Rating: 
Summary: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth
Review: 'The Big Nowhere' is my personal favorite Ellroy novel, and one of the two or three best books I've ever read. As in the epic 'L.A. Confidential', the book's tortuous plotlines follow three cops tortured by their obsessions, converging in a dark night of the soul like no other in American literature. The miracle of this book is that it is an intensely moral drama. Danny Upshaw is one of the most tragic and driven characters in modern literature. But not even Danny is as ironically fascinating as Buzz Meeks. Buzz is as corrupt as they come, but there is a glimmer of goodness in him that brightens to a terrible fire. His fate lies just around the corner in the prologue to 'L.A. Confidential.' Mal Considine's obsessions were born in the liberation of the death camps after the war, and he is indelibly marked by the horror. His one grasp at goodness is something (someone) that is always just beyond his reach. I won't give anything up. The action is a series of plots centered around each of these three men. The plots converge into an unspeakable horror. But the horror of wanton crime is only a reflection of the horror within the darkest reaches of the soul. in 'The Big Nowhere', Ellroy does what Auden prescribed in his great poem "September 1, 1939:" in the depths of the darkness, and without sentimentality or pity, he nonetheless "shows an affirming flame."
Rating:
Summary: The best book Ellroy has written
Review: I have read all of Ellroy's books and this is by far the one that made the deepest impression on me. I find all of Ellroy's books utterly riveting, but only Clandestine and L.A. Confidential really come close to this one. The Big Nowhere is, IMHO, Ellroy's greatest because the murders are the most viscerally shocking (to me), and because of the brilliant way that Ellroy brings in HUAC and the Red Scare and Hollywood (not to mention homophobia in the LAPD). Also I find Upshaw to be Ellroy's greatest and most affecting creation, with only the protagonist of Clandestine to be really in the same ballpark. The other reason I love this book is that it is the least mannered and the most plot-driven of his truly ambitious novels. By White Jazz and American Tabloid, he began indulging his staccato-bebop style for its own sake. The Big Nowhere (as the title suggests) is the Ellroy novel most interested in confronting you with the personal and political abyss its characters face, and, on that basis, his best novel.A staggering achievement.
Rating:
Summary: The best of Ellroy's LA Quartet
Review: Black Dahlia, LA Confidential, White Jazz: Excellent.
The Bg Nowhere: Execptional!
Danny, Mal, Buzz: most compelling characters.
The Red Scare/Homosexual mutilation killings/Drugs/LAPD Corruption/ Obsession on-top-of obsession: Woven together without flaw. The darkest, most depressing of Ellroy's LA Quartet with an ending that sizzles. 6 out of 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Gives the phrase 'hard boiled crime fiction' a new meaning
Review: Wow. Five hundred pages of this stuff leaves you reeling. As somebody who's never read James Ellroy before, I picked up The Big Nowhere and was immediately captivated by it. The language Ellroy uses is sharp and fast, with sentences punched out so quickly and concisely that each paragraph is dense with info. The characters are extremely well drawn and are especially interesting because they have personal motivations for entering into and becoming involved in certain cases. The chapters involving Danny Upshaw stand out as the best. The plot is labyrinthe. Suffice to say, it's about three cops who become immersed in police corruption, serial murder, Communist witch-hunts and the underworld of homosexual prostitution. The violence is brutal and Ellroy pulls no punches in his descriptions - the entire novel hits you like a freight train. It winds its way to an excellent conclusion and never seems forced or contrived. All the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together nicely. After reading this I immediately moved on to the next one in the Dudley Smith series, 'LA Confidential'.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book of the Year!
Review: Well, for me at least (I heard of Ellroy from the movie LA Confidential - this book, I think, is from '89). I was utterly engrossed. I don't usually like mysteries or cop stories, but Ellroy is such a good writer that I easily kept up with the dozens of characters and half-dozen interwoven plots. No character is simple - even the good guys aren't really good guys (I suppose that is a cliche in this genre, but the main characters - Upshaw, Meeks and Mal - are like actual coplicated messy obsessive human beings with an epic gloss). Oh, I'm not being very articulate today - I really enjoyed the book. I could point out a few obvious flaws (scroll down for an astute reader review mentioning a parallel to the ending of Psycho). Just wanted to up the star-rating a little bit... if you would be just shocked! and horrified! by a book that deals with cop corruption, herion, mulitation, murder, guns, etc. then of course don't read The Big Nowhere. To the rest of us: even those who don't like this genre will enjoy the book. You don't know what's going to happen next and you can't wait to find out.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Crime Saga
Review: This has been the most enjoyable JE story I've read so far (of The Black Dahlia, The Cold Six and American Tabloid.) In terms of structure and narrative this is a tighter novel than The Black Dahlia. The clipped, adjectiveless style of later works is in its developmental stages here. JE writes best in third person, in my opinion.
