The Hilliker Curse (2010)

This memoir from the noir novelist James Ellroy is subtitled ''My Pursuit of Women.'' If that sounds ominous, then you are clearly familiar with his previous writings. Certainly there is much in The Hilliker Curse to trouble any prospective father-in-law of Ellroy's as he describes desiring his own mother ''in unspeakable ways,'' or recalls how his first sexual partner called him ''a perv, a bum lay and a fascist.'' The author does decline to dish on his long-term partners — a gallant trait, albeit one that makes for some dull passages. But his description of a mental breakdown he suffered while promoting 2001's The Cold Six Thousand is as fascinating as it is at times utterly disturbing. B

See all of this week's reviews