Like Hot Knives to the Brain: James Ellroy's Search for Himself
Often more disturbing than entertaining, James Ellroy is an author who never shies away from the ugly or repellent. Eminent crime fiction scholar Peter Wolfe examines how Ellroy transcends the genres of pulp and neo-noir fiction to write stories that are both psychologically haunting and culturally relevant. Wolfe skillfully combines biography—including the unsolved murder of Ellroy's mother—with literary analysis to provide a fascinating and readable study of this popular author. The first in-depth companion to the work of James Ellroy, Like Hot Knives to the Brain will interest students of popular culture, mystery readers, and crime buffs everywhere.
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Like Hot Knives to the Brain: James Ellroy's Search for Himself
Often more disturbing than entertaining, James Ellroy is an author who never shies away from the ugly or repellent. Eminent crime fiction scholar Peter Wolfe examines how Ellroy transcends the genres of pulp and neo-noir fiction to write stories that are both psychologically haunting and culturally relevant. Wolfe skillfully combines biography—including the unsolved murder of Ellroy's mother—with literary analysis to provide a fascinating and readable study of this popular author. The first in-depth companion to the work of James Ellroy, Like Hot Knives to the Brain will interest students of popular culture, mystery readers, and crime buffs everywhere.
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Like Hot Knives to the Brain: James Ellroy's Search for Himself
Often more disturbing than entertaining, James Ellroy is an author who never shies away from the ugly or repellent. Eminent crime fiction scholar Peter Wolfe examines how Ellroy transcends the genres of pulp and neo-noir fiction to write stories that are both psychologically haunting and culturally relevant. Wolfe skillfully combines biography—including the unsolved murder of Ellroy's mother—with literary analysis to provide a fascinating and readable study of this popular author. The first in-depth companion to the work of James Ellroy, Like Hot Knives to the Brain will interest students of popular culture, mystery readers, and crime buffs everywhere.
Peter Wolfe is the Curators' Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. His many book subjects include Graham Greene, Jean Rhys, Raymond Chandler, Yukio Mishima, William Gaddis, and the Twilight Zone television series. Wolfe's shorter works have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Chicago Tribune, the L. A. Times, the Washington Post, the New Zealand Listener, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Calcutta Statesman, and Modern Fiction Studies.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 An All-Star Cast of Ruffians Chapter 2 Ghostly Visitations Chapter 3 The Art of Attack Chapter 4 A Cosmology with Mirrors Chapter 5 Riding a Nightmare with Crazy Lloyd Chapter 6 Back-door Justice on the Killing Fields: The L.A. Quartet Chapter 7 An All-Star Criminal Cast
What People are Saying About This
John le Carré
Wolfe is that rare creature in the literary jungle: a generous-minded pundit who loves writers, explores their world honestly and diligently, and gives us his findings with affection, elegance, and impressive insight. James Ellroy is a lucky man.
John Lutz
No one identifies and connects the literary dots better, and more entertainingly, than Peter Wolfe. Without fail, he serves up fine writing about fine writers. Readers can't help but enjoy the works of his subjects all the more, once Wolfe has shared his insights and analyses.
