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Brown's Requiem
Fritz Brown's L.A.--and his life--are masses of contradictions, like stirring chorales sung for the dead. A less-than-spotless former cop with a drinking problem--a private eye-cum-repo man with a taste for great music--he has been known to wallow in the grime beneath the Hollywood glitter. But Fritz Brown's life is about to change, thanks to the appearance of a racist psycho who flashes too much cash for a golf caddie and who walked away clean from a multiple murder rap. Reopening this cas could be Fritz's redemption; his welcome back to a moral world and his path to a pure and perfect love. But to get there, he must make it through a grim, lightless place where evil has no national borders; where lies beget lies and death begets death; where there's little tolerance for Bach or Beethoven and deadly arson is a lesser mortal sin; and where a p.i.'s unhealthy interest in the past can turn beautiful music into funeral dirge.
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
113 people are currently reading
1148 people want to read
About the author
James Ellroy
138 books4,226 followersLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black Dahlia (1987) and L.A. Confidential (1990).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews
October 21, 2025
a genuinely brilliant debut novel despite any minor flaws. got a feeling i’ll be walking around the next little while not being able to think of anything else but ellroy’s fever dream of a novel.
a wholly mythic hard-boiled tale, intricately plotted to deliver right up to the last page. you can tell ellroy laboured over the outline and jam packed it before he wrote the actual manuscript.
a raw open nerve, hurt and full of anger at the unjust world, ‘brown’s requiem” is a minor masterpiece of the hard-boiled detective genre. i’m shocked it hasn’t been talked about more. sure it’s got a few unnecessary scenes early on, and ellroy is young and throwing in every idea he’s ever had, but it roars along like it has jet fuel in its tank.
a five star rating for me is about how much i enjoyed a novel and how much it got under my skin. i don’t worry about what others think, or if it’s an imperfect book, but rather how engaged i was by the story and storytelling. wether or not i can stop thinking about the piece. how much did it make my dopamine levels spike? did it get me seeing the world in a new way? how much did it affect me?
and here’s what i know about this book:
i’ll never forget my first read of brown’s requiem.
it left a dent in me.
a wholly mythic hard-boiled tale, intricately plotted to deliver right up to the last page. you can tell ellroy laboured over the outline and jam packed it before he wrote the actual manuscript.
a raw open nerve, hurt and full of anger at the unjust world, ‘brown’s requiem” is a minor masterpiece of the hard-boiled detective genre. i’m shocked it hasn’t been talked about more. sure it’s got a few unnecessary scenes early on, and ellroy is young and throwing in every idea he’s ever had, but it roars along like it has jet fuel in its tank.
a five star rating for me is about how much i enjoyed a novel and how much it got under my skin. i don’t worry about what others think, or if it’s an imperfect book, but rather how engaged i was by the story and storytelling. wether or not i can stop thinking about the piece. how much did it make my dopamine levels spike? did it get me seeing the world in a new way? how much did it affect me?
and here’s what i know about this book:
i’ll never forget my first read of brown’s requiem.
it left a dent in me.
March 24, 2020
Take a walk down sleazy street with Fritz Brown, disgraced former cop, now a repo man and low-rent private eye. A man whose morals are questionable in the extreme. An on-again-off-again drunkard who has a pure love of classical music. Don't get too excited, it would seem it is his only redeemable feature.
Down and dirty, rife with racial epithets, scumbags, and booze puke. I will label this as a cubic zirconia in the rough, with the occasional real diamond chip to be found. There is some good writing in there, even if you do have to go slumming to find it.
Down and dirty, rife with racial epithets, scumbags, and booze puke. I will label this as a cubic zirconia in the rough, with the occasional real diamond chip to be found. There is some good writing in there, even if you do have to go slumming to find it.
January 27, 2020
”I had wanted a way to express my sense of fair play and my love of beauty. I had wanted to crack wise and kick ass on those who deserved it. I had wanted to express a cynical, world-weary ethos tempered with compassion that women would eat up. I wanted low-level, uncomplicated power over other people’s lives. To be 6’3”, 200 pounds, with a blue uniform, a badge, and a gun seemed like a wonderful ego boost. The streets by day; Beethoven, booze, and women by night.
But I was a terrible policeman and an abuser of power. My dispensing of justice was arbitrary and dictated by mood, I ripped off dope dealers for their weed, smoked it myself, and congratulated myself on my enlightened stance in not busting them. I shook down prostitutes for quicky blow jobs in the back seats of squad cars. Whatever I touched in my search to assert, to be, turned bad.”
Needless to say, Fritz Brown was eventually booted off the force. Fortunately, he was incompetent at hiding his incompetenance, which probably stemmed from his constant state of inebriation. For being, as one girlfriend said, ”a sociopath with a gun,” he does have some interests that runs counter to the rest of his stereotypical life...he loves classical music, and he reads voraciously.
Potentially redeeming qualities. Is there a sensitive soul inside him somewhere to balance out his more brutish qualities?
There are always jobs for tough ex-cops, and he lands a job being a repo-man for one of the biggest car dealers in California. His life is summed up for him by a drunk barstool philosopher: ”You are a man of action and limited thought, the pragmatic diamond-in-the-rough intellect who rips off dumb negros for their Cadillacs, sold to them by the fascist vampire. The karmic consequences will one day become obvious: you are going to get royally fucked in the ass.” Brown is certainly a work in progress.
A guy by the name of Fat Dog Baker shows up and wants Brown to find out what is going on with his sister and her rich, much older, benefactor. The Hollywood script is that the benefactor is paying for cello lessons and schooling in exchange for some rubbing, sucking, and tugging, but Brown soon learns that everything is more complicated than what it appears to be.
And who doesn’t love a hot girl with a cello?
Brown shortly discovers that the man he is working for is so much more than just a concerned brother. Fat Dog is, in fact, in pure James Ellroy fashion, a grotesque and memorable figure. What was supposed to be a surveillance gig with low risk and high pay turns into a descent into corruption and terror worse than anything Brown encountered on the force. This case will lead him to Mexico and back with a trail of bodies oozing blood into the sand.
This is Ellroy’s first novel and is written with a lot less spastic splattering of beaten and battered words that have become the hallmark of his mature writing. There are certainly some cuts that could have been made to make the story zing with more zang, but at this point, it is kind of nice for fans of his work to see his insidious mind working before he slips from the handcuffs, snaps the leg chains, and pulls loose from the weighted guy ropes to write stuff that will blow his readers’ minds.
Hardboiled writing with grit flying at you with enough velocity to bloody your nose, blacken your eyes, and knock out a few teeth.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
But I was a terrible policeman and an abuser of power. My dispensing of justice was arbitrary and dictated by mood, I ripped off dope dealers for their weed, smoked it myself, and congratulated myself on my enlightened stance in not busting them. I shook down prostitutes for quicky blow jobs in the back seats of squad cars. Whatever I touched in my search to assert, to be, turned bad.”
Needless to say, Fritz Brown was eventually booted off the force. Fortunately, he was incompetent at hiding his incompetenance, which probably stemmed from his constant state of inebriation. For being, as one girlfriend said, ”a sociopath with a gun,” he does have some interests that runs counter to the rest of his stereotypical life...he loves classical music, and he reads voraciously.
