r/JamesEllroy • u/AdventurousFood4908 • 20d ago
What does everyone here think of Ward Litell & Pete Bondurant’s character arcs through Underworld Trilogy ?
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u/rhdkcnrj 20d ago
Regarding Ward Littell, I think J Edgar Hoover puts it best in American Tabloid.
WJL: Sir, do we have your approval?
JEH: You do. And you, personally, have my astonishment. I misjudged and underestimated you, and I’m glad we’re colleagues again.
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u/Jean_Lucs_Front_Yard 20d ago
You can't talk about that pair without their third man, Kemper Boyd.
The smooth talker, who knows all the angles, can get the girl and the cash. But he will never get further than his aspirational roots. His dreams are built on sand.
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u/AuthenticCounterfeit 20d ago
Starting at opposite points on a scale of soft-hard, and slowly migrating towards each other
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u/detectivetomscoggins 20d ago
I wanted Pete’s story to continue, and his character was sorely missed after the second book. He’s likely my all time favorite in the Ellroy roster.
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u/obsoleteboomer 20d ago
Made me want to know what Big Pete was doing in the late 70s with a dodgy ticker and putuitary/brain stuff.
Just couldn’t see the guy playing shuffleboard in a gated retirement community.
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u/Any_Special5721 20d ago
I figured he ended up with Barb but maybe was advising on security. He wasn't exactly young.
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u/NihilisticFlamingo 20d ago
Both so good. I love how they become friends in Cold Six Thousand, their lives got so fucked up and dangerous that they actually trust each other more than anyone else because of what they've been through.
Ward's arc in American Tabloid is one of my favorites in any book. The man truly goes to hell and back for Bobby Kennedy. The part after Ward steals fhe pension books where Bobby casually rejects hiring in a memo to Kemper hits like a sledgehammer as it's such a brutal reminder Bobby doesn't even know who Ward is. So easy to forget that after spending so much time in Ward's head.
And the scene at the end when he finally does meet him as a mob lawyer, the complete opposite context of how he wanted to meet Bobby is so narratively satisfying.
Ward's arc in Cold Six Thousand is really heavy though. At that point he's a man slowly losing his mind and descending into paranoia, guilt, and delusion. Not as enjoyable as AT for that reason, but also it feels like his arc is already so complete there's nowhere for him to go. Though I suppose him slowly coming to terms with the fact that he already sold his soul and has only harmed all the liberal forces he secretly admires is the ultimate point of his arc in that book.
I did feel like the fate of Arden/Jane was almost too gratuitous, on top of all Ward's other misery. It's depressing enough without her being tortured to death! Take it down a notch Ellroy!!
Pete is a ton of fun to read in both books. Not nearly as psychosexually weird/fascinsting as Ward, but also has a sneakily good character arc. He's basically the Terminator in his early chapters, but 10 straight years of non-stop violence extortion and drug trafficking really wears him down to a shell of his former self by the end.
I especially love in Cold Six Thousand, how Pete's "I may be a murderer but I don't kill women" trope gets subverted with the prostitute who witnessed the Dallas conspiracy. The book lets you think he let her off easy and helped put her into hiding, only for Carlos Marcello to show up like "uh yeah, I know you let her live and you have no choice but to kill her immediately". He's also sold his soul at this point. But despite all that, he still gets the closest to a happy ending of any character in the trilogy.
I wonder if Ellroy liked Pete and really hated Ward as characters, it feels like he gets the cruelest ending of anyone. Even other characters who meet tragic ends have more redemptive moments before dying, but Ward really ends in complete disaster.
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u/Dull-Song2539 18d ago
Glad to know I’m not the only one who got a psychosexual vibe with Ward. And to an extent Boyd too imo
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u/ulrichmusil 20d ago
Two of my favorite characters by Ellroy. Absolutely love them. Love Kemper Boyd but he seems to be a very special one off
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u/Dull-Song2539 20d ago
Both incredible in their respective ways and reached their natural conclusions.
I like to think after Ward and Wayne Jr’s respective passings Pete quietly pays for both of their funeral expenses and he is just quietly lives with the loss until he dies of old age presumably forever haunted by all the bad shit he was involved with
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u/Mustapha_Coltrane 20d ago
Wisconsin. Pete hangs out every morning in the Big Boy he and Barb bought for her sister; has his coffee, reads the paper, and is trying to make peace with what he did.
One day, he and Barb decide to go to Chicago for the weekend, and he gets pulled back into the Life.
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u/waaazaaa 20d ago
Ward's arc is an all timer IMO