Le Quatuor de Los Angeles, tome 3 : L.A. Confidential

French language

Published Oct. 14, 1997

ISBN:
978-2-7436-0268-0
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4 stars (1 review)

L.A. Confidential (1990) is a neo-noir novel by James Ellroy and the third of his L.A. Quartet series. It is dedicated to Mary Doherty Ellroy. The epigraph is "A glory that costs everything and means nothing"—Steve Erickson.

7 editions

enjoyed the reread but...

4 stars

This is a reread, after reading it a long time ago probably after watching the movie, which I remember more vividly, but I also recall I liked the book a lot and that was the beginning of many Ellroy reads. I've had trouble getting through his more recent works because they seem like racist drug-addled streams of consciousness, but I found going back to LA Confidential that it felt more structured and the characters more accessible, although there's no shortage of racist patter (I wouldn't like to hear the audiobook). I was relieved to still enjoy this reread but now that I'm older I find the casual racist (and homophobic) dialogue and narrative more uncomfortable and can't help but wonder if it's a bit self-indulgent.

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