Potentially redeeming qualities. Is there a sensitive soul inside him somewhere to balance out his more brutish qualities?
There are always jobs for tough ex-cops, and he lands a job being a repo-man for one of the biggest car dealers in California. His life is summed up for him by a drunk barstool philosopher: ”You are a man of action and limited thought, the pragmatic diamond-in-the-rough intellect who rips off dumb negros for their Cadillacs, sold to them by the fascist vampire. The karmic consequences will one day become obvious: you are going to get royally fucked in the ass.” Brown is certainly a work in progress.
A guy by the name of Fat Dog Baker shows up and wants Brown to find out what is going on with his sister and her rich, much older, benefactor. The Hollywood script is that the benefactor is paying for cello lessons and schooling in exchange for some rubbing, sucking, and tugging, but Brown soon learns that everything is more complicated than what it appears to be.
And who doesn’t love a hot girl with a cello?
Brown shortly discovers that the man he is working for is so much more than just a concerned brother. Fat Dog is, in fact, in pure James Ellroy fashion, a grotesque and memorable figure. What was supposed to be a surveillance gig with low risk and high pay turns into a descent into corruption and terror worse than anything Brown encountered on the force. This case will lead him to Mexico and back with a trail of bodies oozing blood into the sand.
This is Ellroy’s first novel and is written with a lot less spastic splattering of beaten and battered words that have become the hallmark of his mature writing. There are certainly some cuts that could have been made to make the story zing with more zang, but at this point, it is kind of nice for fans of his work to see his insidious mind working before he slips from the handcuffs, snaps the leg chains, and pulls loose from the weighted guy ropes to write stuff that will blow his readers’ minds.
Hardboiled writing with grit flying at you with enough velocity to bloody your nose, blacken your eyes, and knock out a few teeth.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
August 10, 2016
Θαύμασα ειλικρινά αυτόν τον ιδιόρρυθμο ντετέκτιβ,προσπάθησε παρά πολυ να ξεπεράσει τον ηδη κατεστραμμένο εαυτό του απο άποψη εθισμών σωματικών και ψυχικών! Αποφάσισε με όπλα του την διαίσθηση και την αγάπη για την κλασική μουσική να διαλευκάνει μόνος σχεδόν μια υπόθεση με πολλα άσχημα πάθη,ξεχασμένους δαίμονες,δυνατούς αντιπάλους,υπεράνω κάθε υποψίας και τα κατάφερε εν μέρει.
Αφενός,ξεκάθαρισε άψογα για καθαρά προσωπικούς λόγους κάποια ζητήματα παράτυπα βεβαια,κουκουλωμενα μεσα σε εκβιασμούς και ηθικά χρέη με πολυ έξυπνο και ευρηματικό τροπο βάζοντας αρκετές φορες την ίδια του τη ζωη σε κίνδυνο- μια ζωη βεβαια που ίσως ενδομυχα ο ίδιος θεωρούσε ξοφλημένη και χαμένη, βουλιαγμένη σε αλκοόλ και θλιβερές επιλογές πάσης φύσεως-και αψηφώντας ουσιαστικά την ίδια του την ύπαρξη που και θεωρητικά τον ειχα προδώσει.
Αφετέρου,απροσκλητη μπαίνει στην ιστορια η αγάπη του για μια κοπέλα που παίζει πρωταγωνιστικό ρόλο θύματος εν άγνοια της και παρολες τις φιλότιμες προσπάθειες που κατέβαλε δεν κατάφερε να τον αγαπήσει! Η αποτυχία αυτη τον κανει θλιβερά πιο δυνατό ,πιο ρεαλιστή ,πιο κυνικό και ενω εχει επιτευχθεί ο σκοπός για τον οποίο παλεύει ελεεινά σε όλο το βιβλιο αυτο ειναι το μελανό σημείο που θα τον σημαδέψει ανεξίτηλα ......για το υπόλοιπο της ζωής του.
Ο Μπραουν αγαπάει μοναδικά και αληθινά κατι που αφήνει απο την αρχη έως το τελος να εννοηθεί σε σχέση με ενα και μοναδικό φίλο που εχει.
Κανει όνειρα ομως χωρίς να αφήνει έστω μια διέξοδο,μια πόρτα ασφαλείας σε περίπτωση "πυρκαγιάς"
Το βιβλιο θα το χαρακτήριζα χαρισματικό,χωρίς βεβαίως να παραβλέψω την αναφορά μου στο ποσό με κούρασαν οι περιγραφές δρόμων,οδών,λεωφόρων,και μοντέλων αυτοκινήτων στο Λος Αντζελες και τριγύρω μιας πλούσιας ή παρηκμασμένης Αμερικής!
Αφενός,ξεκάθαρισε άψογα για καθαρά προσωπικούς λόγους κάποια ζητήματα παράτυπα βεβαια,κουκουλωμενα μεσα σε εκβιασμούς και ηθικά χρέη με πολυ έξυπνο και ευρηματικό τροπο βάζοντας αρκετές φορες την ίδια του τη ζωη σε κίνδυνο- μια ζωη βεβαια που ίσως ενδομυχα ο ίδιος θεωρούσε ξοφλημένη και χαμένη, βουλιαγμένη σε αλκοόλ και θλιβερές επιλογές πάσης φύσεως-και αψηφώντας ουσιαστικά την ίδια του την ύπαρξη που και θεωρητικά τον ειχα προδώσει.
Αφετέρου,απροσκλητη μπαίνει στην ιστορια η αγάπη του για μια κοπέλα που παίζει πρωταγωνιστικό ρόλο θύματος εν άγνοια της και παρολες τις φιλότιμες προσπάθειες που κατέβαλε δεν κατάφερε να τον αγαπήσει! Η αποτυχία αυτη τον κανει θλιβερά πιο δυνατό ,πιο ρεαλιστή ,πιο κυνικό και ενω εχει επιτευχθεί ο σκοπός για τον οποίο παλεύει ελεεινά σε όλο το βιβλιο αυτο ειναι το μελανό σημείο που θα τον σημαδέψει ανεξίτηλα ......για το υπόλοιπο της ζωής του.
Ο Μπραουν αγαπάει μοναδικά και αληθινά κατι που αφήνει απο την αρχη έως το τελος να εννοηθεί σε σχέση με ενα και μοναδικό φίλο που εχει.
Κανει όνειρα ομως χωρίς να αφήνει έστω μια διέξοδο,μια πόρτα ασφαλείας σε περίπτωση "πυρκαγιάς"
Το βιβλιο θα το χαρακτήριζα χαρισματικό,χωρίς βεβαίως να παραβλέψω την αναφορά μου στο ποσό με κούρασαν οι περιγραφές δρόμων,οδών,λεωφόρων,και μοντέλων αυτοκινήτων στο Λος Αντζελες και τριγύρω μιας πλούσιας ή παρηκμασμένης Αμερικής!
