American Tabloid

De: James Ellroy

Narrado por: Christopher Lane

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, DC....

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.

©1995 James Ellroy (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved

Great Performance by Christopher Lane!

Ellroy at his best! Christopher Lane at his Best! If you have doubts about Audio books doing great novels justice, hit play and sit back. It will transcend you!

nice!!!

and so it was acted and so it was written no one does it better

A Supercollider of a Story

Named by Time magazine as 1995's Best Fiction, this novel is "packing." Written in a pugnacious style I haven't really read before, the book centers on 3 men: Kemper Boyd, a philandering FBI agent recruited by J. Edgar Hoover to infiltrate the Kennedy clan via Bobby's efforts to prosecute Jimmy Hoffa and his mob associates; Ward Littell, an obdurate alcoholic FBI agent who's on the outs with Hoover and ultimately becomes connected with organized crime in Chicago and Howard Hughes; and, Pete Bondurant, a bad-to-the-bone heavy lifter, former law enforcement officer, who works for Hughes, Hoffa and ultimately with the CIA.

The story takes place over 5 years from November 1958 through the day of Pres. Kennedy's assassination, covering shakedowns, collusions, heroin, the Bay of Pigs, numerous hits and a treasonous "contract." In addition to the H's (Hoover, Hughes and Hoffa), the novel is filled with FBI and CIA officials, anti-Castro rebels, the Hollywood crowd, CIA officials, Cuban commies and various mobsters from New York, Chicago and Miami.

Ellroy pulls no punches in this supercollider of a story from page 1 to the fateful finish.

The narrator did an excellent job with both the book's torrid pace and the various accents.

Gory but absorbing

What made the experience of listening to American Tabloid the most enjoyable?

The total fully-realized world of the CIA/FBI/Mob that Ellroy created, and trying to untangle it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of American Tabloid?

Ellroy's use of language is great. Maybe too great, as the book is more gory than what I'd usually pick.

What about Christopher Lane’s performance did you like?

Great voices, great cadence. There was something weird with the audio where it sounded like some parts had been recorded separately and spliced in -- a little distracting but otherwise very good.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I did not have an extreme reaction to this book, except it was very gory. I would definitely listen to another Ellroy book, though.

Shocking story...

This is often difficult listening, but has so much to say about our past. I was a young adult during much of the time covered but had no understanding of the forces at play in our country. Recommended listening, but not for the faint of heart.....