Sun 27 Oct 2013
JAMES ELLROY – Brown’s Requiem. Avon 78741, paperback original, 1981, $2.50.
It took me a while to track this book down — Avon’s distribution system did not seem to reach the Northeast too effectively for a while last fall — but I’m glad I finally did. In recent months Avon has been doing some of the best mysteries to be published in paperback, particularly in the realm of first edition originals, and this is one of them.
I’m almost tempted to say it’s also a private eye story for people who hate private eye stories, but there are also some people whom I’m sure would rather die than admit to liking the things, even if they did, and so I won’t.
Fritz Brown is the P.I., and his client is a crazy caddy named Fat Dog who flashes hundred-dollar bills and wants Brown to keep an eye on his sister, an aspiring cello player living with an elderly Jew named Kupferman who is now in the fur business.
In a way, the whole book is just as slightly looney as this may sound, which is part of its cockeyed charm. What is meant for dialogue often consists of long, one-sided monologues, and if you let it it could easily drive you nuts. Ellroy’s version of Los Angeles is a sad, seedy one, described by someone who knows, brightened only by the green oases of its many available golf courses.
Brown’s life story, a lonely one, whether he admits it or not, naturally becomes interwoven with the one he gradually unravels and inexorably ties back together. Like a “literary” novel of more recognizable form, bits of philosophy and the deeper implication of things like the perquisites of power and the demands of those who pursue it, are integral ingredients of the story Ellroy tells, and he takes the time and space to tell it well.
What I find strange, however, is how much more I seem to be appreciating the book now — two weeks later- than I remember that I did while I was actually reading it. I don’t want to push the musical comparison too greatly, but the fact remains — profane as it may seem at times, this book sings.
Rating: A minus.
Vol. 6, No. 3, May-June 1982.
[UPDATE] 10-27-13. This was Ellroy’s first book, and while you can pay to $300 for a unsigned copy in nice shape, you can also find others in VG condition for $15. (It is hard to tell, though, on the less pricey ones. Booksellers on ABE no longer are very good in providing bibliographic details.) Nonetheless, I am wondering if perhaps I should have purchased as many copies as I could have, back when the book first came out.
October 27th, 2013 at 2:18 pm
Steve,
A terrific review from over Thirty!! years ago. Now I’ll have to dig my copy out and read it again. This first book of his really turned me on to Ellroy, and the only books I wasn’t a fan of in the early years are the ones he did for Mysterious Press at the time, featuring a Super Cop type hero. I can’t knock the writing, I just don’ t care for that type of character. As far as the collectibility, every copy I’ve picked up for resale, sells immediately off my tables at either Pulpcons or PB shows. Of course I don’t price them ridiculously high to start. I do regret not buying the British first edition hardback years ago, before it became a high priced collectible.
October 27th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Like you, I bought only the one copy. I can remember why, too. It was because Andy Jaysnovitch raved about it in DAPA-Em.
October 27th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
What I mean was, why I bought the book, not why I bought just one copy.
October 27th, 2013 at 6:21 pm
We have talked about BROWN’S REQUIEM before. Check out Mike Nevin’s comments about the novel on June 12, 2012. I liked it alot and have the movie version on VHS tape which follows the novel fairly closely. I just watched a film noir on tape and so far my video tape machine is still working. Some tapes still have not made it to dvd.
October 27th, 2013 at 6:47 pm
You’re right, as usual, Walker.
Here’s the link to Mike Nevins’ take on BROWN’S REQUIEM:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=17606
I’d forgotten about this post.
PS. He liked it.
October 30th, 2013 at 8:54 am
Sorry this is late but we were out of town for five days.
Anyway, I got to meet and hang out with James Ellroy at the NY Bouchercon in ’83, when I got this (“This novel is a sleazeburger of L.A. delights! Dig it!”) and CLANDESTINE (“The dark 1950’s and a brutal labyrinth of twisted swexuality and murder await you! Don’t resist!”) inscribed.
Now I too wish I had more copies.
November 5th, 2013 at 12:46 pm
I hate to use this space to promote, but for anyone interested, James Ellroy is coming to the Paley Center in NY on November 14 to talk about the JFK assassination as written about in his Underworld USA Trilogy:
http://www.paleycenter.org/2013-fall-james-ellroy