August 26, 2013
I love hard-boiled voices. Why? You might ask. Because I like seeing a dickhead get punched in the gullet and knocked on his keister. I take an absurdly sick pleasure in this scenario. Again, you might ask why. Well…because I have literally been an underdog my entire life. I might as well have a t-shirt with the mantra “Constantly Underestimated.” If it were a theme song, I’d sing the chorus, pound the drums, and lead the backup vocals. But I don’t mind. In fact, it’s great when the bar is set low enough that I can practically crawl over it, and I set my goals as high as a CEO, and somewhere in the middle, I come crashing through like a hurricane, to the point that I might as well have stunned my opponent with a Taser, stapled his head to the carpet, put a metal plate in his head, and fired up the microwave.
And that’s what a good hard-boiled novel does for me. I down a bottle of Jack, fire my Beretta at my flat screen, and then wait for the fuzz to show up at my door, so I can show those coppers a thing or two. And Fritz Brown certainly uses his .38 when the situation warrants it. The voice was hard enough that I might as well have been picking grit and grim out of my teeth with a chainsaw. I savored every minute of the journey. I was transported to a time where rebop and Daddy-O were common lingo, although both were used a bit too frequently for my liking. That’s the downside to slang: It doesn’t normally age well.
But that was a small price to pay for a story that had me digging my fingers into the sofa cushions and was filled with enough beautiful broads and dames to start a backup band. My personal favorites were Jane Baker and Kallie and Dori, all of whom packed more than enough feminine wiles to start a drunken riot with the right rowdy crowd. The men—Omar Gonzalez and Walter Curran and Richard Ralston—proved just as interesting and even more intimidating.
Every PI needs the right mode of transportation, and the Camaro served Fritz’s purposes well. Its heft and muscle popped off the pages and into my living room, the engine roaring louder than a mountain lion. Even brief interactions—Brothers Mark and Randy and Kevin and Bob and Sisters Julie and Carol—proved a nice respite from the heart of the action, and had me salivating at the fire pit, although the thought of gamey grilled dog nearly flipped my stomach.
If hard-boiled PIs and time warps are your forte, and you don’t mind early Ellroy where he’s still refining his craft, then you might find yourself enjoying the ride. Just make sure you hold on tight and occasionally squeeze your eyes shut.
I’d like to end with a monologue that has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to BROWN’S REQUIEM, that I stole off of Wikipedia, which they stole from The Evening Class. Other than being entirely entertaining, it serves no orthopedic function. James Ellroy often starts public appearances with a version of the following: “Good evening peepers, prowlers, pederasts, panty-sniffers, punks and pimps. I'm James Ellroy, the demon dog, the foul owl with the death growl, the white knight of the far right, and the slick trick with the donkey dick. I'm the author of 16 books, masterpieces all; they precede all my future masterpieces. These books will leave you reamed, steamed and drycleaned [sic], tie-dyed, swept to the side, true-blued, tattooed and bah fongooed [sic]. These are books for the whole fuckin' family, if the name of your family is Manson.”
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
And that’s what a good hard-boiled novel does for me. I down a bottle of Jack, fire my Beretta at my flat screen, and then wait for the fuzz to show up at my door, so I can show those coppers a thing or two. And Fritz Brown certainly uses his .38 when the situation warrants it. The voice was hard enough that I might as well have been picking grit and grim out of my teeth with a chainsaw. I savored every minute of the journey. I was transported to a time where rebop and Daddy-O were common lingo, although both were used a bit too frequently for my liking. That’s the downside to slang: It doesn’t normally age well.
But that was a small price to pay for a story that had me digging my fingers into the sofa cushions and was filled with enough beautiful broads and dames to start a backup band. My personal favorites were Jane Baker and Kallie and Dori, all of whom packed more than enough feminine wiles to start a drunken riot with the right rowdy crowd. The men—Omar Gonzalez and Walter Curran and Richard Ralston—proved just as interesting and even more intimidating.
Every PI needs the right mode of transportation, and the Camaro served Fritz’s purposes well. Its heft and muscle popped off the pages and into my living room, the engine roaring louder than a mountain lion. Even brief interactions—Brothers Mark and Randy and Kevin and Bob and Sisters Julie and Carol—proved a nice respite from the heart of the action, and had me salivating at the fire pit, although the thought of gamey grilled dog nearly flipped my stomach.
If hard-boiled PIs and time warps are your forte, and you don’t mind early Ellroy where he’s still refining his craft, then you might find yourself enjoying the ride. Just make sure you hold on tight and occasionally squeeze your eyes shut.
I’d like to end with a monologue that has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to BROWN’S REQUIEM, that I stole off of Wikipedia, which they stole from The Evening Class. Other than being entirely entertaining, it serves no orthopedic function. James Ellroy often starts public appearances with a version of the following: “Good evening peepers, prowlers, pederasts, panty-sniffers, punks and pimps. I'm James Ellroy, the demon dog, the foul owl with the death growl, the white knight of the far right, and the slick trick with the donkey dick. I'm the author of 16 books, masterpieces all; they precede all my future masterpieces. These books will leave you reamed, steamed and drycleaned [sic], tie-dyed, swept to the side, true-blued, tattooed and bah fongooed [sic]. These are books for the whole fuckin' family, if the name of your family is Manson.”
Cross-posted at Robert's Reads
September 26, 2016
Entertaining private eye shizz with the usual tropes. Fritz Brown is an alcoholic ex-cop with a sky high IQ, and a witty line in banter.
In the intro, the author does acknowledge his debt to Raymond Chandler, and says that after this book, he was moving away from "genrehack boulevard".
I am reading "The Big Nowhere" now, so I will let you know.
In the intro, the author does acknowledge his debt to Raymond Chandler, and says that after this book, he was moving away from "genrehack boulevard".
I am reading "The Big Nowhere" now, so I will let you know.
September 17, 2021
about a 3.7 rounded up; good, not great but whoa.
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/09/...
In the introduction to this edition of Brown's Requiem, Ellroy notes from the outset that he was "determined to write an autobiographical epic second to none," but he also realized that his life was "essentially an inward journey that would not lend itself all that well to fiction," which, based on his life as described in My Dark Places, is probably true. His response:
"I then ladled a big load of violent intrigue into my already simmering, tres personal plot -- and the result is the novel you are about to read."
This book is much more a PI novel than anything else he wrote (at least of the books I've read), a fact he makes known in his introduction where he says that this book is "heavily beholden" to Raymond Chandler. He also notes that he owes Chandler a "two-fold debt" -- for getting him going and showing him "that imitating him was a dead-end street on GenreHack Boulevard." The Chandler influence shows.
it's easy to see the first inklings of what to expect in Ellroy's future writings, especially Ellroy's penchant for writing novels that are dark with a capital D. In Brown's Requiem the prose is more tame, less zippy than in his LA Quartet but given that it's his first novel, you can see still detect faint strains of the originality of yet to come. It's interesting to go back and reread Ellroy from the start, especially knowing that the first book of his excellent LA Quartet would be published only six years later. Recommended for those so inclined, mainly people who've enjoyed Ellroy's books and know what to expect.
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/09/...
In the introduction to this edition of Brown's Requiem, Ellroy notes from the outset that he was "determined to write an autobiographical epic second to none," but he also realized that his life was "essentially an inward journey that would not lend itself all that well to fiction," which, based on his life as described in My Dark Places, is probably true. His response:
"I then ladled a big load of violent intrigue into my already simmering, tres personal plot -- and the result is the novel you are about to read."
