The Black Dahlia

This post is a little delayed, as I finished The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy in the middle of this week. However, I feel that keeping a reading log is an important part of remembering who I am. Reading books (fiction mostly, but I always appreciate the non-fiction reads I finish) as a huge part of my life. I also do a lot of travelling for my AmeriCorps job, so I go through books rather quickly (Last year i read over 30 books and the majority of them were read AFTER I started working in September) and thus, would like to remember my thoughts on each one. Now, I do have a goodreads account-so if you have one too, you should look it up!

Now, I decided to read The Black Dahlia mostly at random. I am working on Peter Boxall's 1001 fiction books you must read before you die (I'm at 3%!) Now, my experiences with his list have been mixed. I appreciate the quality of each work he has picked, however, if you are going through memorable, couldn't put it down books I would not recommend his list. Instead, I would use themillions.com or just the kindle list to see what popular America is up too. Anyways, I had mixed reviews about Ellroy's book. To summarize, the book is a crime drama in which two cops get mixed up in a homicide investigation involving this woman, Betty Short. Betty's last few months of her life have been particularly interesting and full of semi-illegal sex situations in Hollywoodland, Los Angeles. The book follows the cop, Bucky Bleichert (who was also a wrestler) as he grapples with this murder and the people that surround him in the moment.

This is the book, but not the exact cover. 

Alright, now for the review. Ellroy really attempts to follow Bleichert's stream of consciousness and actions. At times, this makes for a super exciting book! Other times, I was lost and confused. Situations would happen and defuse so fast, I had to go back and re-read parts. I also did not appreciate all the 'macho-ness'. I felt like it was such a cliche. However, I assume that is just because I am not really a fan of crime fiction and chose this book on a whim. You will never hear me call 'shopaholic goes to the mall' fiction a cliche, because I could read that all day :). I also read Ellroy's afterword to the book that he added in 2006 (if you are going to read the book, get the one with the afterword!) Apparently, Ellroy has a personal connection with the murder story and that made the book like 100x more interesting. I am assuming this is because it's easy to shake off the gruesome details and the horribleness of the murder in the first place when the book was fiction and the characters at time seemed so manly and cliche. However, once you can ascribe a personal connection to the tale, the book suddenly seems plausible and emotionally charged, which made it more interesting to me!

Now, I am on to my next novel-11/22/63 by Stephen King. It's a whopping 850 or so pages, so it will probably take a while to read. However, I hope to update on that soon!

Rachel