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Fritz Brown's L.A. and his life - are masses of contradictions, like stirring chorales sung for the dead. A less-than-spotless former cop with a drinking problem - a private eye-cum-repo man with a taste for great musiche has been known to wallow in the grime beneath the Hollywood glitter. But Fritz Brown's life is about to change, thanks to the appearance of a racist psycho who flashes too much cash for a golf caddie and who walked away clean from a multiple murder rap. Reopening this cas could be Fritz's redemption; his welcome back to a moral world and his path to a pure and perfect love. But to get there, he must make it through a grim, lightless place where evil has no national borders; where lies beget lies and death begets death; where there's little tolerance for Bach or Beethoven and deadly arson is a lesser mortal sin; and where a p.i.'s unhealthy interest in the past can turn beautiful music into funeral dirge.… (more)
User reviews
The story is narrated by Fritz Brown, an ex-cop repo man/private detective in love with the greats of classical music and eleven months off the sauce. He is hired by a crazed, anti-Semitic caddy named “Fat Dog” Baker to dig up dirt on an elderly Jewish businessman who has taken up the role of guardian for Baker’s sister. As Brown begins his investigation, he quickly realizes that there is more to the story than he was first led to believe. He finds himself embroiled in a world of crooked cops, down and out caddies, sexual perversion, and old family sins—and in the process manages to fall in love with Fat Dog’s sister. He resolves to redeem himself for his past failings by busting wide open an old murder and ridding the world of a series of bad hombres, all while battling the specter of alcoholism looming over his shoulder.
“Brown’s Requiem” was a really good read, but at the same time, you can definitely tell that it was Ellroy’s first novel. The story seems to meander at times, but he pulls the plot together pretty well. My main gripe is that the Brown character’s interaction with other characters seems somewhat… off. That’s the only way I can describe it. He has crazed outbursts at times, other times is uncharacteristically gentle. And the conversations with Jane Baker, his love interest, seem stilted at best. While this type of character interaction could be a great plot device, it wasn’t integrated into the story well enough to be effective, and it really seemed like an area the author hadn’t completely honed his skills. Also, I felt the ending was a little too much on the happy side. It wasn’t a “happily ever after” type of ending, but at the same time I don’t feel like it did justice to the bleak nihilism present throughout the rest of the narrative.
Overall, I really did like the book. It was a great detective tale, and though it made use of a lot of tried and true tropes of the genre, still managed to be innovative and entertaining. I wish I could give it a 3.75 star rating, but since I can’t, it’ll have to be a 3.5.
After reading my first noir (and road trip) novel The Cold Kiss by John Rector few weeks ago, I really feared that Ellroy would be somehow equally boring as Rector. But my fear was unfounded because Ellroy’s writing is extremley beautiful and colorful. He got this special ability to draw real pictures in one’s head while reading. And because of this talent of fictional drawing and a complex and surprising plot I will joyfully continue reading the following novels by this highly entertaining noir thriller writer.
Fritz Brown is James Ellroy's first creation and a worthy successor to Philip Marlowe. Brown is an ex-cop, dismissed from the L.A.P.D. for having broken the legs of the Vice Department's favorite snitch. Brown was incensed that the department continued to support the informer, even after learning of the man's pedophilic practices.
Brown is hired by a sadist to dig up dirt on his sister's "boyfriend." Soon he is mired in murder, arson, swindles, police corruption, and enough perversion to keep an entire squad of detectives busy. Brown has to face his own demons before resolving the crime in his own extra-legal fashion.
I recommend listening to Mahler's Second Symphony while reading this fast-paced novel. It's not called the Resurrection Symphony for nothing.
But I've had Brown's Requiem, his 1980 debut, on my "unread" shelf for nearly a decade, and I just grabbed it on a whim and dived in (via audiobook). From page one, Brown's Requiem reads like a trial run for every other book Ellroy has written. It's all here: an obsessed protagonist; a hilariously over-complicated plot; lots of focus on classical music as "good music"; gonzo violence (including the good ol' "empty gun into someone's face" deal that Ellroy uses all of the time); and so on. Fritz Brown is, however, not as insanely racist as almost every other Ellroy protagonist, and he even defends minorities in a few spots...though these moments feel really forced.
The writing is cleaner and more traditional than Ellroy's later books, but his staccato pacing is still here. The book made me remember why I liked Ellroy so much, but it also reminded me why I no longer obsess over him. The guy has basically been writing the same book over and over from this point on--he's rehashing the same worldview that's guided him since his mom's murder, and I just have a hard time with it these days.
How has this author gotten as popular as he is.
I realize this was his first book, but still, it is not a book that tells a story it tells a bunch of facts. At least the book was complete sentences. His layer stuff is unreadable for me since the sentences contain 4-5 words.
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