This book is much more a PI novel than anything else he wrote (at least of the books I've read), a fact he makes known in his introduction where he says that this book is "heavily beholden" to Raymond Chandler. He also notes that he owes Chandler a "two-fold debt" -- for getting him going and showing him "that imitating him was a dead-end street on GenreHack Boulevard." The Chandler influence shows.
it's easy to see the first inklings of what to expect in Ellroy's future writings, especially Ellroy's penchant for writing novels that are dark with a capital D. In Brown's Requiem the prose is more tame, less zippy than in his LA Quartet but given that it's his first novel, you can see still detect faint strains of the originality of yet to come. It's interesting to go back and reread Ellroy from the start, especially knowing that the first book of his excellent LA Quartet would be published only six years later. Recommended for those so inclined, mainly people who've enjoyed Ellroy's books and know what to expect.
July 21, 2016
3.5*/5
Μην υποθέσετε ότι αυτό το βιβλίο είναι ένα πρωτόλειο έργο, μια απλή έναρξη της καριέρας ενός εκ των 2-3 κορυφαίων γραφιάδων στο κομμάτι της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας των ΗΠΑ. Ο Ellroy απ'αυτό το ντεμπούτο φαίνεται πως είχε ήδη βρει την ταυτότητα του, στυλιστικά αλλά και σε θέμα ρυθμού (ειδικά σε αυτό φυσάει) ακόμα κι αν η πλοκή είναι χοντροκομμένη σε σημεία.
Ας είναι όμως, ο συγγραφέας της Μαύρης Ντάλιας δείχνει τα δόντια του και το Ρέκβιεμ για τον Μπράουν, πέρα απ'την επίσημη έναρξη των καλοκαιρινών διακοπών μου, λειτούργησε κι ως ιδανικό επόμενο βήμα μετά το εξαιρετικό Κατά Μόνας που διάβαζα τον τελευταίο μήνα.
Note to self: Πρέπει να διαβάζω πιο συχνα Ellroy,έχω κλειδώσει στους Δρόμους του Δολοφόνου για επόμενο βήμα.
Καλό καλοκαίρΙ!!
Μην υποθέσετε ότι αυτό το βιβλίο είναι ένα πρωτόλειο έργο, μια απλή έναρξη της καριέρας ενός εκ των 2-3 κορυφαίων γραφιάδων στο κομμάτι της αστυνομικής λογοτεχνίας των ΗΠΑ. Ο Ellroy απ'αυτό το ντεμπούτο φαίνεται πως είχε ήδη βρει την ταυτότητα του, στυλιστικά αλλά και σε θέμα ρυθμού (ειδικά σε αυτό φυσάει) ακόμα κι αν η πλοκή είναι χοντροκομμένη σε σημεία.
Ας είναι όμως, ο συγγραφέας της Μαύρης Ντάλιας δείχνει τα δόντια του και το Ρέκβιεμ για τον Μπράουν, πέρα απ'την επίσημη έναρξη των καλοκαιρινών διακοπών μου, λειτούργησε κι ως ιδανικό επόμενο βήμα μετά το εξαιρετικό Κατά Μόνας που διάβαζα τον τελευταίο μήνα.
Note to self: Πρέπει να διαβάζω πιο συχνα Ellroy,έχω κλειδώσει στους Δρόμους του Δολοφόνου για επόμενο βήμα.
Καλό καλοκαίρΙ!!
September 5, 2021
Filling in a couple of gaps in the Ellroy back catalogue, and starting with his first novel. A story in the style of Chandler, with hints of the themes that Ellroy goes on to expand and obsess over through his career. The style that makes his voice unique is not there yet, but you can sense it coming. A good read in its own right.
October 19, 2024
I'm a little late on this review..it was two months ago I read Brown's Requiem (1981), James Ellroy's 1st novel. Let me start by saying I enjoyed this read immensely, B.R. is one of the best 1st novels by an author I've read...The story moves along, well paced & plotted, lot's of action and I was surprised, very hip dialog that I never really noticed out of Ellroy until The Black Dahlia (I'm wildly non-chronological in my reading of Ellroys novels...I started with Killer On The Road to the American Tabloid three-some to the L.A. Quartet and zig-zagged onward). Also the L.A. setting of Brown's Requiem smoggy Summer Days & Summer Nights on the golf course is fresh (cough, cough...and Thanks Brian Wilson). The only negative of this enjoyable read is I think it could have used an edit to tighten it up just a bit...but what 1st novel doesn't need a stronger edit. I would have left out the Mexican beach scene where Fritz spends a night getting high with the hippies....it was flat and had nothing to do with the narrative. And, I would have left-out the character Walter, he was Fritz's friend from when they were teens...he was a big zero and added zero to the story...giving Walter the boot would have tighten up the book immensely. But, that's minor stuff...Brown's Requiem kicked off Ellroy's career to an excellent start...If you like crime-fiction read B.R., you'll be glad you did...4.0 Stars outta 5.0...
February 12, 2019
"Western Avenue between Beverly and Willshire and the blocks surrounding it constitute the old neighborhood. Situated two miles west of downtown L.A. and a mile south of Hollywood, there is nothing exceptional about it. The prosaic thrust of the ordinary lives lived there produced nothing during my formative years but an inordinate amount of male children, a good portion of whom assumed roles emblematic of the tortured 60s: Vietnam veteran, drug addict, college activist, burned-out corpse. The neighborhood has changed slightly, topographically: Ralph's market is now a Korean church, old gas stations and parking lots have been replaced by ugly pocket shopping centers. The human core of the neighborhood, the people who were in early middle-age when I was a child, are elderly now, with resentments and fears borne out of twenty years of incomprehensible history."
How James Ellroy can spool out fine writing like that and then clutter it up with so much endless, needless, and tedious racism and misogyny. This could have been the former bad cop turned deadbeat PI, driving-around-town + a slightly sketchy dame noir novel of my dreams, but even for the genre & the author it's heavy on the epithets and features a really charming bit about the culpability of child prostitutes.
How James Ellroy can spool out fine writing like that and then clutter it up with so much endless, needless, and tedious racism and misogyny. This could have been the former bad cop turned deadbeat PI, driving-around-town + a slightly sketchy dame noir novel of my dreams, but even for the genre & the author it's heavy on the epithets and features a really charming bit about the culpability of child prostitutes.
August 23, 2020
Noir: A Mass in E Flat Major.
Arson, Murder, and Welfare Fraud highlight the debut novel of James Ellroy. The only problem with the book was that it needed better proofreading by the publisher.
Indently?
The police captain is the precursor to Dudley Smith.
Arson, Murder, and Welfare Fraud highlight the debut novel of James Ellroy. The only problem with the book was that it needed better proofreading by the publisher.
Indently?
The police captain is the precursor to Dudley Smith.
November 3, 2024
Elroy's first novel, impact, tightly focused, and not filled with that many coincidences.
November 15, 2013
Even the Demon Dog of American fiction had to start somewhere, and this debut noir bears the hallmark naivety of a first novel whilst setting out a clear mission statement for all that would come from the pen of James Ellroy. It's just a bit dull and obvious however.
