Conversations with James Ellroy

As a novelist who has spent years crafting and refining his intense and oftoutrageous "Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction" persona, James Ellroyhas used interviews as a means of shaping narratives outside of his novels.Conversations with James Ellroy covers a series of interviews given by Ellroyfrom 1984 to 2010, in which Ellroy discusses his literary contribution andhis public and private image.Born Lee Earle Ellroy in 1948, James Ellroy is one of the most criticallyacclaimed and controversial contemporary writers of crime and historicalfiction. Ellroy''s complex narratives, which merge history and fiction,have pushed the boundaries of the crime fiction genre: American Tabloid, arevisionist look at the Kennedy era, was Time magazine''s Novel of the Year1995, and his novels L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia were adaptedinto films. Much of Ellroy''s remarkable life story has served as the templatefor the personal obsessions that dominate his writing. From the brutal,unsolved murder of his mother, to his descent into alcohol and drug abuse,his sexual voyeurism, and his stints at the Los Angeles County Jail, Ellroyhas lived through a series of hellish experiences that few other writerscould claim.Steven Powell is an independent scholar and the co-founder and co-editorof the crime fiction studies website The Venetian Vase. He is the editor ofthe forthcoming 100 American Crime Writers.