Desert Island Books

Three years ago, I worked on a project I called "The Desert Island Book Project," asking a group of friends and colleagues to identify the five books that they would take with them to a desert island, and write a paragraph or two explaining why. The response was amazing; I heard back from 40 people and many of them wrote much more than just a paragraph or two. As for myself, I didn't limit myself to five; and I wrote whatever came to mind, whether it be five lines, five paragraphs, or more. From time to time, I'll post some of my selections here.

L.A. Confidential
by James Ellroy

The third volume in the so-called “L.A. Quartet” (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz), L.A. Confidential is the critical link in Ellroy’s career between the mostly conventional writing style he employed in his previous novels and the rapid-fire, staccato, free jazz-like style that has predominated in subsequent works. The book tells the tale of three deeply flawed members of the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1950s: Ed Exley, the crusader who believes in “absolute justice” but whose reputation and career are based on a lie; Bud White, the defender of abused women whose brutally vicious methods represent everything that Exley finds abhorrent in the LAPD; and Jack Vincennes, the star-struck thrill-seeker who rarely lets morals stand in the way of a good bust.

Over the span of the decade which provides the backdrop for the book, the three men’s careers become intertwined through a maze of seemingly unrelated characters, including the charismatic but sociopathic police Captain Dudley Smith; the proverbial “hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold” Lynn Bracken (who understands Exley, White and Vincennes better than they understand themselves); various “real-life” characters such as Bill Parker, Lana Turner, and Johnny Stompanato; and seemingly unrelated events including the beheading of a child star by a serial killer that occurred some twenty years earlier; the construction of the L.A. network of freeways; and the development of a Disney-like theme park, a major sub-plot that was dropped from the terrific film adaptation, for reasons that become obvious by the end of the novel. The single event around which all of the plot revolves is the Nite Owl Massacre, an unexplained shoot-out in an all-night café that results in the deaths of six people and alters the course of the lives of all the book’s major characters.

It is when the plot threads begin to converge – and when Exley, White, and Vincennes come to realize that only through working together to solve the Nite Owl case can “absolute justice” be served – that the novel soars to heights that have been reached by few works in the genre. In the end each pays a price for that justice; in this book redemption – if one can call it that – does not come easy.

The dialogue throughout is brilliant and memorable (and as with all Ellroy novels, profane), and pulls off the neat trick of sounding realistic at the same time it is larger-than-life and crackling with intensity: examples include Bud White’s initial encounter with the mysterious Pierce Patchett; the conversations between Exley and his father, all of which are spoken in a nearly impenetrable code; nearly every scene in which Lynn Bracken plays a role; Exley’s breathless interrogations of the initial Nite Owl Suspects; the moment when Exley reveals to Vincennes what he knows of Jack’s past secrets – and what it means for Jack’s future; and the wonderful scene near the novel’s end when Exley and White realize at long last that despite their differences in methods and temperament, they are really just flip sides of the same coin.

My favorite piece of dialogue in the book occurs when Exley interrogates a somewhat unwilling Lynn Bracken about her knowledge of what happened on the night of the Nite Owl. In this exchange, Ellroy leaves no doubt that the two, despite their differences in position and stature, are on absolutely equal footing as protagonists. After some initial sparring, Exley leaves the room to gather his thoughts and re-enters shortly thereafter:

“You again?”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t you have to charge me or release me?”

“Not for another sixty-eight hours.”

“Aren’t you violating my constitutional rights?”

“Constitutional rights have been waived for this one.”

“Constitutional rights have been waived for this one?” Are you kidding me? In 32 years of reading and watching mysteries, thrillers, and detective procedurals, I don’t think I’ve ever come across an interview line as good as that one.

But it gets better. Wanting the truth from a witness that he assumes will not be cooperative, Exley has Bracken shot up, against her will, with sodium pentothal. Expecting such a move, Bracken has prepared by having a counter-dose administered prior to the interview.

“You don’t even feel the dosage, do you?”

“I feel like I’ve had four martinis, and four martinis just make me that much more lucid.”

About this time is when you pause and wonder, why can’t I write this well?

There’s two more priceless exchanges during the course of the interview, but unfortunately they cannot be shared without revealing too much of the plot.

Since the release of the novel in 1990, Ellroy has become somewhat famous, and his writing has probably gotten “better.” But it is unlikely his work will again reach the heights that he achieved with L.A. Confidential.