At 256 pages this is perhaps the shortest of all his novels and as the story progressed I became more and more grateful for that fact as more and more trite, cliche, amateur scenes unfolded. Fritz Brown is already almost the typical Ellroy archetype protagonist, an obsessive man who operates outside of the law and whose life is in a near constant downward spiral, the mileau and dialogue we've come to know is all there alongside the racism and misogyny that characterise his more degenerate characters only for once Brown is a character that doesn't subscribe to those theories and even more rarely for Ellroy is a character that will happily stand up and tell these racists to shut the hell up.
If this was the first Ellroy I'd read it might well have been the last, there's nothing here worth reading except to see how a modern great got his start.
At 256 pages this is perhaps the shortest of all his novels and as the story progressed I became more and more grateful for that fact as more and more trite, cliche, amateur scenes unfolded. Fritz Brown is already almost the typical Ellroy archetype protagonist, an obsessive man who operates outside of the law and whose life is in a near constant downward spiral, the mileau and dialogue we've come to know is all there alongside the racism and misogyny that characterise his more degenerate characters only for once Brown is a character that doesn't subscribe to those theories and even more rarely for Ellroy is a character that will happily stand up and tell these racists to shut the hell up.
If this was the first Ellroy I'd read it might well have been the last, there's nothing here worth reading except to see how a modern great got his start.
July 26, 2015
Ellroy before the increasingly bizarre stylistic mannerisms. If the clean prose is a pleasant surprise, it must be weighed against generally bland characterization and a story which is only intermittently suspenseful. The book is somewhat redeemed by a variety of quirky irrelevancies--moments of unexpected dark humour, a paean to the joy of sleeping on a golf course, a dinner of roast dog--and one striking character, "Fat Dog" Baker, a memorable grotesque.
February 1, 2024
This was wildly, unbelievably good. Probably my favorite James Ellroy novel I’ve read so far. The same tropes that are in all his other books were here too, but this one was compact and propulsive where others were drawn-out. It also has more of a heart than any of his other books I’ve read.
October 25, 2018
Between 20o3 and 2008, I went through a phase where I thought James Ellroy was the best living novelist. I loved his schtick so much that my own writing--fiction or non--read like a pastiche of Ellroy's telegraphic style. While I still appreciate him (most of his novels survived the various pre-/post-moving book culls I made), I feel like I've calmed down and grown up, I guess? At the very least, his flaws--which were always there--have become really apparent, so much so that I just don't have the energy or heart to dive back into his novels again.
But I've had Brown's Requiem, his 1980 debut, on my "unread" shelf for nearly a decade, and I just grabbed it on a whim and dived in (via audiobook). From page one, Brown's Requiem reads like a trial run for every other book Ellroy has written. It's all here: an obsessed protagonist; a hilariously over-complicated plot; lots of focus on classical music as "good music"; gonzo violence (including the good ol' "empty gun into someone's face" deal that Ellroy uses all of the time); and so on. Fritz Brown is, however, not as insanely racist as almost every other Ellroy protagonist, and he even defends minorities in a few spots...though these moments feel really forced.
The writing is cleaner and more traditional than Ellroy's later books, but his staccato pacing is still here. The book made me remember why I liked Ellroy so much, but it also reminded me why I no longer obsess over him. The guy has basically been writing the same book over and over from this point on--he's rehashing the same worldview that's guided him since his mom's murder, and I just have a hard time with it these days.
But I've had Brown's Requiem, his 1980 debut, on my "unread" shelf for nearly a decade, and I just grabbed it on a whim and dived in (via audiobook). From page one, Brown's Requiem reads like a trial run for every other book Ellroy has written. It's all here: an obsessed protagonist; a hilariously over-complicated plot; lots of focus on classical music as "good music"; gonzo violence (including the good ol' "empty gun into someone's face" deal that Ellroy uses all of the time); and so on. Fritz Brown is, however, not as insanely racist as almost every other Ellroy protagonist, and he even defends minorities in a few spots...though these moments feel really forced.
The writing is cleaner and more traditional than Ellroy's later books, but his staccato pacing is still here. The book made me remember why I liked Ellroy so much, but it also reminded me why I no longer obsess over him. The guy has basically been writing the same book over and over from this point on--he's rehashing the same worldview that's guided him since his mom's murder, and I just have a hard time with it these days.
April 18, 2022
Ellroys Debütroman erzählt von Fritz Brown, ein Repoman, der gepfändete Autos wiederbeschafft, und mieser Privatdetektiv, der zufällig in eine wilde Story von Brandstiftung, Mord und Sozialhilfebetrug in ganz großem Stil hineinstolpert. Ursprünglich engagiert von einem schrägen Caddie, der angeblich den Sugardaddy seiner Schwester loswerden will, findet Brown bald heraus, dass sich rund um die Caddieszene von L.A. noch manch anderes abspielt. Brown ist abgebrüht genug und wittert für sich selbst eine Chance.
Der Schreibstil ist noch nicht ganz so stakkohaft wie bei späteren Werken, dafür spielen hier wie bei Ellroy gewohnt sehr merkwürdige und abstoßende Figuren mit. Eine Hardboiled Detective-Story, durchaus in L.A.-Tradition, mit einigen interessanten Szenen, aber insgesamt eher hanebüchener Story. Kann man lesen, muss man aber nicht.
Der Schreibstil ist noch nicht ganz so stakkohaft wie bei späteren Werken, dafür spielen hier wie bei Ellroy gewohnt sehr merkwürdige und abstoßende Figuren mit. Eine Hardboiled Detective-Story, durchaus in L.A.-Tradition, mit einigen interessanten Szenen, aber insgesamt eher hanebüchener Story. Kann man lesen, muss man aber nicht.
June 12, 2025
Far too indebted to Chandler, but identifiably nasty, and Ellroy emerged as a master of the bittersweet ending where his heroes live in a humiliation worse than death, condemned to an eternal separation from their salvation.
June 13, 2010
This is the 10th Ellroy I've read but I've only listed 2 on Goodreads so far & only given one of them a very quickie, very inadequate 'review'. Ellroy deserves better - & probably gets it elsewhere - it's not like he's a neglected writer.
When the movie "L.A. Confidential" came out I thought it was the only Noir movie I'd seen in recent yrs that measured up to what made the original noir interesting in the 1st place. But I didn't know it was written by Ellroy then. It wasn't until many yrs later that I started reading him. &, yes, he's utterly great. As I've written elsewhere, I consider him to be one of the 4 greatest crime fiction writers. The other 3 being Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, & Patricia Highsmith. Then again, I don't read that much crime fiction writing so maybe there's far more great stuff out there than I know of.
This is the earliest Ellroy I've read yet. He wd've been, what?, in his early 30s when he wrote it? It's intense & wise & grim but, thank goodness?, not nearly as brutal as his later work (but still very brutal). For me, this is the 1st thing I've read by him in wch his writing still has a taste of his predecessors - in particular, Raymond Chandler. In fact, somewhat to my surprise, his detective character, Fritz Brown, even references Chandler's most famous detective:
"The flat finished stucco walls, ratty Persian carpets in the hallway and mahogany doors almost had me convinced it was 1938 and that my fictional predecessor Philip Marlowe was about to confront me with a wisecrack."
