Words cannot adequately convey the gist of the Letter to Booksellers on the back cover of the ARC of James Ellroy's new novel BLOOD'S A ROVER, so here it is, verbatim:
Dear Booksellers,
In all its mellifluous and macho-maimed magnificence: my new novel, Blood's A Rover.
Knopf will drop this atom bomb of a book on you September 22. Your job is to groove it and grok its groin-grabbing gravity between now and then. From that point on: you handsell it to the book-buying public; I appear at your store and drive legions of my fans and your customers nuts; we all make out and give publishing a cash-cascading and profit-pronging boost in a bum marketplace!!!
Dig it!!!!!
The novel covers 1968-1972. It's a baaaaaad-ass historical romance -- huge in scope, deep in its exploration of the era, filled with my trademark craaaaazy shit, and suffused with a heightened sense of belief and the corollaries of political conversation and revolution. Oh, yeah -- this is a book for these times!
You've got Howard "Dracula" Hughes, Gay Edgar Hoover, and Tricky Dick Nixon. You've got the mob's evil eyes scoping the Dominican Republic. You've got voodoo in Haiti, a vicisiou armored-car heist, and the Feds out to deep-sixi the black militant movement. More than anything else, you've got three obsessed right-wing toadies grapping with the horror of their misdeeds - and seeking redemption in the peron of my greatest female character: The Red Goddess Joan.
Read this book.
Grab its greatness.
Find me on Facebook and let me know what you think (post on my wall!)
Yours truly,
James Ellroy
In all its mellifluous and macho-maimed magnificence: my new novel, Blood's A Rover.
Knopf will drop this atom bomb of a book on you September 22. Your job is to groove it and grok its groin-grabbing gravity between now and then. From that point on: you handsell it to the book-buying public; I appear at your store and drive legions of my fans and your customers nuts; we all make out and give publishing a cash-cascading and profit-pronging boost in a bum marketplace!!!
Dig it!!!!!
The novel covers 1968-1972. It's a baaaaaad-ass historical romance -- huge in scope, deep in its exploration of the era, filled with my trademark craaaaazy shit, and suffused with a heightened sense of belief and the corollaries of political conversation and revolution. Oh, yeah -- this is a book for these times!
You've got Howard "Dracula" Hughes, Gay Edgar Hoover, and Tricky Dick Nixon. You've got the mob's evil eyes scoping the Dominican Republic. You've got voodoo in Haiti, a vicisiou armored-car heist, and the Feds out to deep-sixi the black militant movement. More than anything else, you've got three obsessed right-wing toadies grapping with the horror of their misdeeds - and seeking redemption in the peron of my greatest female character: The Red Goddess Joan.
Read this book.
Grab its greatness.
Find me on Facebook and let me know what you think (post on my wall!)
Yours truly,
James Ellroy
Admittedly, I would have been shocked by a more sedate, formal letter, but it's definitely one of the more memorable extras to accompany an advance copy.
The only was this could have been better is if it were hand-written in blood. Not Ellroy's blood; someone else's.
Posted by: Graham | April 21, 2009 at 02:21 PM
Probably another book I won't get around to reading.
Posted by: Bill Crider | April 21, 2009 at 02:34 PM
So, is that also a new model for query letters?? :)
Posted by: RhondaL | April 21, 2009 at 02:34 PM
Yeah, I was mildly stunned to get a 'Friend Request' from 'The Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction'
Really looking forward to my ARC.
Posted by: Gordon Harries | April 21, 2009 at 03:19 PM
If only Ellroy wasn't quite such a self-effacing wallflower.
This book is not going on my TBR list until I know for sure it's not a logical descendent of THE COLD SIX THOUSAND, which doesn't sound promising, based on his own groin-grabbing description.
Posted by: Dana King | April 21, 2009 at 03:37 PM
Ah, come on, you got to love the groin grabbing discription. Ellroy truly is the last asshole writer in the U.S. He's so over the top he makes you shake your head a little and sigh, but it does make me want to read the final book in the trilogy. And I'll agree with Gordon on this one: Weirdest friend request ever.
Posted by: keith Rawson | April 21, 2009 at 04:22 PM
This turns booksellers on?
Posted by: I.J.Parker | April 21, 2009 at 04:53 PM
Words: Me. Failing.
Posted by: Cornelia Read | April 21, 2009 at 06:18 PM
Things have been tough all over since the Rat Pack started the Vietnam War and Sam Giancana iced Che Guevara and those limbo dancing red necks stormed the book store...that was a rush.
Where was I? Oh yeah, good copy.
Posted by: David Thayer | April 21, 2009 at 08:28 PM
I've been reading Ellroy for a long time, and I'm not sure what to think of him any more. I think he might have turned into the character he was playing.
Posted by: Nathan Cain | April 21, 2009 at 08:41 PM
Really, I woulden't want every Author to behave thus, but were people expecting ELLROY to be subdued?
Posted by: Gordon Harries | April 22, 2009 at 08:03 AM
Umm...wow.
Just wow.
Posted by: Jake Nantz | April 22, 2009 at 02:34 PM
Love it. A new one by Ellroy is a rare treat for me. He's so genuinely himself in that inimitable take-it-or-leave-it way he has. Unapologetic, and so...well. Brave, actually.
Posted by: Sarah Graves | April 23, 2009 at 10:57 AM
When did James Ellroy Bcome Harlan Ellison? Ellroy's blurb, the WAY it's written, & the novel's title BLOOD'S A ROVER, all sound XACTLY like Ellison around 1972. (4 those who missed him, Ellison was a brilliant science-fiction, fantasy & sometimes crime-style/thriller writer who peaked in popularity & creativity in the late '60s/early '70s. BLOOD'S A ROVER was a title Ellison was GOING 2 use 4 a novelization of his popular "Boy and His Dog" stories -- until HE burned-out & got 2 old....)
Ellroy's grabby prose here sounds JUST LIKE JE parodying Ellison at HE's most hyper. So I can only assume Ellroy's bn possessed? Ellroy's pretty brilliant -- but I didn't read BLACK DAHLIA, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL & THE BIG NOWHERE just Bcos they reminded me of some1 ELSE....
Thanx 4 sharing Ellroy's ravings, tho....
-- TAD.
Posted by: tad | April 25, 2009 at 03:31 PM
I cannot wait until September for this book.
Posted by: MPJ | April 27, 2009 at 03:42 PM
So James Ellroy writes a bad James Ellroy parody to sell his book. Fine by me. You can do that when you're James Ellroy. I, for one, will buy that mad bitch the day it drops and read the hell out of it.
Posted by: Bill Loehfelm | May 21, 2009 at 03:54 AM
Nazi writers fuck off...
Posted by: John | October 10, 2009 at 06:06 PM
Responses almost as entertaining as the original material!
Love to hear readers, writers, reviewers go at each other. The condensing requirement of a brief response forces a combination of poetic quality and comic punchline I really enjoy.
Life would be much less interesting without the likes of Ellroy to push us off balance. Met Ellroy in 1992 - he is all you say, and less.
Posted by: Peter | December 31, 2009 at 08:32 AM
I was your friend on facebook , dear James...but now I deleted my account for different reasons...but I don't want loose your friendahip....You tell me..love the life, hate the death, and like the dogs...I make all that things..and then we must remain friends!!!!With love and admiration.
Posted by: nella | February 27, 2010 at 01:07 PM