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The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
"America was never innocent."
Thus begins the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy. It's James Ellroy's pop history of the 1960s, his window-peeper's view of government misconduct, his dirty trickster's take on the great events of an incendiary era. It's a tour de force of the American idiom, and an acknowledged masterpiece.
American Tabloid gives us Jack Kennedy's ride, seen from an insider's perspective. We're there for the rigged 1960 election. We're there for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. We're the eyes and ears and souls of three rogue cops who've signed on for the ride and come to see Jack as their betrayer. We're Jack's pimps and hatchet men, and we're there for that baroque slaying in Dallas.
The Cold Six Thousand takes us from Dallas to Vietnam to Memphis to the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. We're rubbing shoulders with RFK and MLK, calamitous klansmen, noted mafiosi. We're forced to relive the American sixties--and we come away breathless.
The first two books of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy revisit the most anarchic decade in our history. They are defined by their brutal linguistic flair and reckless panache.
Thus begins the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy. It's James Ellroy's pop history of the 1960s, his window-peeper's view of government misconduct, his dirty trickster's take on the great events of an incendiary era. It's a tour de force of the American idiom, and an acknowledged masterpiece.
American Tabloid gives us Jack Kennedy's ride, seen from an insider's perspective. We're there for the rigged 1960 election. We're there for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. We're the eyes and ears and souls of three rogue cops who've signed on for the ride and come to see Jack as their betrayer. We're Jack's pimps and hatchet men, and we're there for that baroque slaying in Dallas.
The Cold Six Thousand takes us from Dallas to Vietnam to Memphis to the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. We're rubbing shoulders with RFK and MLK, calamitous klansmen, noted mafiosi. We're forced to relive the American sixties--and we come away breathless.
The first two books of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy revisit the most anarchic decade in our history. They are defined by their brutal linguistic flair and reckless panache.
1176 pages, Hardcover
Published June 4, 2019
About the author
James Ellroy
154 books4,405 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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April 23, 2019Rewriting the 60s. One subject-verb-object sentence at a time.
August 26, 2026
It’s actually a bit astounding that the cynical, unironic alt history in which all the movers and shakers in the alphabet agencies and other power players are the absolute worst people. Starting from a few years before the JFK assassination, the people who conspire and those around those events build into a pretty believable fiction, and then continues on.
America has only grown into this style of writing. Where previously the vile characters were hard to stomach and almost tiring in that there are no real bright spots. It’s all pretty bleak and relentlessly steeped in condemnation. With the disillusionment of the public with these figures, though, it actually feels wildly persuasive, gritty, and realistic. The level of detail lent to the fiction beyond the larger sweeping must have required pervasive research. It’s well beyond most historical fiction, by a large margin. And that verisimilitude only creates more credence to the world.
America has only grown into this style of writing. Where previously the vile characters were hard to stomach and almost tiring in that there are no real bright spots. It’s all pretty bleak and relentlessly steeped in condemnation. With the disillusionment of the public with these figures, though, it actually feels wildly persuasive, gritty, and realistic. The level of detail lent to the fiction beyond the larger sweeping must have required pervasive research. It’s well beyond most historical fiction, by a large margin. And that verisimilitude only creates more credence to the world.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews