The Black Dahlia

Hollywood, January 1947- The severely mutilated body of a young woman was found dumped on a vacant lot. Her body was cut in half, and her mouth was slashed from ear to ear, turning her lovely smile into a grotesque clownish grin for eternity.

Such was the sad death of Elizabeth Short, Hollywood's most notorious unsolved crime. The Black Dahlia case inspired several books, a heavy metal band, a series of watercolor paintings by Marilyn Manson, and countless theories and counter-theories.

What kept me up last night until the early hours of today's dawn was James Ellroy's neo-noir novel based on this sensational case.

James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia has over three pages of blurbs fronting it in its Mysterious Press paperback edition praising Ellroy's electrifying prose, and hardcore depiction of an age characterized by obsession, perversion, and ambition. Three pages of hossanas, and the novel well deserves it.

I have never been as much engrossed as I was reading this book, and that says a lot. The language draws you in its hypnotic staccato, rhythmic, and sensual, it throbs gently through one's taut back at the end of the day, like a good book should. The dialogue is highly charged with innuendos and gritty realism. The characters are cleverly nuanced, their individual biases, bigotries, and saving graces, were all bravely depicted without resorting to cheap caricatures of "noir".

If I were teaching a creative writing class, this one's definitely on my reading list. The brilliant project of capturing Hollywood's debauchery as a metaphor for an age of obsession and ambition against the backdrop of corruption is worth studying not just for its intention, but for its masterful success in realizing such project in an intense, and sensational prose that delves deeply psychologically, and soars gracefully narrative-wise. The Black Dahlia is a must-read, must-hear.

In a genre known for its darkness, and subtle alienation, James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia prowls the streets with a Magnum in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and dried blood on both.

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