Sunday, November 19, 2006

He just knows that he is that good.

I've gushed about crime novelist James Ellroy before, and I found a rare interview with him. They say it's not trash talk if you can back it up. When James Ellroy says:

I am a master of fiction. I am also the greatest crime writer who ever lived. I am to the crime novel in specific what Tolstoy is to the Russian novel and what Beethoven is to music.
He's correct. I agree. I called them "epic crime novels," like GWTW or LOTR. (They're not all that great; Blood on the Moon was overblown and tedious.)

Ellroy also says he talks to women "not in the room," meaning in his head. He trashes Chandler and Hammett, which I can't agree with. Anyway, who cares if he's a nutcase as long as I can read his excellent work?

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