Hello.
I thought I’d have author news this month, but I don’t really. Things are progressing. The new edition of FOUR DAYS (my debut) is in editing, and the cover is being designed. The zine project I’m working on (titled WHAT LIVING AND DYING IS LIKE) is delayed — because I’m fussy about how the thing will look — but my feeling is that this thing is quite close to finished.
In short, it’s summer in Melbourne and I’m working on things.
So, let’s talk about books instead.
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
I try to keep this newsletter as straightforward as possible. I read a few books and write up the good ones. But one of the traps I’ve laid for myself is that I’m on a bit of a re-reading kick these days. Thus, after having re-read L.A. Confidential this month, I’m to do what exactly? Pitch you on one of the best crime novels of the 1990s? Square off against the master, my biggest influence? What is there left to say about this book and its author?
In lieu of something comprehensive, here are my notes from going through it again:
The book has three protagonists, all detectives: Bud White, the tough guy (played in the movie by a post-Romper Stone Russell Crowe); Ed Exley, the ruthlessly ambitious nerd; and Jack Vincennes — a slimy, guilt-ridden addict. One thing that really jumped out this time round is the fact that Ellroy is Ed. He looks like Ed. Has a domineering father like Ed. And Ellroy acts like Ed, if the memoirs are to be believed. At the resolution of the novel, Ed solves the case by accepting Bud and Jack, faults and all. More than ever before, this book strikes me as Ellroy attempting to make peace with himself in the same way that the Black Dahlia is his attempt to make amends with his mother.
The plot of this book is insane. Much is made of the novel’s transitional style. It’s the book where Nat Sobel had Ellroy prune to the point of minimalism, an approach Ellroy has explored ever since. Now, I buy all this, but I don’t exactly buy it without reservation. The mythology of L.A. Confidential’s plot as so essential that minimalism is the only way to harness it feels kinda off. No, the plot of L.A. Confidential is insane. Layers upon layers upon layers, and quite scattershot. Thankfully the most fanciful parts of the story are also some of the most lurid, violent and compelling. Speaking of which…
Ellroy goes big at the end, which is a concept worth remembering. The film is about a third of the novel and while I love it, the concluding pay-off is where the book puts itself light-years ahead of the adaptation. In the first two acts, the novel works but you can see Ellroy’s ambition really kick in during that last act. 400 pages of Class-A crime noir is not enough for him. He still feels the need to blow the whole world of the novel wide open at the end. And he does it. If I explained the story beats to you, you probably wouldn’t believe any writer could sell such a spectacle.
That’s it really. Revisiting this as an older man — and a writer — provided a few different angles, but L.A. Confidential is still teaching me things.
Probably always will be.
Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control by Ryan Holiday
I’ve read a lot of Ryan Holiday’s work and I’m old enough to have vivid memories of reading his blog during the ‘blog era’. Working with one foot in the self-help space, Holiday’s books on stoic philosophy are difficult to describe. There are plenty of anecdotes and stories. Lots of ironclad assertions. The prose is crisp and to a piece, the books are beautifully structured. They’re concise.
But how I find them depends largely on my mood and time of life. There have been moments and eras where I’ve found his topics difficult to endure. Measuring up against the stoics is not easy, after all. The idea of reading about an idealised version of yourself (or Ryan), and what you might be? During the wrong winter, it fills me with dread.
I’m happy to report that his latest book Discipline Is Destiny landed softly. All novelists are disciplinarians of some sort because there is almost no rational reason to develop the craft. Money and readers are in short supply, and yet the cost of shooting your shot with fiction is immense — sometimes years in the making followed by outright rejection. Ego, madness, and ambition are not enough to sustain a fiction writer (but all are recommended). No, doing it requires some sort of discipline applied for its own sake. This book does a very good job of distilling that virtue, and I think a lot of writers will get off on this book as much as learn something from it.
What I like most about Discipline Is Destiny is that it gets into the weeds of self-discipline. It’s not all hard graft and rock-solid execution. There are sections on how to stop yourself from working, how to refrain from being a hardarse on others, and how to stick to the plan over the long term (the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing).
So this is recommended if any of this sounds like it might help. What is always recommended is Holiday’s book on writing itself.
That’s all.
— IAIN
PS: Read my thoughts here and see how I live my life here.
PPS: This newsletter is brought to you by Dessau by Codeine.