First lines: Ellroy's 'Pursuit of Women'

At the mailbox today was the newest by James Ellroy. "The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women" came billed as a "raw, brutally candid memoir" that draws on the infamous 1958 murder of his mother, and more: "a predator's confession, a treatise on guilt and on the power of malediction.... It is unlike any memoir you have ever read." Well, we'll just see about that. The dedication has a familiar ring to it: "To Erika Schickel."

First line:

So women will love me.

In the September issue of Los Angeles magazine, Amy Wallace talks to Ellroy about the book. "James Ellroy is sitting in a corner booth at the Pacific Dining Car, the 6th Street steak joint, brooding about women," she begins.

Noted: Wallace is having a pretty good freelancer's month. In addition to the Ellroy piece, she spars with Garry Shandling in GQ, talks to Hilary Swank for the InStyle cover and has her Prototype column in the New York Times.