’re still drawn to them, fascinated by the very forces we claim to reject. In this sense, the novel carries a powerful social critique. On top of that, its historical value is anything but negligible, making it an even more compelling read)
- [ ] Length of the book: 4 (The book’s length feels justified given everything it sets out to tell—it truly allows the reader to immerse themselves in the vibe and mood the author is crafting. Some details, while not strictly necessary for the plot, are essential for fully engaging with the story on a mental and psychological level. They help flesh out the characters, introduce key dynamics, and add depth to the narrative. For example, the Vietnam section felt overly drawn out. While reading, I kept wondering why it was given so much space. Only by the end does it become clear that its purpose is to help the reader understand the protagonists’ mindset)
- [ ] Language and style of writing: 3 (The writing style is highly innovative and intelligent. The author incorporates made-up newspaper articles, internal CIA memos, and FBI phone transcripts, making for a fascinating and dynamic reading experience. That said, it closely follows the structure of the first book. While this consistency makes sense given the type of novel it aims to be, I couldn’t help but find it a bit repetitive at times)

Fauvorite part
- [ ] It’s not a book to be loved, but one that commands respect. There’s no room for admiration of villains, wrongdoing, or violent revenge. However, the character of Ward Little evokes a certain sympathy for the risks he takes in attempting to undermine the plans of both the Mafia and the FBI

Least fauvorite part
- [ ] My least favorite part is when Otash meets Sirhan. The process of manipulating him into committing murder feels too rushed and underdeveloped. That said, given that we already know how the other two assassinations played out, I ultimately accepted it as part of the narrative

Ellroy writes. Short, clipped, fragment sentences. Guys do shit. Girls do shit. Many characters are similar. Style doesn't help. '63 -'68. The killing of John to the killing of Bobby. MLK, CIA, FBI. Hoover. Hughes. Vegas. 'Nam. The shit goes on for 670 pages. Is this a novel, or the notes for said novel? Ellroy did this to me with White Jazz. Didn't dig it as much as some of his other stuff. Lack of style. Or wrong style. Minimalism can lead to heavy hits. Big Impact. Or it can come off as absurd. Still I give three. Other Ellroy is better. Shit goes on for 670 pages. Still come away from all of this sketching with distinct impressions. Noir on meth. What's the point? There is a point but the style kills it.

As excited as I was to read Ellroy's American Tabloid, I found this sequel a bit disappointing. The story continues to follow several mercenaries, politicos, and downright nasty criminal types, as it moves from the JFK assassination in '63, through the assassinations of MLK and RFK in '68. There's a lot of hard-boiled crime and political manipulation stuff that's pretty interesting, as the three main characters try to eliminate anyone in the know about the JFK assassination. However, there are some elements that seem more to be digressions. All of the stuff about heroin trade in Vietnam (in order to fund anti-Castro loyalists in Cuba -- apparently) kind of took away my interest. Probably my biggest problem with the novel was the way it was written. American Tabloid used a quick, noirish, clipped style that made it a fun read. In The Cold Six Thousand, Ellroy takes that style to another level. It's a jazz, scat vocal, written style. Every sentence is simple (as opposed to compound or complex) in the narrative sections. The dialogue and document inserts are a welcome relief from that style. It's a staccato beat that is fun and interesting at the start, but grows old over the course of 600+ pages. The story is quite enjoyable, but the style unfortunately takes away from that enjoyment.

Is it just me or is this the choppiest Ellroy novel yet? While that clipped style worked very well for me in White Jazz and--to my astonishment--even better in American Tabloid, I found Cold Six to be straddling almost Dick and Jane-like syntactical territory so often, it is almost sinful--makes Hemingway look like Henry James.
Despite this griping, I found myself mesmerized by longish passages in the book which give me pause to wonder if we do not have an epic poem in crime-novel disguise on our hands in this series. I suppose Blood's a Rover will help me to decide.

Reading The Cold Six Thousand is a harrowing, sometimes traumatizing experience. In a July 2006 essay, James Ellroy wrote about how, while he finished writing the book, his life started to unravel: his marriage dissolved, anxiety consumed him and he fell back into addiction. The book feels like something that was written just ahead of a complete emotional breakdown. It's all conspiracies and double-crosses, the violence is frequent and horrifying, and the characters so paranoid that they’re mentally and physically exhausted by the end.

It’s a hard book to read, too, being familiar with the rest of Ellroy’s biography. His murdered mother, her never-identified assailant, and his misogynist father all have corollaries in the text. It’s hard to not read wish-fulfillment into a character who’s reunited with his long-lost mother, or the one who spends years searching for a serial killer of women and eventually torturing the guy to death, or the character who plots the murder of his toxic, hateful father.