As well as being a top notch murder mystery, TBN is also a meditation on the less savoury aspects of America's law enforcement agencies and post-war political preoccupations. As with other JE novels I've read, the major characters are deeply flawed, have appalling traits and are blind to their own failings, yet you cant help liking them. There is also enough humour to temper the darkness, and this is a dark novel! If you have to rise early for work, make sure you start it on a weekend, as its hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Ellroy is Tops
Review: THE BIG NOWHERE is, in my opinion, the best of the LA quartet.
LA CONFIDENTIAL is 2nd, followed by THE BLACK DAHLIA.
I own and have read everything James Ellroy has published.
Rating:
Summary: Left me breathless
Review: What a roller coaster ride! Getting into the rhythm is a bit like watching a production of Shakespeare - you have to get your ear attuned to the language, but once you achieve that, you are off and away and able to immerse yourself wholly in the experience. It takes a while to sort out the parallel plot lines and keep the characters in an orderly arrangement in your head. I even went back and re-read the first 3 chapters after about ten, and re-established them for myself (after that it was all quite clear). I suspect this is a matter of coming to terms with Ellroy's style - once mastered it's not such a big deal. For that reason, LA Confidential, the next book, didn't leave me quite so breathless, but I suspect it may have done if it has been my starting point. Ellroy's setting may be 1950s Los Angeles, and homage may being paid to the noir detectives of earlier eras, but his writing - both language and themes - is graphically contemporary. It has as much to tell us about current values as anything, as well as exposing the corruption and nastiness of a previous era. As someone brought up on a diet rich in the Hollywood dream factory (Dragnet, Perry Mason, and family sitcoms depicting the 'sunny' side of urban America where cops were your friend, and the ranch house in the suburbs an unassailable good) I love this exposition of the seemier side of life - which as contemporary events - eg the Rodney King bashing - show us are no less real. The story was of personal interest to me - the Grand Jury investigations into unions and Hollywood. The hard-bitten cynicism of several of the bad-guy heroes adds edge and bite to the historical facts. Straight after closing the covers on The Big Nowhere, I started LA Confidential, the next in the LA Quartet. I liked it just as much. There is no clear definition of a 'goodie' or 'baddie' in an Ellroy characterisation. Some of the fringe characters seem to get away with being decent (and one-dimensional), but they are only there to serve other purposes when necessary to tie the plot together. Once again, don't read it if you are squeamish about the bizarre and often distasteful things humans can do to one another. Not for the sanctimonious who don't want to believe ill of those we entrust with policing human excess either ! Anyone who loves detective fiction, is a fan of film and/or book noir, and likes a good read, and isn't turned off by some pretty graphic descriptions of mutilation and bizarre practices should like this.
Rating:
Summary: One of the high points of American crime fiction
Review: James Ellroy's so-called "L.A. Quartet" (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz) is one of the seminal bodies of work in American crime fiction. I have chosen to include a review under "The Big Nowhere" not because I feel it is the best book of the four (L.A. Confidential has a broader scope, takes greater risks, and is more compelling); simply, none of the other books moved me as much as this one did. Danny Upshaw, Mal Considine, and Buzz Meeks are among the most vividly-drawn and complex characters ever found in a crime novel. Despite the glaring character flaws in each one of them, some of which border on repugnance, I still managed to empathize with them completely. Ellroy is an absolute master when it comes to tying characters' actions to their various motivations and desires. This gives his works a depth that goes beyond the mere telling of a story. The ways in which Upshaw, Considine, and Meeks relate to the action--the ways in which they internalize it and bend it to their own specific set of needs--force the reader to take a personal interest in them. They are no longer merely the vehicle to draw the reader into the action, as most "detective" characters are in this genre; instead, each one provides a distinct point of view of the action, shaping it as much as they are shaped by it. Not since Philip Marlowe went to jail for Terry Lennox--and Marlowe's own ideals--has a crime novel so tightly woven plot with character. The story itself is too complicated to do justice in a brief review so I won't even try. The sheer number of subplots and ancillary characters could fill out the entire oeuvre of lesser writers, but Ellroy seamlessly integrates it all into a story that will have you playing the angles long after the book is finished. In fact, a second reading is almost necessary to catch all the nuance. If you're a fan of detective fiction, these books are required reading. Even if you're not, Ellroy is a fine writer on any level. If you're squeamish at all, you should take a pass.
Rating:
Summary: A horror story
Review: This is the second in Ellroy's "L.A. Quartet" that began with "The Black Dahlia." This one has three cops (among them, Buzz Meeks, who appears in the following book, though briefly.) involved in fighting Communism and solving a horrible series of killings in Los Angeles in 1950. One thing of note for Ellroy fans, this one has the most unflinching look at Dud Smith as well as lots of screen time for Johnny Stompanato.
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