Thursday, May 05, 2011

Follow-up to Last Week's Forgotten Books Post: Jill, by Sid Kane

In my Forgotten Books post last week, I mentioned that Sid Kane’s prose in his novel JILL reminded me a little of James Ellroy’s work. Juri Nummelin suggested that I post a few quotes as examples, which is a good idea. So here they are:


Four o’clock.
Sun still high. Blast furnace hot.
Jill wanted a drink.
Her bra was hot and sweaty. Her feet hurt.
Hell of a way to have to start the school year.


Ten o’clock.
The Moon. Far out. Way out.
The edge of the city.
The edge of reality, on a good night, when the lights were dark, the police vice squad stayed away, and the flask was full and warm.


Midnight. And the music was midnight. And Jehova played it. He played it slow and low, deep, from way down. And at times, from far out.
On the floor, shoes off, shirts loose. On the bed, cross-legged. The room a smoke house, wine bottle on the floor, all silent as Jehova sang the songs of peace and war, hate and love.


Not exactly Ellroy-esque, but the rhythm reminded me of stories I’ve read by him. (I still haven’t read any of his novels, but I intend to.) Does this read like Ellroy to anybody else, or am I crazy? (That’s always a possibility.)

5 comments:

Matthew P. Mayo said...

That's some intriguing writing. I'd agree that it's Ellroy-esque. It has that jazzy, boom-boom-boom, staccato vibe.

Either that or I'm just crazy, too.

Cullen Gallagher said...

Wowzers! That is certainly an interesting style. Is the whole book like that, or just portions?

James Reasoner said...

Most of the scenes start out this way, then gradually start using a more normal style. Kane really likes to start with the time and then some evocative image.

Suresh Ramasubramanian said...

Typical noir writing. Seen it in a lot of pulp.

Juri said...

Yeah, sure reminds me of Ellroy, but this has more poetic rhythm and melody to it. Ellroy is all bang-bang. Thanks for this, it'd be interesting to read the whole book!