American Tabloid - Softcover

Ellroy, James

4.2

18,531 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804114498 ISBN 13: 9780804114493

Publisher: Ivy Books, 1995

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CHOSEN BY TIME MAGAZINE AS ONE OF
THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
"ONE HELLISHLY EXCITING RIDE."
--Detroit Free Press
The '50s are finished. Zealous young senator Robert Kennedy has a red-hot jones to nail Jimmy Hoffa. JFK has his eyes on the Oval Office. J. Edgar Hoover is swooping down on the Red Menace. Howard Hughes is dodging subpoenas and digging up Kennedy dirt. And Castro is mopping up the bloody aftermath of his new communist nation.
"HARD-BITTEN. . . INGENIOUS. . . ELLROY SEGUES INTO POLITICAL INTRIGUE WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT."
--The New York Times
In the thick of it: FBI men Kemper Boyd and Ward Littell. They work every side of the street, jerking the chains of made men, street scum, and celebrities alike, while Pete Bondurant, ex-rogue cop, freelance enforcer, troubleshooter, and troublemaker, has the conscience to louse it all up.
"VASTLY ENTERTAINING."
--Los Angeles Times
Mob bosses, politicos, snitches, psychos, fall guys, and femmes fatale. They're mixing up a molotov cocktail guaranteed to end the country's innocence with a bang. Dig that crazy beat: it's America's heart racing out of control. . . .
"A SUPREMELY CONTROLLED WORK OF ART."
--The New York Times Book Review

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From the Publisher:

Dark, gritty, and a favorite read of mine. I've passed along this book to many friends, but I still have a hard time describing it and why I liked it so much. Ellroy has constructed a period piece that encapsules the Kennedy-Bay of Pigs era where he follows the trail of some rogue FBI agents. He doesn't paint a flattering picture and gets away with writing about actual people that still amazes me. Hoover, the "Mob", Sinatra, JFK's trysts, it's all there. And if his portrayal of history isn't on the money, it must be close.

Ron Lundquist, Ballantine Sales Rep.

From the Back Cover:

We are behind, and below, the scenes of JFK's presidential election, the Bay of Pigs, the assassination -- in the underworld that connects Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, D.C. . . .

Where the CIA, the Mob, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Hoffa, Cuban political exiles, and various loose cannons conspire in a covert anarchy . . .

Where the right drugs, the right amount of cash, the right murder, buys a moment of a man's loyalty . . .

Where three renegade law-enforcement officers -- a former L.A. cop and two FBI agents -- are shaping events with the virulence of their greed and hatred, riding full-blast shotgun into history. . . .

James Ellroy's trademark nothing-spared rendering of reality, blistering language, and relentless narrative pace are here in electrifying abundance, put to work in a novel as shocking and daring as anything he's written: a secret history that zeroes in on a time still shrouded in secrets and blows it wide open.

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