Not that that was an especially important moment in the bk or anything - I just found it interesting that Ellroy wd even tip his hat, so to speak. & the writing is great - as w/ the best of 'pulp' fiction this was a page-turner extraordinaire. I was completely engrossed. & if this had been written by Chandler, perhaps some of the at-1st-apparently-nice characters wd've turned out to be even more vicious than anyone else. But Ellroy surprises the reader here by making that NOT SO.
Anyone who reads crime fiction shd read Ellroy. He exemplifies "hard-boiled".
When the movie "L.A. Confidential" came out I thought it was the only Noir movie I'd seen in recent yrs that measured up to what made the original noir interesting in the 1st place. But I didn't know it was written by Ellroy then. It wasn't until many yrs later that I started reading him. &, yes, he's utterly great. As I've written elsewhere, I consider him to be one of the 4 greatest crime fiction writers. The other 3 being Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, & Patricia Highsmith. Then again, I don't read that much crime fiction writing so maybe there's far more great stuff out there than I know of.
This is the earliest Ellroy I've read yet. He wd've been, what?, in his early 30s when he wrote it? It's intense & wise & grim but, thank goodness?, not nearly as brutal as his later work (but still very brutal). For me, this is the 1st thing I've read by him in wch his writing still has a taste of his predecessors - in particular, Raymond Chandler. In fact, somewhat to my surprise, his detective character, Fritz Brown, even references Chandler's most famous detective:
"The flat finished stucco walls, ratty Persian carpets in the hallway and mahogany doors almost had me convinced it was 1938 and that my fictional predecessor Philip Marlowe was about to confront me with a wisecrack."
Not that that was an especially important moment in the bk or anything - I just found it interesting that Ellroy wd even tip his hat, so to speak. & the writing is great - as w/ the best of 'pulp' fiction this was a page-turner extraordinaire. I was completely engrossed. & if this had been written by Chandler, perhaps some of the at-1st-apparently-nice characters wd've turned out to be even more vicious than anyone else. But Ellroy surprises the reader here by making that NOT SO.
Anyone who reads crime fiction shd read Ellroy. He exemplifies "hard-boiled".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2017
This is Mr E's first ever novel and in my edition he has written a forward that expounds on some of his situation at the time of writing i.e. late 1970's. It seems that Mr E had a few problems of his own back then and the main character Frits Brown is somewhat autobiographical. Nothing wrong with that of course. In the forward he acknowledges the influence of Raymond Chandler on his writing style, somewhat ruefully as it seems he feels this may have stifled his own writing style. However, the ofttimes staccato style evident in his later novels is there in spades to no detriment of the storytelling. I do wonder if Mr E's books are popular with any other reading demographic than white males though. It's not exactly white supremacist (you may say it portrays the times in which he was writing) but there is a use of racial epithets and characterisations that may offend a lot of people.
I know that Lee Child has spoken of his character, Jack Reacher, as embodying the knight errant of many historic stories but with his moral compass slightly skewed so that while possessing a moral code he has no compunction about using violence to right the perceived wrongs he so frequently comes upon. Mr E's main character is much more self serving and while he pays lip service to having a conscience he is a flawed, selfish man just one step up from the criminal underworld that he wallows around in, seeking some ultimate happiness.
That said the book gives an interesting insight into the world of golf caddies and repo men and the plot is, while implausible at times, sufficient to sustain interest. The descriptions of relationships, particularly between Fritz and Jane, are superficial and not very believable - Mr E will become much better at this element of his books later in his career.
It was interesting to read his first novel but almost in an academic way rather than just having a good read. Not his best work but lays the foundations for much better novels to come.
I know that Lee Child has spoken of his character, Jack Reacher, as embodying the knight errant of many historic stories but with his moral compass slightly skewed so that while possessing a moral code he has no compunction about using violence to right the perceived wrongs he so frequently comes upon. Mr E's main character is much more self serving and while he pays lip service to having a conscience he is a flawed, selfish man just one step up from the criminal underworld that he wallows around in, seeking some ultimate happiness.
That said the book gives an interesting insight into the world of golf caddies and repo men and the plot is, while implausible at times, sufficient to sustain interest. The descriptions of relationships, particularly between Fritz and Jane, are superficial and not very believable - Mr E will become much better at this element of his books later in his career.
It was interesting to read his first novel but almost in an academic way rather than just having a good read. Not his best work but lays the foundations for much better novels to come.
December 16, 2023
Brown’s Requiem, was James Elroy’s 1st and at age 31, launched a demonic career as author of American crime fiction, LA style. In the forward he gives cred… “Brown’s Requiem is heavily beholden to Raymond Chandler—an icon I’ve come to dislike quite a bit. I owe Ray a two-fold debt: he got me going and he showed me that imitating him was a dead-end street on GenreHack Boulevard.” Ellroy is an original, no one like him…
Southern Cali. “The smog and heat rolled in, blanketing the basin; people succumbed to torpor and malaise; old resolves died; old commitments went unheeded.
Fritz Brown Ex-cop…PI/repo man. “My fee for a repossession is the sum of the owner’s monthly whip-out. For this Cal gets the dubious satisfaction of having a licensed private investigator do his rip-offs, and implicit silence on my part regarding all his past activities.” Sidekick. “ Irwin is Jewish, I’m a second generation German-American, and we get along splendidly; we agree on all important matters: Christianity is vulgar, capitalism is here to stay, rock and roll is evil, and Germany and Judaica, as antithetical as they may be, have produced history’s greatest musicians”
Cultural take. “Berkeley gave me the creeps: the people passing by looked aesthetic and angry, driven inward by forces they couldn’t comprehend and rendered sickly by their refusal to eat meat.”
Cals Cars. “manifestations of every scheme, dream, and hustle the jaded American mind can conceive. It is beyond tragedy, beyond vulgarity, beyond satire. It is supreme guilelessness. There are approximately eight billion of these storefronts—and three billion new and used car lots. Cal Myers has three: Cal’s Casa de Carro, Myers’ Ford, and Cal’s Imports.” … “The walls were festooned with framed photographs of Cal in the embrace of various politicians who had welcomed his campaign contributions. There was Cal with Ronnie Reagan, Cal with Sam Yorty, Cal solemnly shaking hands with Tricky Dick Nixon before his fall.”
Fat Dog Freddy Baker. “close to forty, and fat, maybe 5'6" or 7" and about 220. He was wearing ridiculous soiled madras slacks three inches too short in the leg, a tight alligator golf shirt that encased his blubbery torso like a sausage skin, and black and white saddle golf shoes with the cleats removed. He looked like a wino golfer out of hell.” Freddy hires Fritz. “Follow him, tail him around town, check out what he’s into? He’s fucking her around somehow, and I want to know what’s happening.” I decided not to pass it up. I could work it in on my offtime from the repo’s. I liked the idea of a surveillance job. It sounded like an interesting change of pace. “Okay, Fat Dog, I’ll do it. I’ll tail your sister and this nameless bad guy”
Best friend. “Walter is still there, ensconced at the old house on 5th and Serrano, with his lunatic Christian Scientist mother, his T.V. set, his science fiction books, his records, and his Thunderbird wine. He is thirty-two years old, and we have been friends for twentyfive” … “fifteen years since high school his sedentary lifestyle has afforded him time to read thousands of books, from the profound to the trivial, to assimilate great music into the bedrock of his consciousness, and to see every movie ever to pass the way of the T.V. screen. Walter has never written, filmed, or composed anything. Nonetheless, in his perpetual T-Bird haze he can transform his wino fantasies into insights and parables that touch at the quick of life. On his good days, that is.” … “When I got home I put Schubert on the turntable to try to put Walter out of my mind. It worked for a while, until I remembered that Schubert was about Walter’s age when he died.”
