White Jazz: A Novel

I've always loved this book and hearing it read by Scott Brick is a real treat. I don't get all the 1 star reviews. This is a really good book.

I wish Audible would get some more Ellroy books. An unabridged version of "LA Confidential" would be a great start. Followed by "The Big Nowhere".

I overlooked the other negative review because I REALLY like Scott Brick, and I thought I was hip enough to dig the lingo brevitousness. After the first 40 minutes I kept confusing people and events so I started over (even thought of taking notes). I put another two hours into my retry but ulitimately, wasn't enjoying the staccato writing style. A book this different, should give potential listeners a good 20 minute sample. Alas, I'm giving up and looking for something better (read by Scott Brick perhaps because I enjoyed his delivery and hung on about 30 minutes more than I'd planned to). Listener beware!

I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, Ellroy, spills forth an enormous cast of characters during the first chapter. After about a half an hour of this, I had to stop. I listen to most of my audio books while driving long distances. To sort out the dozens of characters in this book takes intense concentration. This does not make it a safe drive and listen experience.
If I were reading the paper version of this book, I'd certainly be highlighting names and roles and scribbling notes in the margins, just to be able to follow along.

I'm not sure.

Even a terrific talent like this, can't come up with enough distinct voices to help sort out the multitudinous cast of characters.

I am shocked at the 3 negative reviews. I loved this book as I do all of James Ellroy's work.
Ellroy searches into his character's souls and the results are not pretty. He has a great understanding of what he is writing about.
The writing style is different. sort of 1 word sentences, but it is not hard to follow at all.
White Jazz is sort of a snap shot of urban life at a specific time in our history. The reality is real. The reality is disturbing.

I totally understand what the last two reviewers are talking about. If you've never read Ellroy, know that he is an aquired taste. It's almost like he's proud of his hip, unique writing style and wants to impress you, however the prose is clunky and completely gets in the way. It's not that I don't "get" Ellroy, it's more like I don't want to sift through his murky lingo, I want to be entertained by a great story. Even the great Scott Brick, a master, could not keep me there more than an hour. Move on to something else.

I hope Scott Brick got paid at least double for reading this book. Scott does an incredible job of bringing characters to "life". He "reads" the characters very well but this book is terrible. I tried to stick with it and listened to the 1st 7 hours but then decided to cut my losses and just figure I wasted a good book credit. Plot is thin. Hearing the repetitive foul language gets boring. I've listened to around 370 audiobooks since joining Audible.com and this is by far the worst book I've been subject to. Don't waste your money nor a book credit.