Powell, who has written two previous critical works on Ellroy, interrogates in detail what has effectively been the three writing careers of Ellroy: his published fiction and non-fiction books, his script writing work for Hollywood – which is far more substantial than I had realised – and his work as a columnist for GQ magazine in the 1990s, which in itself was quite significant.

Powell also talks about Ellroy's style, his way of removing words, getting the writing down to the bone, and shaving that bone a little more. Ellroy seems to have a lot of friends to talk about him, and sadly just as many people that he doesn't talk to anymore. This is a brisk biography, written in short, snappy sentences of lean prose, reminiscent of James Ellroy’s own writing.

One great biography, about a man who really had it rough, but also gave it back to people, friends, and especially women. A biographer might have to go deep, past where the creator wants others, including themselves to look, to even find facts about people close to the creator, that they didn't even know about. Whatever adjectives one would use to describe an epic grand scale literary accomplishment should be given to this book about James Elroy. While biographies are certainly always read to understand the subject we often come to them just wanting to know more about them. This is a dense book and not the easiest of reads, but it is interesting, visceral and highly recommended to fans of Ellroy’s work.

With any feelings of anti-Semitism long behind him, Ellroy enjoyed taking in the culture at the Hillcrest’ (his local golf club in Los Angeles) is one of a number of sentences that sow doubt rather than eliminate it. Without question, the tragedy of Jean Ellroy’s unsolved murder in El Monte, California, (1948) has greatly influenced her son’s life and literary career beyond comprehension. I’m James Ellroy, demon dog of American literature, the foul owl with the death growl, the white knight of the far right, and the slick trick with the donkey dick. To deal with growing up virtually uneducated, unsocialized, enraged, and starved for attention, Ellroy created antisocial personae that would appear at times throughout his life.

It is perhaps because he has never discovered the truth about his mother’s death that Ellroy has embraced the paranoia which gives a charge to his best books: in The Black Dahlia, LA Confidential and American Tabloid, catastrophes are never random, but the result of the intricate machinations of a corrupt political class and the crooked cops who prop it up. I give it five stars because I couldn't stop reading it and while I was reading it I neglected others of my responsibilities to continue reading. I’m James Ellroy, demon dog of American literature, the foul owl with the death growl, the white night of the far right, and the slick trick with the donkey dick. Slowly he found his groove, removing words, mining history and people, real and not-so-real, to tell his tales, and success, and madness soon followed. How then does an effectively uneducated person become the predominant male genius of American letters of his era?

Ellroy wrote in a poem that he wanted to be loved fiercely, ferociously and with dedication; Powell has shown the utmost dedication to the task producing a book which – like the best of Ellroy’s books – is visceral, exciting and lingers in the mind long after you’ve finished the final page. Like the Demon Dog himself, Love Me Fierce in Danger is by turns hilarious, shocking, compassionate, hopeful, uncompromising, optimistic, determined, and—ultimately successful at the ambitious task of detailing an equally ambitious and epic life. Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy, by Steven Powell, makes a good case for the historical significance of his influence, not just on the crime genre but literature more generally. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.We learn from Steven Powell’s sober new biography that an overseas publisher who wanted to translate Ellroy’s work (‘an almost unendurable wordstorm of perversity and gore,’ according to one critic) found that translators, deterred by his difficult language and right-wing sympathies, refused to do it. If a name was dropped, a credible story followed—also included were easy to follow timelines, cultural events, trips abroad, literary agents, famous editors, celebrities and other insiders in the publishing and film industries. Love Me Fierce in Danger by Steven Powell is just the type of biography that is needed for a figure like James Ellroy, one that goes beyond just recounting a life and gets into understanding it. Some of these women nursed him though health and emotional episodes, drug dependency, rehab programs, and mental breakdowns.

By the Cold Six Thousand in 2001 his prose style, stream of consciousness, hepcat, in an epic crime thriller is just too much. Once journalists get their hands on them,those curt, day-to-day messages can be just a tad embarrassing — as this week’s expletive-laden evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry confirms.Powell allows the stories to stand for themselves, painting a rich portrait of Ellroy as a difficult but fascinating man for whom age has dulled neither his fire nor his senses. His behaviour at one of his weddings prompted the pastor to warn the bride that the marriage would not last. Powell's account is never less than captivating as there is usually some tumult around the corner in Ellroy's life or he has produced something wonderful that Powell is unafraid to discuss at length to provide insight into the work and the man. They will leave you reamed, steamed and dry-cleaned, tied, dyed, swept to the side, blued, screwed, tattooed, and bah-fongooed.