A PI needs good sources. “Jack Skolnick … For over forty years he has maneuvered on the fringes of L.A.’s high society, entertainment monolith, and underworld with the finesse and discernment of some sort of rare animal. Like a pig snorting truffles, he knows just where to look, and dig.” … “Sol Kupferman. You heard of him?” Jack gave me a cagey look and nodded his head. “I knew him slightly, maybe twenty years ago when I had my chauffeur gig. I heard talk about him.” “Such as?” “Such as he was a money man, tax advisor to organized crime in the ’40s. Such as he was a noncombatant, some kind of tax wizard. He made the mob a bundle.”… “What else can you tell me about him?” Jack smiled again. “That he had a lot of heart and a lot of class. A real mensch. I bought my daughter a mink stole from him a few years ago. He remembered me and gave me a good deal. He’s a mensch.”
The scene. “watched the sunset from my balcony. The nicest thing about nighttime is the clarity, and in L.A. that means shadows and neon. The night was alive now. I went looking for my client.” … “Venice, where the debris meets the sea.”
Looping. “It’s kind of sad. You show up and sign the list in the morning. If there’s play, you work. Basically you carry two bags, one on each shoulder. You usually get twenty bucks for eighteen holes. The ladies stiff you about half the time. Some of the men do, too. Some members pay real good, but the caddy master’s buddies get those loops. But it’s the guys who suck ass with the caddy master who get that action. Me, I just push thirty-six four days a week and spend the rest of my time fucking off. You can take off all the time you want, as long as you show up on weekends and for tournaments.”
Fat Dog’s sister. “assembling her sheet music on its stand, and the first movement main theme of the Dvořák “Concerto” followed. I stepped into Jane Baker’s life: “That concerto was Dvořák’s best shot,” I said. “Nothing else he did came close to it. Have you been playing long?” … “Savor these years of practice and study. I know that when, years from now, you reflect on your life, you’ll consider them among your finest.” [ Ellroy's mind set writing his first novel knowing he was on his way, but it would never be better.] Brown’s dream. “At night we would sit in our living room and listen to music, then go upstairs and make love. Eventually, we would have children, preferably daughters. It would be a good life. It was possible now.”
Brown’ Requiem. “sometimes my mind turns to wild flights of fantasy, envisioning other electric calms and moral stands that might bring me permanent salvation. When I think of these things, my reason and love of beauty desert me and I hang suspended like a bizarre hovercraft in a holding pattern over Los Angeles. But I hold.” [Etymology. Middle English requiem "a mass for the dead," from Latin requiem "rest," the first word of the phrase Requiem aeternum dona eis "Eternal rest grant to them,"
First book very personal-a work of great imagination- demon dog Ellroy is off to races… see him HOWL!
Southern Cali. “The smog and heat rolled in, blanketing the basin; people succumbed to torpor and malaise; old resolves died; old commitments went unheeded.
Fritz Brown Ex-cop…PI/repo man. “My fee for a repossession is the sum of the owner’s monthly whip-out. For this Cal gets the dubious satisfaction of having a licensed private investigator do his rip-offs, and implicit silence on my part regarding all his past activities.” Sidekick. “ Irwin is Jewish, I’m a second generation German-American, and we get along splendidly; we agree on all important matters: Christianity is vulgar, capitalism is here to stay, rock and roll is evil, and Germany and Judaica, as antithetical as they may be, have produced history’s greatest musicians”
Cultural take. “Berkeley gave me the creeps: the people passing by looked aesthetic and angry, driven inward by forces they couldn’t comprehend and rendered sickly by their refusal to eat meat.”
Cals Cars. “manifestations of every scheme, dream, and hustle the jaded American mind can conceive. It is beyond tragedy, beyond vulgarity, beyond satire. It is supreme guilelessness. There are approximately eight billion of these storefronts—and three billion new and used car lots. Cal Myers has three: Cal’s Casa de Carro, Myers’ Ford, and Cal’s Imports.” … “The walls were festooned with framed photographs of Cal in the embrace of various politicians who had welcomed his campaign contributions. There was Cal with Ronnie Reagan, Cal with Sam Yorty, Cal solemnly shaking hands with Tricky Dick Nixon before his fall.”
Fat Dog Freddy Baker. “close to forty, and fat, maybe 5'6" or 7" and about 220. He was wearing ridiculous soiled madras slacks three inches too short in the leg, a tight alligator golf shirt that encased his blubbery torso like a sausage skin, and black and white saddle golf shoes with the cleats removed. He looked like a wino golfer out of hell.” Freddy hires Fritz. “Follow him, tail him around town, check out what he’s into? He’s fucking her around somehow, and I want to know what’s happening.” I decided not to pass it up. I could work it in on my offtime from the repo’s. I liked the idea of a surveillance job. It sounded like an interesting change of pace. “Okay, Fat Dog, I’ll do it. I’ll tail your sister and this nameless bad guy”
Best friend. “Walter is still there, ensconced at the old house on 5th and Serrano, with his lunatic Christian Scientist mother, his T.V. set, his science fiction books, his records, and his Thunderbird wine. He is thirty-two years old, and we have been friends for twentyfive” … “fifteen years since high school his sedentary lifestyle has afforded him time to read thousands of books, from the profound to the trivial, to assimilate great music into the bedrock of his consciousness, and to see every movie ever to pass the way of the T.V. screen. Walter has never written, filmed, or composed anything. Nonetheless, in his perpetual T-Bird haze he can transform his wino fantasies into insights and parables that touch at the quick of life. On his good days, that is.” … “When I got home I put Schubert on the turntable to try to put Walter out of my mind. It worked for a while, until I remembered that Schubert was about Walter’s age when he died.”
A PI needs good sources. “Jack Skolnick … For over forty years he has maneuvered on the fringes of L.A.’s high society, entertainment monolith, and underworld with the finesse and discernment of some sort of rare animal. Like a pig snorting truffles, he knows just where to look, and dig.” … “Sol Kupferman. You heard of him?” Jack gave me a cagey look and nodded his head. “I knew him slightly, maybe twenty years ago when I had my chauffeur gig. I heard talk about him.” “Such as?” “Such as he was a money man, tax advisor to organized crime in the ’40s. Such as he was a noncombatant, some kind of tax wizard. He made the mob a bundle.”… “What else can you tell me about him?” Jack smiled again. “That he had a lot of heart and a lot of class. A real mensch. I bought my daughter a mink stole from him a few years ago. He remembered me and gave me a good deal. He’s a mensch.”
The scene. “watched the sunset from my balcony. The nicest thing about nighttime is the clarity, and in L.A. that means shadows and neon. The night was alive now. I went looking for my client.” … “Venice, where the debris meets the sea.”
