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| Plot Summary of My Dark Places |
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"MY DARK PLACES is a book published by James Ellroy in 1996.
James Ellroy's mother was strangled to death in Los Angeles in 1958. Her murderer was never found. James Ellroy, who was 10 years old then, lived with his father during the following years. He was 17 when his father died.
James Ellroy experienced, on a non-stop basis, drugs, alcohol and prison for robbery on the next 10 years until the day, suffering from delirium, he's hospitalized in an L.A. hospital. He decides to stay clean and put his obsessions on paper.
One of these obsessions was his mother, a secret woman he has never understood. Who was Geneva Hilliker Ellroy? An alcoholic woman obsessed by sex, like her ex-husband said, or a smart woman deceived by life and trying to survive in the Los Angeles of 1958 ?
In 1994, James Ellroy comes back to L.A. and, in the company of Bill Stoner, a retired cop, decides to investigate again his mother's death. During 14 months, both men will find new leads, interrogate dozens of people and try to find the surviving witnesses of the tragic event. If James Ellroy hasn't found his mother's murderer, he will at least be at peace with himself after having learned to know intimately Geneva Hilliker Ellroy."
Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of My Dark Places |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Kids growing up/acting up?
Yes
Kids:
- committing crimes
job/profession:
- writer
Job/profession/poverty story
Yes
Phys disability/mental struggle?
Yes
Struggle with
- search for family/history
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- writer
Age:
- a teen
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- eccentric
- obsessed
Biography of famous person?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other people
Physique
- druggie/wino disease
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 3 ()
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
Misc setting
- prison
- resort/hotel
Century:
- 1960's-1970's
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Book makes you feel?
- thoughtful
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- touching of anatomy
- descript. of female anat. (the big B's)
- descript. of female anat. (the big V)
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- love/sex
- wicked men
Unusual Style:
- a lot of flashback and forwards
Writer's slant towards subject:
- neutral
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of nearly entire life
Is this a biography of several people?
Yes
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- A few 1-5 B&W
How much dialogue in bio?
- little dialog
A LOT of info about personal vices?
Yes
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 0-25% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 26-50% of book
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James Ellroy Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Daniel Staebler
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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