Best Author Appearance
James Ellroy
The wiry, gray-haired gentleman strutting on stage in a pin-striped suit came to read from and discuss his new book, The Cold Six Thousand -- not to watch a documentary about his own life. So James Ellroy announced (after calling members of the audience pimps, pedophiles and panty sniffers) that he'd be going out to get some pizza while fans of his crime novels enjoyed the flick. The narrative of James Ellroy's Feast of Death, which lent a kind of insight into the writer's obsession with crime, haunted and repulsed those in the audience, but -- there was no denying it -- they were seduced. Every pair of eyes in that theater locked with Ellroy's from the moment he returned to the podium. His manner during the interview segments of the film had prepared people for the kind of author they were about to meet. (When an old lady in a video store told him she loved the movie version of his novel American Tabloid, he asked, "But listen Granny, did you go out and buy the book?" When she said no, he replied, "Then what the fuck good are you to me?") That's not to say that Ellroy doesn't enjoy his fame. He is, however, of the opinion that money talks, and he began his reading with a warped sales pitch. "These books are for the whole family," he boomed, hardly needing the microphone in front of him, "if the name of your family is Manson." It was part of an act for which Ellroy has become known, but he whisked in and out of the Uptown too fast for audience members to get over their intimidation and ask questions -- he left everybody wanting more. But he lives in Mission Hills, so with luck, he'll read here again soon.
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