War Of Words

Fêted crime writer James Ellroy has released his new novel This Storm, continuing his development of a Los Angeles that not many readers will be familiar with

- Bruce Dennill

You’re known for your distinctive writing style – clipped sentences and blunt, brutal language. It’s incredibly filmic – like instructions for an actor to follow and to help a reader accurately formulate an image of the places your characters operate in. At this point in your career, does it still require much editing to bring that out or is it just a natural flow?

James Ellroy: I think I’ve expanded that to a less clipped style, though it’s still concise. It’s the result of the copiously detailed outlines I do for all my books. I spend a lot of time creating a superstructure that allows me to know that everything I add to it will make sense in terms of theme and the way the characters interact. And at this stage, I am my only frame of reference – I don’t look at the work of others.

The world you depict is incredibly dense – all the characters and their individual threads – and profoundly cynical. That can be uncomfortable to read. Perhaps that’s because it’s a more accurate reflection of readers; our public and private personae mashed up, complex and layered?