Since completing the quartet of LA crime novels that made his name, James Ellroy has left us in no doubt that he wants to be more than a genre writer, embarking on a series of books intended to rewrite the history of America between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, the 'Underworld USA' trilogy. The title is a tribute to Sam Fuller, who directed the film of the same name, but the initial impetus came - as Ellroy frequently acknowledges - from Libra, Don DeLillo's Lee Harvey Oswald novel.

LRB 19 July 2001 | PDF Download