The Cold Six Thousand starts like a rude slap in the face interrupting a deep sleep. We pick up where the preceding volume American Tabloid left off: November 22nd, 1963. JFK has just been shot in Dealey Plaza. We already know Pete Bondurant and Ward Littell and their involvement in the assassination, but a new man blows into town on the 22nd; Wayne Tedrow, Jr. Wayne works for the Las Vegas police department and is sent by the mob to Dallas to kill a pimp named Wendell Durfee for assaulting a dealer working at one of their Casinos. He's immediately sucked into the nightmarish criminal underworld of the '60s referred to by the characters as The Life and we follow him and the aforementioned Bondurant and Littell through the next five years and countless fucked up, labyrinthine criminal conspiracies.

The aforementioned conspiracies include but are not limited to Howard Hughes' takeover of Las Vegas and the mob's way of profiting from it, the start of a lucrative heroin trade in Vietnam using the war as cover, and the assassinations of public figures who threaten the Hughes-Mob-Hoover-CIA status quo like MLK and Bobby Kennedy. Of course, pulling these kinds of things off, in Ellroy's world at least, entails committing literally dozens of smaller accompanying crimes. B&Es, wiretapping, bugging and all types of coercion ranging from blackmail to gruesome torture are just tools of the trade. Fucked up murders are commonplace and dealt with cavalierly by characters who have become blasé about killing people. I know this sounds ridiculous when you're dealing with a dude like Ellroy but this has to be one of his heaviest, darkest books. The air of corruption and amorality is palpable and can become almost nauseating.

This is also notably longer than Tabloid at around 700 pages. The scope has expanded to a degree that whereas the first book in the trilogy felt more like a single globetrotting narrative this one almost feels like several separate but connected stories unfolding simultaneously; Dallas, Las Vegas, Vietnam, etc. I have to mention that I really loved the characters' exploits in Vietnam. The chaotic, destabilizing nature of the war really generates an awesome setting for the drug intrigue. That said, other than the major events of the time there is not a lot of period detail in the actual scenes in the book. Those looking for Ellroy's take on stuff like the architecture, fashion, music, etc. of the 60s will be sorely disappointed, which is understandable as he was really good with that shit in the L.A. Quartet stuff. This is mostly due to the incredibly blunt, staccato prose and focus on the propulsive plot.

I mentioned that prose thing earlier...and it has been the elephant in the room of the review so far. I'm sure I thought this about White Jazz, but this book is simultaneously the lofty zenith and self-parodic low point of Ellroy's style. The entire book (excepting the dialogue and the multiple inserts of bug transcriptions, newspaper headlines and communiques of all sorts) is written in an endless stream of clipped, blunt sentences that probably average three or four words. With regards to the style, the readers of this book probably fall into two groups: those who find the prose forced and over-the-top or a headache to read and those who dig it muchly. While I get those who are in the former group, I'm definitely in the latter (you probably guessed that from my rating, though.) Although it was incredibly challenging at first, soon I became kind of entranced by the prose and got sucked way into the story. I came to like the style so much it was actually hard to go back to non-psychotically obsessive styles of other writers.

For my money, this is probably the hardest, heaviest dose of Ellroy on the market. Even the Demon Dog himself admitted that he went too far out with the almost inaccessible style and apparently drew back on the reins for the following book. To me, that is a fucking amazing thing--James Ellroy out-Ellroy'd himself with the writing of The Cold Six Thousand. It's true that it's hard to become emotionally invested in a story about bad people doing bad shit and making history every step of the way, especially when that story is being told to you by a narrative voice that sounds like it's been up all night smoking meth--but why would you want to become emotionally invested in this shit? It's grippingly grim and callous enough without adding characters that AREN'T reprehensible human beings that you actually care for. That said, as dark as this is the moral of the story is clear as always; doing bad shit can get you places, but they're nowhere you'd really want to go.

America....America.....land of milk and honey. Forget about Cuba. That's old news. It's Vietnam baby. It's Saigon, Laos, poppy fields, heroin, Vietcong. Viva la causa. Drugs fund the cause. The cause drives The Outfit. The Outfit funds Vegas. Vegas makes millions. It's not enough. Cuba wasn't enough. Vietnam isn't enough. They want to move into Latin America. The CIA sees potential. The CIA fears communism. The CIA fears Ho Chi Minh.

Bobby Kennedy sits quietly in the background. He hasn't forgotten what The Outfit did to Jack. Martin Luther King continues to emerge. The south is furious. The south is Klan land. The Klan runs guns and hate. The Klan runs white supremacy. The Klan runs a buffer for the FBI to control King and the civil rights movement. The Klan has powerful friends. Hoover moves his pieces around. Hoover is a sadist. Hoover won't be usurped. Hoover hates King. Hoover hates Bobby Kennedy.

The Cold Six Thousand is an all-star cast. Sonny Liston sells muscle to the mob. Sal Mineo is prime blackmail material. Bobby Kennedy waits patiently for redemption. Martin Luther King is almost untouchable rising above Hoover's dirty games. Sirhan Sirhan is a deranged track hound and an alcoholic. James Earl Ray is hooked on meth and white supremacy.
This is America. This is The Life.