As I was driving into work this morning and listening to my favorite radio station, an interview with author James Ellroy came on.

Now, I do enjoy reading crime novels, so was immediately captured by the subject of the interview. I was, however, totally unprepared for what came out of my speakers.

Ellroy’s presence literally erupted from the radio, diminishing my own character with the strength of his. Reading his words on paper  gives you no sense of this man’s strong aura. I cannot imagine sharing a room with him for any length of time.

It became apparent that Steve Inskeep, the interviewer, had his hands full with Mr. Ellroy. To Inskeep’s credit, he managed (barely) to stay on top of the interview.

Ellroy’s writing style may be more (or less) than the casual reader can follow. The excerpts of his novel “Blood’s A Rover” show him to write in staccato sentences that often aren’t complete. No adherent to proper grammar or sentence structure is Ellroy.

Taking his description of the outline to heart, this novel is compacted with information; no page should be skimmed over or the reader is likely to miss out.  A nearly 400 page outline is nothing to be fooled with.

Ellroy is self described as a history re-imaginer. He lived through the ’60’s in a haze of drugs but the rich history of the age seeped into his soul and is now emerging as these imaginitive twists on what we perceive to be the events of the time.

From peeping-tom-to-private-eye main character Don Crutchfield (who is supposedly modeled after a real Hollywood PI) to Wayne Tedrow Junior who turns diet pills into hard drugs and kills for the fun of it we are exposed to some raunchy people. But in the end, it’s a come-to-Jesus experience or so says Ellroy.

Read more about this amazing author at NPR.org.

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