Product Description

Set in America in 1958, this is a story of three men beneath the glossy surface of power, allied to the makers and shakers of the era. As the festering discontent of the age burns in these men's hearts, the Bay of Pigs ends in calamity, the Mob clamours for payback, and Kennedy is assassinated.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9648 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
God's Own Country on the threshold of Kennedy's golden age, three men close to the tentacles of power in a conspiracy with the Mafia that leads to the Bay of Pigs and the assassination in Dallas. Brutally brilliant as Ellroy uncovers the cesspits under the American Dream. (Kirkus UK)

It's the Kennedys versus Jimmy Hoffa, Fidel Castro, and J. Edgar Hoover in this blistering, sprawling slice of Americana from the comic-book Dos Passos of our time. Jack Kennedy only wants to be president and keep getting laid; his brother Bobby, who burns with a more gemlike flame, wants to expose the mob's ties to the Teamsters' Pension Fund; Hoover wants to keep the FBI focused on American Communism rather than organized crime. As they grapple for power before and after the 1960 election, Ellroy focuses on three scoundrels caught in their conflicts. FBI agent Kemper C. Boyd becomes Hoover's man on the inside of the McClellan Committee, which Robert Kennedy's spearheading to get indictments on the mob; Boyd then allows himself to get drafted by a CIA officer who wants him to organize an anti-Castro insurgency force trained by a KKK alumnus. Boyd's friend Ward J. Littell, an FBI undercover op, vaults to the top of the Bureau ladder before a feud puts him on a collision course with Hoover. And Pete Bondurant drifts away from his regular job (procuring women and dope for Howard Hughes) to emerge as the CIA's stalwart Chicago Phantom. None of Ellroy's fictional characters, though, is the equal of his powerful, paranoid J. Edgar Hoover, the unmoved mover whose hand and voice are everywhere, even though he never appears in person. It's Hoover whose kiss-off of Ward Littell turns him into a pathetically loose cannon, and Hoover whose obsession with Castro seems to turn his coup into a godsend for the rest of the cast, providing everybody with a common scapegoat. But the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and Bobby Kennedy's renewed crusade against organized crime at home, shatters the principals' fragile alliances, and they're left plotting to shake down the sexually insatiable president. Ellroy reins in the more flagrant stylistic excesses of his L.A. Quartet (White Jazz, 1992, etc.), but indulges every overripe subplot you can imagine, in this lurid, volcanic historical epic. (Kirkus Reviews)

Marcel Berlins, Times
'Brilliant and appalling. It is deeply repelling portraiture, yet mesmerising'

Sunday Times
'A frenetic and explosive thriller . . . '

Customer Reviews

Brilliant! Some of the best crime writing going
I was stunned by the pace and brutality of this when I first read it, and have reread it several times as it's just that enjoyable. This fictionalised account of the JFK killing, with many strands (and slanders) drawn out across real figures (eg Sinatra, Hoffa etc) and fictional ones makes for a mesmerising story.

I would read this again in a heartbeat.

HISTORY WITH BODILY FLUIDS - AND NOIR STYLE!
History has always been written by the victors - and they have the tendency to iron-out all its bloody details and hide all their dirty secrets. This a TRUE CLASSIC: imagine a history book that reads like a tabloid. Every story up close and personal, complete with every gory detail described. IN CINEMASCOPE & TECHNICOLOR.

The dirty making of the Kennedy fortune. Hoover as a hypochondriac cross-dressing extortionist. Everybody wiretapping everybody. The Camelot President clocked at 6 minutes. The Mob rigs the election for said President; invades Cuba with clansmen and Castro's exiles in blood-lust frenzy; gets burned - and gets even the only way it knows how. And in the middle of it all, two FBI agents trapped in a downwards spiral of serving multiple masters.

JAMES ELLROY does not pretend to write the dark side: he has barely escaped it himself and knows all its intoxicating scents and shadows. Read for the plausible details of history's margins. Enjoy the staccato prose of natural wit, verbatim FBI communication files and 50's Tabloid lingo.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

My first Ellroy
This was my first introduction to Jame Ellroy. A few friends had recommended him and I thought I would give him a try. I normall avoid thriller/cop type genre but had recently really enjoy Don Winslow's 'The Power of the Dog'. Well I was disappointed. I found American Tabloid overlong and convoluted. The 3 main characters of Boyd Kemper, Ward Littel and Pete Bondurant and each strong individual characters and there was plenty of tension to keep me reading. I personally the mix of fiction and fact a bit annoying. I know the bare bones of amercain politics in eary 1960s but was not aware enought about the Hoover and Hoffa dyanamic to fully appreciate some of the finer nuances within the novel.

Whilst I was not that impressed with the book I am tempted to read another Ellroy so it can't have been that bad.