James Ellroy
Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, ...
The Big Nowhere
''The Big Nowhere'' is a 1988 crime fiction novel by American author James Ellroy, the second of the L.A. Quartet, a series of novels set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles.
Plot
The plot centers around three characters: L.A. Deputy Sheriff Danny Up ...
'', and '' L.A. Confidential''. James Ellroy dedicated ''White Jazz'' "TO ''Helen Knode''." The epigraph for ''White Jazz'' is "'In the end I possess my birthplace and I am possessed by its language.' - Ross MacDonald."
Lieutenant David Klein is a veteran policeman who moonlights as a hitman for organized crime. When he is assigned to investigate a robbery at the home of the
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
's (LAPD) sanctioned heroin dealer, he uncovers a plot to bring the city's crime syndicates into collusion with the channels of justice.
The stories of many characters that appeared in earlier L.A. Quartet novels, including Edmund Exley and Dudley Smith, have their ends tied up in ''White Jazz'', which also introduces Pete Bondurant, one of the central characters in Ellroy's ''
Underworld USA Trilogy
The Underworld USA Trilogy is the collective name given to three novels by American crime author James Ellroy: '' American Tabloid'' (1995), ''The Cold Six Thousand'' (2001), and ''Blood's a Rover'' (2009).
Overview
The trilogy blends fiction and ...
.''
Prologue
''White Jazzs prologue is told by protagonist David Douglas Klein, years after the events have taken place:
All I have is the will to remember. Time revoked/fever dreams-I wake up reaching, afraid I'll forget. Pictures keep the woman young. L.A., fall 1958. Newsprint: link the dots. Names, events-so brutal they beg to be connected. Years down-the story stays dispersed. The names are dead or too guilty to tell. I'm old, afraid I'll forget: I killed innocent men. I betrayed sacred oaths. I reaped profit from horror. Fever-that time burning. I want to go with the music-spin, fall with it.
vice unit
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tr ...
. He has a sister named Meg, with whom he shares an
incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...
uous attraction, and performs contract killings for the mob to cover the costs for law school. Klein has committed several murders, including the unsolved killings of Tony Brancato and Tony Trombino, who were killed in revenge for hurting Meg. He seeks to get out of mob work and begs the dying Jack Dragna to let him go. When he refuses, Klein suffocates him.
After setting up a raid on a
bookmaking
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds.
History
The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795.
Range of events
Bookm ...
operation, Klein and his partner, George "Junior" Stemmons, are ordered to protect a witness in a probe into organized crime in
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
. Having been told by gangster
Mickey Cohen
Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen (September 4, 1913 – July 29, 1976) was an American gangster, boxer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles during the mid-20th century.
Early life
Mickey Cohen was born on September 4, 1913, in New York City to Je ...
that another crime figure,
Sam Giancana
Salvatore Mooney Giancana (; born Gilormo Giangana; ; May 24, 1908 – June 19, 1975) was an American mobster who was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966.
Giancana was born in Chicago to Italian immigrant parents. He joined the 42 ...
corrupt
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
Narcotics Squad, summons Klein to investigate a burglary at the home of J. C. Kafesjian, a drug dealer sanctioned by the LAPD.
Klein gets a side job from
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
to obtain information on an actress named Glenda Bledsoe that would violate the morality clause of her full-service contract. Klein learns through Cohen that Glenda has a "publicity date" with actor Rock Rockwell which violates the clause. During surveillance of Glenda, Klein finds out she, Rockwell, Touch Vecchio, and George Ainge are planning a fake kidnapping. Klein falls for Glenda and decides not to aid Hughes in getting her blacklisted by the film industry. He begins to aid Glenda as he continues investigating the Kafesjian burglary.
Klein discovers that Edmund Exley is still trying to prosecute Dudley Smith and begins working with him. When he meets an undercover officer, Johnny Duhamel, Klein is shot up with drugs and kills him in an act caught on film. Klein is arrested by federal agents and becomes a witness, but is given forty-eight hours before he is taken into custody. Klein and Exley discover that Smith is selling heroin exclusively to the black population in the
Southside Southside or South Side may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Southside, Queensland, a semi-rural locality in the Gympie Region
Canada
* South Side, Newfoundland and Labrador, a community in the St. George's Bay area on the southwest coast of Newf ...
to keep crime in that area "contained". The two track down the Kafesjians' burglar, Wylie Bullock.
Finding himself grappling with all of his crimes and everything that is happening, Klein decides to meet Smith, who had earlier offered him a deal. Klein brings Bullock but is forced to shoot him when he attacks and maims Smith. Klein tries to flee but is soon caught. While in federal custody, Klein writes a full confession and has copies sent to various press outlets. Only the tabloid magazine ''Hush-Hush'' is willing to print it, but is prevented from doing so by an injunction. Klein manages to escape from custody and hide out with Pete Bondurant; Hughes has Bondurant beat him up, causing Klein to be hospitalized.
Exley sends Klein a package in the hospital, which includes a blank passport and a silencer-fitted
.38
.38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
Th ...
revolver. In a note, Exley says he will allow Klein to kill Smith if he feels justice has not been absolute. Instead, Klein murders J. C. and Tommy Kafesjian. He spends one last night with Glenda, takes pictures to remember her by and flies to
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
. In the epilogue, set many years later, Klein plans to return to Los Angeles intending to destroy Exley's
gubernatorial
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
campaign, take revenge on Carlisle and Smith and find Glenda.