Looping. “It’s kind of sad. You show up and sign the list in the morning. If there’s play, you work. Basically you carry two bags, one on each shoulder. You usually get twenty bucks for eighteen holes. The ladies stiff you about half the time. Some of the men do, too. Some members pay real good, but the caddy master’s buddies get those loops. But it’s the guys who suck ass with the caddy master who get that action. Me, I just push thirty-six four days a week and spend the rest of my time fucking off. You can take off all the time you want, as long as you show up on weekends and for tournaments.”
Fat Dog’s sister. “assembling her sheet music on its stand, and the first movement main theme of the Dvořák “Concerto” followed. I stepped into Jane Baker’s life: “That concerto was Dvořák’s best shot,” I said. “Nothing else he did came close to it. Have you been playing long?” … “Savor these years of practice and study. I know that when, years from now, you reflect on your life, you’ll consider them among your finest.” [ Ellroy's mind set writing his first novel knowing he was on his way, but it would never be better.] Brown’s dream. “At night we would sit in our living room and listen to music, then go upstairs and make love. Eventually, we would have children, preferably daughters. It would be a good life. It was possible now.”
Brown’ Requiem. “sometimes my mind turns to wild flights of fantasy, envisioning other electric calms and moral stands that might bring me permanent salvation. When I think of these things, my reason and love of beauty desert me and I hang suspended like a bizarre hovercraft in a holding pattern over Los Angeles. But I hold.” [Etymology. Middle English requiem "a mass for the dead," from Latin requiem "rest," the first word of the phrase Requiem aeternum dona eis "Eternal rest grant to them,"
First book very personal-a work of great imagination- demon dog Ellroy is off to races… see him HOWL!
July 8, 2021
In his succinct introduction, James Ellroy disparages his first novel. He says he hopes that as we read his books in succession we realize that each one is an improvement on its predecessor. It’s too late for me; I already read his second book, Clandestine, years ago. And while I agree that Clandestine is better, Brown’s Requiem sets the bar high enough. It was certainly entertaining and kept me turning the pages. The characters are fully realized; I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get Mrs. Curran out of my head, or “Stan the Man”. And how could anyone forget “Fat Dog” Baker? Oddly, though, Brown’s arch nemesis, Cathcart, is one-dimensional. It’s as if the bad guy is too bad. Yes, we are supposed to believe he is inhuman, but we should also be able to understand him a bit better. We were allowed to understand “Fat Dog” despite the gaping hole where his redeeming qualities should have been. We know what made him turn out the way he did. Why not Cathcart? Just having him mouth white supremacist talking points and put the fear of god into people isn’t good enough. That’s a caricature, not a character. So is Brown’s Requiem perfect? No, but it’s a lot better than most private eye novels, and the time capsule portrayal of Los Angeles circa 1980 was a major plus for me. Would I recommend Brown’s Requiem despite a few flaws? In a heartbeat. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the damn good.
May 23, 2008
Brown's Requiem is a pretty typical first novel. It's jam-packed with extraneous details that seem drawn from the author's life but that have little to do with the central plot (e.g., classical music, golf caddying, an alcoholic friend of the protagonist who lives with his mother, binge drinking, eating roasted dog with hippies down in Mexico), and a first-person narrator who's poorly defined and inconsistent.
This is the third novel by James Ellroy I've read. I found his "telegraphic" writing style in L.A. Confidential and White Jazz distracting and pretentious, but in Brown's Requiem the writing is just plain bad. Here's a typical sentence from the novel:
"As adrenalin and irony coursed through my bloodstream, I gloated on the moral perfection of a high-ranking L.A.P.D. bimbo being brought to justice by a former L.A.P.D. minion in moral limbo."
The "former L.A.P.D. minion" is the novel's protagonist, Fritz Brown, and the "bimbo" is Haywood Cathcart, one of the books many ill-defined, shadowy antagonists. As for whether the rhyming of "bimbo" and "limbo" is deliberate, well, you'll have to ask Ellroy.
This is the third novel by James Ellroy I've read. I found his "telegraphic" writing style in L.A. Confidential and White Jazz distracting and pretentious, but in Brown's Requiem the writing is just plain bad. Here's a typical sentence from the novel:
"As adrenalin and irony coursed through my bloodstream, I gloated on the moral perfection of a high-ranking L.A.P.D. bimbo being brought to justice by a former L.A.P.D. minion in moral limbo."
The "former L.A.P.D. minion" is the novel's protagonist, Fritz Brown, and the "bimbo" is Haywood Cathcart, one of the books many ill-defined, shadowy antagonists. As for whether the rhyming of "bimbo" and "limbo" is deliberate, well, you'll have to ask Ellroy.
August 1, 2012
Ugh. Pointless, violent, unbelievable, crude, no story that makes sense. Call it graphic realism, but I call it detailed fantasy. Using actual names and places doesn't mean that they actually exist as described in this book.
Sadly, the "looping life" described is probably accurate because Ellroy supported himself as a caddy, But it might put you off golf for good. ( He makes his main character...Dan Brown...a naif when it comes to golf, a device for lots (too much?) of golf and caddying exposition...sheesh...
I would say the book isn't holding up well over time== dated and contrived.
Sadly, the "looping life" described is probably accurate because Ellroy supported himself as a caddy, But it might put you off golf for good. ( He makes his main character...Dan Brown...a naif when it comes to golf, a device for lots (too much?) of golf and caddying exposition...sheesh...
I would say the book isn't holding up well over time== dated and contrived.
January 19, 2022
Ellroy’s first novel is head and shoulders above any of his Lloyd Hopkins books; while it’s not as good as later books by Ellroy, it’s recognizable as him (unlike the Hopkins books), and is a very solid detective novel. While it indulges in some sentimentality Ellroy later trims from his prose, and very occasionally falls into noir cliche, it’s a fun read from start to finish and definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of L.A. noir, detective fiction, or Ellroy. The insights into the secret lives of golf caddies are interesting too, and give us a glimpse of a largely invisible subculture within Los Angeles.
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May 15, 2023i meannnnnn given this reviewer's predilection for neo-noir this was bound to make an impact, right? & the dark underbelly of the golf caddying world is such a wonderfully silly-seeming backdrop to all the depravity & firebombing that takes place therein. idk tho; there were just too many load-bearing coincidences that don't hold up to scrutiny & little copyediting issues ("i felt hallucinogenic"?) to deliver a full-throated endorsement. do gimme a prequel about walter however, walter rules. (sidenote: i'm stunned to see this was made into a movie. did they include the barbecue on the beach scene??)
April 20, 2022
Ummm...maybe even 1.5.
Ellroy's first (and my first from him), so maybe his later stuff lives up to his reputation as the master of noir? L.A. Confidential is one of my favorite movies.
There were periods of good stuff...but much of it seemed disconnected. If his detective was more of an unreliable narrator it could have worked, but though an alcoholic, Ellroy wanted us to like him too much.
I'll give him another try for sure, but was not impressed with this outing.
Ellroy's first (and my first from him), so maybe his later stuff lives up to his reputation as the master of noir? L.A. Confidential is one of my favorite movies.
There were periods of good stuff...but much of it seemed disconnected. If his detective was more of an unreliable narrator it could have worked, but though an alcoholic, Ellroy wanted us to like him too much.
I'll give him another try for sure, but was not impressed with this outing.
March 22, 2015
Never once wanted to pause in reading this one.
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