American Underworld Trilogy

American Underworld Trilogy is the collective name given to three novels by American crime author James Ellroy. They are "American Tabloid" (1995), "The Cold Six Thousand" (2001) and "Blood's a Rover", due in 2009.

Books

* (1995) "American Tabloid"
* (2001) "The Cold Six Thousand"
* (2009) "Blood's a Rover"

Overview

The trilogy blends fiction and history to tell a story of political and legal corruption in the American establishment between 1958 and 1973. "American Tabloid" covers the years 1958 to 1963, beginning exactly five years before the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, with the assassination as the book's denoument. "The Cold Six Thousand" begins concurrently with "American Tabloid's" end. It covers a slightly longer period, culminating in the twin assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Francis Kennedy. "Blood's a Rover" will span the years 1968 to 1973, encompassing Vietnam, the death of J. Edgar Hoover and the reign of President Richard M. Nixon. Ellroy also intimates we will "learn who really killed Sonny Liston." The novel, like "American Tabloid" and "The Cold Six Thousand", will be structured around a trio of central characters including the returning Wayne Tedrow Jr. Ellroy also vows the book will be the longest of the trilogy.

Literary devices and innovations

Ellroy has developed a number of literary innovations in his work and these have found their fullest expression in this trilogy.

Triple narrator

This is a type of third person narration that Ellroy first used in "The Big Nowhere" (1988) and its sequel "L.A. Confidential" (1990). It was discarded in Ellroy's next book "White Jazz" (1992), (which used a standard first person narrator,) but was reinstated for "American Tabloid" and "The Cold Six Thousand". It consists of presenting three major protagonists, each with chapters that are identifiably "theirs". Each chapter is written in third person but excludes any information of which the protagonist would be unaware. For the most part, it distributes the chapters evenly between the three protagonists and will run in a consistent ABCABC sequence. Exceptions to this include the death of one of the protagonists, in which case it will revert to ABABAB.

Ellroy adds further consistencies in the way he uses this device, such as all three protagonists being male, being police or ex-policemen, each having a female love-interest (frequently shared), and having the interrelation of the three protagonists as a point of interest. The scope of this device was widened in the American Underworld Trilogy by presenting protagonists who "survive" from the first book, to become protagonists in the second.

Document inserts

Like the "triple narrator", the insertion of documents is a device that Ellroy used previous to the American Underworld Trilogy, notably in "L.A. Confidential" and "White Jazz". It provides an opportunity to present objective information that might not be accessible to the protagonists. This device appears between the "proper" chapters and purports to be a factual transcript of various documents of significance to the story.

This gives the books a semi-"documentary" feel, although the "documents" are entirely fictional.

In "L.A. Confidential" and "White Jazz", the documents were usually newspaper articles, confidential reports and memoranda, and personal letters. In the American Underworld Trilogy, the possible uses have been expanded to include transcripts of telephone conversations and bug and wiretap transcripts.

Historical figures

Although, strictly speaking, the device of blending fictional characters with historical figures is not original with Ellroy, in the American Underworld Trilogy he has done this in a way that has rarely been matched elsewhere. The combination is close to fifty-fifty and it is often difficult to determine which is which.

In "American Tabloid", the historical figures who appear directly in the action include John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy, Jimmy Hoffa, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Sam Giancana, and other Cosa Nostra figures, including Jack Ruby. "The Cold Six Thousand" introduces Lee Harvey Oswald, Martin Luther King Jr., Sonny Liston, and Sal Mineo.

In most cases, the actions of the historical figures is not that of record, but Ellroy provides deft character essays on each.