The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women - Softcover

Ellroy, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0434020656 ISBN 13: 9780434020652

Publisher: William Heinemann, 2010

Synopsis

America's greatest living crime writer gives us a raw, brutally candid memoir - as high intensity and as riveting as any of his novels - about his obsessive search for 'atonement in women'. The year was 1958. Jean Hilliker had divorced her fast-buck hustler husband and resurrected her maiden name. Her son, James, was ten years old. He hated and lusted for his mother and 'summoned her dead'. She was murdered three months later. "The Hilliker Curse" is a predator's confession, a treatise on guilt and the power of malediction, and above all a cri de cuur. Ellroy unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, his nervous breakdown and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her. A layered narrative of time and place, emotion and insight, sexuality and spiritual quest, "The Hilliker Curse" is a brilliant, soul-baring revelation of self. It is unlike any memoir you have ever read.

About this title

Review

"As fascinating as it is at times utterly disturbing."
--"Entertainment Weekly
"
"Crime writer James Ellroy's most compelling mystery story has always been his own . . . But "The Hilliker Curse" is not meant to be merely a confession. It is an act of creation . . . There's a truth of feeling in it, too, an underlying sense of what it is actually like to live in the vortex of an impossible yearning . . . Ellroy is expert and relentless at dramatizing the effects [of his obsession]."
--"Wall Street Journal"
"This latest book is Ellroy's most intimate and personal . . . It's forceful and unsparing in its revelations . . . [His sentences] make you grateful to read his prose, with its marvelous fury, passion and energy. They also compel you to keep rooting for him."
--"San Francisco Chronicle"
" "
"Crime novelist Ellroy has given us a wild memoir in his hard-boiled, jazzy, staccato style . . . Quite a read."
--"New York Post"
"Perhaps the most con

"Forceful and unsparing in its revelations. . . . Marvelous fury, passion and energy." --"San Francisco Chronicle"
"A remarkable memoir . . . Once again . . . Ellroy [has] come up with the goods." --"The Economist"
"Terrible, exhilarating, exhauting, entertaining and downright tragic. It's also brutally honest." --"Las Vegas Review Journal"
"Perhaps the most confessional memoir I've ever read." --"The Dallas Morning News
"
"Ellroy is a remarkable storyteller, and "The""Hilliker Curse "offers an abundance of his unmistakable gristle-and-bone prose style." --"The Onion A.V. Club"
" "
"To say that Ellroy's prose is fractured or fragmented is like saying that an Impressionist painting is smudged and unfocused. It misses the point and describes the shadow of the thing, not the thing's substance. The words bounce around in a world where tense is fluid, where hard-consonants rule the day, where conventional definitions are tossed on their heads. He pushes his readers' limits by demanding that they enter a world created solely for the purpose of brutally truthful revelation." --"Chicago Sun-Times"
"As fascinating as it is at times utterly disturbing." --"Entertainment Weekly"
"Crime writer James Ellroy's most compelling mystery story has always been his own. . . . But "The Hilliker Curse" is not meant to be merely a confession. It is an act of creation. . . . There's a truth of feeling in it, too, an underlying sense of what it is actually like to live in the vortex of an impossible yearning. . . . Ellroy is expert and relentless at dramatizing the effects [of his obsession]." --"Wall Street Journal"
"What a breathless piece of writing this is. When it comes to pinning down the most startling possible word collision, Ellroy's acrobatic pizzazz is beyond doubt. . . . This is literary knife-throwing at its most exhilarating and dangerous." --"The Observer" (London)
" "
"There's no doubt about it: James Ellroy is a fascinating character. . . . He's as hard to ignore as a burning fire truck. . . . The revelations are compelling, as the author indicts the tough-guy persona he has so meticulously constructed." --"Booklist"
"A fervent portrait of the artist as a young screw-up--an old one, too, who writes like an avenging angel. . . . It's vintage Ellroy." --"Kirkus Reviews"

Forceful and unsparing in its revelations. . . . Marvelous fury, passion and energy. San Francisco Chronicle
A remarkable memoir . . . Once again . . . Ellroy [has] come up with the goods. The Economist
Terrible, exhilarating, exhauting, entertaining and downright tragic. It s also brutally honest. Las Vegas Review Journal
Perhaps the most confessional memoir I ve ever read. The Dallas Morning News

Ellroy is a remarkable storyteller, and The Hilliker Curse offers an abundance of his unmistakable gristle-and-bone prose style. The Onion A.V. Club

To say that Ellroy's prose is fractured or fragmented is like saying that an Impressionist painting is smudged and unfocused. It misses the point and describes the shadow of the thing, not the thing's substance. The words bounce around in a world where tense is fluid, where hard-consonants rule the day, where conventional definitions are tossed on their heads. He pushes his readers limits by demanding that they enter a world created solely for the purpose of brutally truthful revelation. Chicago Sun-Times
As fascinating as it is at times utterly disturbing. Entertainment Weekly
Crime writer James Ellroy s most compelling mystery story has always been his own. . . . But The Hilliker Curse is not meant to be merely a confession. It is an act of creation. . . . There s a truth of feeling in it, too, an underlying sense of what it is actually like to live in the vortex of an impossible yearning. . . . Ellroy is expert and relentless at dramatizing the effects [of his obsession]. Wall Street Journal
What a breathless piece of writing this is. When it comes to pinning down the most startling possible word collision, Ellroy's acrobatic pizzazz is beyond doubt. . . . This is literary knife-throwing at its most exhilarating and dangerous. The Observer (London)

There s no doubt about it: James Ellroy is a fascinating character. . . . He s as hard to ignore as a burning fire truck. . . . The revelations are compelling, as the author indicts the tough-guy persona he has so meticulously constructed. Booklist
A fervent portrait of the artist as a young screw-up an old one, too, who writes like an avenging angel. . . . It s vintage Ellroy. Kirkus Reviews

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Book Description

From America's greatest living crime writer: a raw, explicit memoir as high-intensity and riveting as any of his novels. The theme: the author's obsessive pursuit of women.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Heinemann
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0434020656
• ISBN 13: 9780434020652
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224