"L.A. Confidential"

Author James Ellroy was born in L.A. the year I graduated from high school there. Published in 1990, it takes place in the early 50s, a time when I was visiting home off of ships; the Korea War was in progress and I was a part of it. What brought me to the book was a portrait of Ellroy in "Rolling Stone," and thus the book served as not only as in introduction to his writing, but a review of what might be called in those days "my stomping grounds." In fact, the Silverlake neighborhood is mentioned more than a few times; our across the street neighbor, Mrs. Ball (a policewoman who undoubtedly knew many of the police and criminals portrayed in the book) took me to a couple of DAP (Deputy Auxiliary Police) meetings

I can see how people could become quite addicted to this kind of writing. Not only is it excellent in quality, but goes into a seamy part of life that seems to be so attractive to so many people ... eg. teenagers and people who are drawn to criminal activity via videos and computer games, not to mention all the "cop shows" & the like. What it brought back for me was a neighborhood (unmentioned in the book) close to Silverlake, Echo Park ,,, where my grandparents Roberts lived, and where there was a park which was the rival of our own neighborhood park. Echo Park was partially a Chicano area, and the team we played was dominated by tough street gang type people (called Pachucos in those days).

The game was rough. even though it was "touch football." and one of our players got his faced pushed into a drinking fountain at half time; & thus did not finish the game. We tied the game at 12 all in the last few minutes, and felt an ominous feeling as we left the playground, to walk to Sunset Blvd. to catch the streetcar. Along the lake we were suddenly surrounded by neighborhood teenagers, and if we had not outnumbered them we may have ended up in the lake, or worse. My prejudices for several years were toward Spanish speaking young people, and it was only after I served with some of them in the military that I was able to turn this around.

It was fascinating to visit Los Angeles again, via the l950s, and I look forward to the film version of the novel via video. It will be instructive to see how the neighborhoods are portrayed, the cars, costumes, speech and mannerisms. Ellroy"s major novels are set in Los Angeles, and he has been for many years recognized as a major American novelist. I may indulge again one of these days.