Hollywood Station
by Joseph Wambaugh
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joseph WambaughEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-01
ISBN: 0446401242
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Vision
Book Reviews of Hollywood Station
Book Review: A Good Writer Cashing in on his Name
Summary: 2 Stars
Wambaugh has a long history of good books in his portfolio. I've read them all. Unfortunately, Hollywood Station is a tedious chapter-after-chapter rehash of a few themes. For example, how many times do you want to read that there is too much oversight of the "troops" of the LAPD, that there is too much paperwork, that they are overworked, and that the brass is bad while the cops on the beat are good? If you read this novel, it will become grating very quickly that Wambaugh doesn't trust his readers to get his message unless he repeats it throughout the novel.
How did Lord Voldemort get from Harry Potter into Hollywood Station? I can see one allusion but many?
And what is it that Wambaugh is suggesting...That after Rodney King and Rampart Station, that oversight swung too far in the other direction? Perhaps it did, and perhaps a cop gets overwhelmed by seeing the bad in people all the time, but every cop I know knows that if you expect a criminal to be justly punished, then you don't lose your cool even when most of the public, in your particular case, might understand your feelings and actions. Because every cop I know knows the rules of use of force and none of them want to see a criminal escape justice because of his actions during an arrest. And, every cop I know is proud of this knowledge and this ability to control his emotions.
This is the worst of what Wambaugh's done in this novel. But also bad is that he's lost his sense of humor. Most of his books use humor to make his points: about the public's facination with and near-total misunderstanding of a cop's life, about political manipulation of crime statistics and police behavior depending on whether the pols are in or out of office, and mostly, that cops have an appreciably bizarre sense of humor that nearly offsets what they have to put up with. This is the "inside story" that we have come to expect from Wambaugh's books. This is what is missing in Hollywood Station.
Wambaugh admits that his dialogue comes from working police professionals, but he has lost his detachment and has instead bought into the upside-down-pyramid metaphor for the police bureaucracy in LA that the "troops" believe exists. That's okay. What's not okay is his overt bashing us over the head with that issue constantly. What's not okay is his having lost the ability to give us memorable humorous scenes to make that point.
Wambaugh needs to decide if he's a writer or a bitter old cop who needs to retire for younger, more professional, prouder and more knowledgeable police officers who know how to conduct themselves with the public.
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