Critical review
The reviews for ''White Jazz'' were quite positive. "Blacker than noir... Makes most other crime novels seem naive."--''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
''. "James Ellroy's latest book WHITE JAZZ makes previous detective fiction read like
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving whi ...
in its descriptions of unimaginably cruel law officers who are not merely tainted by corruption on a vast scale but pursue conventional police work as a sideline to more lucrative illegal activities that burst into the public consciousness in violent frenzies.... An undeniably artful frenzy of violence, guilt and unappeased self-loathing. Ellroy's crime fiction represents a high mark in the genre."--''
New York Newsday
''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of '' Newsday'', a Long Island ...
''.
In the wake of the
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in So ...
,
Wendy Lesser
Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.
In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
, reviewing the novel for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote:
What the real Los Angeles possesses, amid all its fiery disintegration, is what Mr. Ellroy's latest novel keenly lacks: a coherent narrative line. We may not have been pleased about what was happening this spring, but we knew why it was happening. In ''White Jazz'', I was lost by page 56—the page on which the author explicitly reveals whatever plot the novel is going to have. ("Instinct—call me bait—a bad cop sent out to draw heat," Klein correctly guesses.) For the next 300 pages it was just a matter of waiting out the body count and wishing for a more interesting variety of subject-verb combinations. Mr. Ellroy, in order to pack ''maximo'' action into ''minimo'' pages, has developed what he clearly views as a whiplash telegraphic style. No doubt the violence done to the English language is meant to mirror the violence done to humanity by its fellow humanity (I'm being charitable here). But we can't really begin to care about characters who never even get to inhabit a complete sentence.
Efforts at a film adaptation
Various attempts at a film adaption of ''White Jazz'' have been under development since the 1990s. But as of 2009, Ellroy said that an adaptation of "''White Jazz'' is dead. All movie adaptations of my books are dead."
History
Ellroy completed a draft of a 131-page screenplay on October 31, 1997. In 1998, cinematographer Robert Richardson signed on for what would have been his directorial debut with
Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features (often spelled as FineLine Features) was the specialty films division of New Line Cinema. From 1991 to 2005, under founder and president Ira Deutchman, Fine Line acquired, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flav ...
distributing. They put the project into turnaround in early 1999 due to budgetary concerns. In early December 2001, it was reported that "German-based VIF Intl. Films had come aboard to finance ''White Jazz'', co-producing with
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...
's Kingsgate Films and L.A.-based production company Interlight. Nolte and
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...
were set to star in the film, with
Winona Ryder
Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), professionally known as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Originally playing quirky roles, she rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has recei ...
reportedly in discussions to join them. Nolte was to play Klein, Cusack to play Junior Stemmons and Ryder to play Hollywood starlet Glenda.
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and former model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 an ...
was also attached to the project at one point and was to play Glenda. The screenplay was written by Ellroy and Christopher Cleveland. After the demise of the project, Richardson said "That's why directors go absolutely crazy – the development of a project is highly unpredictable and doesn't make tremendous sense. It may happen, but not in my time frame."
On November 30, 2006, it was reported that George Clooney was set to star in a newly green-lit film adaptation of the novel for
Warner Independent Pictures
Warner Independent Pictures was an independent film division of the American film studio Warner Bros., itself a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, which then was known as TimeWarner. Established in August 2003, its first release was 2004's ' ...
. Clooney was also on board as producer along with his Smoke House partner
Grant Heslov
Grant Heslov (born May 15, 1963) is an American actor and filmmaker known for his producing and writing collaborations with George Clooney, which have earned him four Oscar nominations. As a co-producer of ''Argo'' (2012), he received the Academ ...
Joe Carnahan
Joseph Aaron Carnahan (born May 9, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor whose films include ''Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane''; '' Narc''; ''Smokin' Aces''; ''The A-Team''; '' The Grey''; and ''Boss Level''. He al ...
Peter Berg
Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy ''Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy ''The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night Lig ...
had signed on to appear in the film. The script changes the Armenian Kafesjian family in the novel to the Mexican Magdalena family. Joe Carnahan said this of his brother's script, "It's, to me, what that book always was – the point of departure from the
Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
'50s to the psychedelic freakshow, Manson '60s. It's a total combination of the two with a heavy, heavy voice-over narration, this kind of classic noir." Carnahan had also confirmed that the characters of Ed Exley and Dudley Smith would not be in the film version despite their presence in the book, as Regency Productions has its own plans for a sequel to '' L.A. Confidential'' and asked the director to remove Exley from his screenplay as they own the rights to the character. Instead, the Carnahans had constructed a "doppelganger" for Exley, "giving him all of istraits and speech patterns."
Carnahan described his vision of ''White Jazz'' as reflecting the "kind of mid-century explosion of art and music, and really letting that be the kind of guiding force behind it, as opposed to making it like this ... all 'period suits'. I really want to try to make it as accurate a reflection of L.A. at that moment in time as I can." He also commented on George Clooney's willingness to play an unlikable character for the first time. "He's made that very clear to me: 'I have no other desire than to play what's in that script.' And what's in that script is a pretty despicable guy at times, and pretty nefarious and nasty and selfish." Carnahan also touched upon how he trimmed down the novel's numerous subplots because "I always thought that as much as I love ''White Jazz'', it became almost unfilmable at some point, because there are so many strands, so much, and it became so psychotic ... that's what made it such a great book, but those things would not carry over into the filmic realm, I thought, with ease."
Clooney later dropped out of starring in the film due to scheduling conflicts with other projects.
Chris Pine
Chris Pine (born August 26, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' reboot film series (2009–present), Steve Trevor in the DC Extended Universe films ''Wonder Woman'' (2017) and '' Wo ...
, who was also up for a role in the film, decided to take on the role of James T. Kirk in
J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...
' 2009 '' Star Trek'' film. Having finished the last draft of the screenplay, Carnahan initially stated that he would still make the film and had "a couple of options in terms of other actors that I am completely over the moon for."