Breakneck Pace
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REVIEW BY JAMES NEAL WEBB
In a way, it's ironic that noir author James Ellroy, who writes of hard-bitten detectives and brutal thugs in the crime-infested world of the '40s, '50s and '60s, should use the method of the new millennium, the Internet, to propagate his stories. But on the other hand, it makes perfect sense: the writers of pulp fiction were so-called because of the cheapness of the paper on which their sometimes seamy stories were printed, and you can't get any cheaper or reach a wider audience than through the Internet. Available only on the Contentville Web site, an Internet bookstore/reading room sponsored by the media magazine Brill's Content, Breakneck Pace is a collection of Ellroy's short stories and essays from GQ magazine, and for those unfamiliar with his work they provide an introduction into his trademark staccato writing style. The author of such heralded works as L.A. Confidential and The Cold Six Thousand, Ellroy sees the world through a brutal, narrowly-focused lens. The cops and crooks and celebrities and politicians and athletes he writes about have few redeeming qualities, and he seems to take a gleeful delight in skewering them. Breakneck Pace collects the short stories "I've Got the Goods," "The Trouble I Cause," "My Life as a Creep," "Grave Doubt" and "Blood Sport" for the first time. In this unforgettable portrait of dark America, Ellroy tells everything you didn't want to know about Jack Webb, Dragnet and the future governor of California. He takes a hard look at a death row case in Texas (very relevant these days), and typically finds the truth ambiguous. He lists, in devastating and ugly detail, the events that led him to a writing life. And that's just for starters; I only hope he's making some of this up. If you have one of those Internet nanny filters on your computer, you'd better turn it off. Like the rest of Ellroy's work, Breakneck Pace is crude and compelling and brilliant, and it's definitely not for kids. But the never-before-collected pieces make a great way to meet one of today's most powerful writers. James Neal Webb recently reviewed Ellroy's latest novel, The Cold Six Thousand, for BookPage. You can find the review in our archives.
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