I just finished reading James Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand.... now don't get me wrong, I am normally a fan of Mr Ellroy's work. The Black Dahlia, LA Confidential, fine books all of them.

I think White Jazz started the rot but "The Cold Six Thousand" is a stinker. The attempt to lay bare the corruption, both political and personal of 60's America is destroyed by the hideous writing style.

"Wayne sniffed the napkin. Waybe smelled Barb. Wayne got a Janice jolt. His thoughts raced. He vibed rendevous."

This is wholly representative of the 672 pages of this meisterverk. It gets old very quickly. I finished the book, primarily because the story is so interesting, stopping for breaks to go and research and establish (in as far as it possible) where fiction started and history left off but, lord, it was a chore.

Anybody else ever grinded through any other stinkers and if so ...why?(mandatory reading for education is not a qualification!)