Customer Reviews

The Rackets

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From Salon.com 7/16/01:

Set in the Giuliani era, "The Rackets" takes you behind the scenes of New York politics to reveal a city rich in simmering cultural conflicts. It's got everything you could want in a quick urban crime read: engaging characters from both sides of the tracks running classic scams and struggling not to get taken down by an endemic corruption. Kelly invokes dozens of classic portrayals of the same turf -- everything from "The Godfather" through "Donnie Brasco" -- in this story of people chasing their lost immigrant roots.

Set during mayoral and union elections, "The Rackets" begins as the mayor's advance man, Jimmy Dolan, gets in a dust-up with Frank Keefe, the head of the local Teamsters. Jimmy's given his walking papers and is forced to return to Inwood, his old neighborhood on the northern tip of Manhattan. Since Jimmy pisses off Keefe and Jimmy's dad, Mike, is running against Keefe to lead the union, there's plenty of tension between the two men, and it only gets worse when a local mafioso, Franky Magic, enters the scene. He's afraid that Keefe will lose the Teamsters election and figures a return to the old code of violence would be a necessary -- and exciting -- way to get everyone back in line. From there on out, it's two trains screaming toward a collision.

The plot line is clear within the first 20 pages, but Kelly makes the book an engaging read by developing a varied cast of characters who transcend the typical crime novel figures. The pages he devotes to each major player's passing thoughts and emotional quirks gives you glimpses into every corner of a New York constantly preoccupied with power, class and personal legitimacy. The only thing that all of Kelly's people can agree on is the importance of reclaiming the simpler traditions of their Irish heritage and their distaste for the cultural changes that have swallowed their old neighborhoods and upended the familiar social order. Kelly uses the peculiar slang of their milieu -- guys are "skels," you "take" a heart attack instead of having one -- to reinforce the sense of a cohesive neighborhood culture. Hell, even Jimmy Breslin makes a guest appearance and the blessing is well deserved.

-- Max Garrone salon.com

Having grown up in Inwood, where the majority of Kelly's book takes place, I am awed by how accurately he is able to re-create the essence of the neighborhood and the attitude of the people. Some critics of his book claim that Kelly is overly Irish-centric. Come spend a day in Inwood, even now, and you can see those ideas mirrored in the personalities of the old timers still living there. Rather than being criticized for being narrow minded in his views, Kelly should be lauded for so perfectly nailing a particular way of life. In addition to how real his characters seem, his descriptive writing is at times breath-taking. Thank you Thomas Kelly, for taking me back to the old neighborhood.

Frankly, I was disappointed by "The Rackets". Thomas Kelly is an engaging writer with a fairly unique view of New York City and its social components, with an easy-to-read style and a healthy sense of social commentary. Unfortunately, he has major difficulty in resolving his plotlines; Kelly's means of wrapping things up is to start eliminating major characters, and not peacefully, either. This "last man standing" approach to writing was also evident in his previous work "Payback", another engrossing novel that falls apart towards the end.

Kelly is clearly an ambitious novelist, and we could sorely use a great urban novel for our time. "The Rackets" is not that book. One hopes that Kelly continues to grow as a writer because he certainly possesses an interesting voice. He seems to know and understand the world of which he writes, and his characters are engaging and believable. If only he could figure out where to take them in his stories.

After having enjoyed most of "Payback", I was eagerly looking forward to reading Thomas Kelly's "The Rackets". Although Kelly is a good writer with an excellent eye and ear for the sights and sounds of Irish-American New York City, especially Inwood, his plot and characterizations border perilously close to generic crime novel fiction. Unfortunately, as in "Payback", Kelly shows a tendency of trying to wrap up plot elements too neatly by eliminating major characters through means most foul. Yet not enough of the plot is tied up neatly here, leaving ample space for a sequel. If you're interested in reading novels which truly live and breath New York City in their pages and are first class examples of literary art, then I have to recommend either Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire Of The Vanities" or Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn". Unfortunately, "The Rackets" doesn't quite come close.

Tom Kelly's characters are so real I expected them to jump off the pages of The Rackets and stick a gun to my head - or at least ask for my vote. I picked up the book after a long trip at ten o'clock one recent morning. I didn't put it down until I was finished reading it twelve hours later. And I didn't want it to end - the ultimate sign of a great story.

This book kicked ... . I was really impressed with the way the writer developed the characters and constructed the scenes. Some people write books. Tom Kelly, on the other hand, is a genuine writer. I already loaned it to a friend.

A great book....real people, great pacing, vivid heartfelt storytelling. This work firmly establishes Kelly as an heir to someone like Richard Price's "cultural-immersion" style, really getting down into classist and ethnic cliques with a most enthralling and exciting narrative vibe. If you're into Godfather/Soprano/Politico/Irish-Catholic/cop hand-wringing and heart-pumping dilemma, you'll dig this book..and the price can't be beat.

This is a different type of novel from the normal mystery. This story is about unions, union halls, taverns and the wars between those who want truth and honesty in the unions and those who represent organized crime.

It is an interesting story and plot and is a good read, a fine read, in fact.

I will read other books by this author.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

Thomas Kelly, once again, makes you feel like you're smack dab in the middle of the city, just as a gust of corruption blows by. He rocks.

Years ago I read Kelly's first book (Payback) and found it a decent if unmemorable riff on the fairly well-worn topic of the recently released convict. This one is written with much greater descriptive detail and density, but also heads down well-traveled roads and is altogether too heavy on the cliches. Basically, if you like the whole New York working class Irish shtick, you'll probably like this. Most of the central characters come from the way upper Manhattan neighborhood of Innwood, a formerly heavy Irish-Catholic community now being subsumed by the latest wave of Latino immigrants. There's a deep sense of nostalgia permeating the story, as various characters lament the decline or change of the old neighborhood. The protagonist is Jimmy Dolan, former construction worker (as was Kelly), turned advance man for the mayor (as was Kelly), who's made it out of the old neighborhood.

The story finds him in the middle of an election campaign, where an altercation with a slimy Teamster boss named Keefe costs him his fancy job. It just so happens that Jimmy's father has been running a quixotic campaign against Keefe for the presidency of the local, and so he's out to destroy the Dolans. What follows is a fairly predictable tale of tit-for-tat revenge amidst a backdrop of corrupt city and union politics. Jimmy's fall from grace lands him back in the old neighborhood and into the orbit of his rather wild best friend (and Gulf War vet) Liam, and ex-flame Tara (now a cop). They are both stock characters, and Tara is especially so, a combination of action heroine and girl next door. In fact, most of the characters are straight out of central casting, such as Jimmy's father (a classic union crusader), two hitmen (Russian psychos of course), a bevy of slimy FBI agents, an old-fashion mafia don with a goofy name (Frankie Magic), and starring Keefe as the over-the-top wiseguy-wanna-be villain.

The story hinges on the impending union election and Keefe's increasingly perilous grasp of the presidency in the face of the Dolan's obstinate squeaky clean campaign. Corruption is the order of the day, and if Kelly's based his tale on things he's seen and heard in his days as mayoral advance man, it's a depressing picture. There's all kinds of intrigue, as Keefe's right-hand man looks to play both sides against the middle, and Jimmy's wheeler-dealer uncle sticks his oars in. As the plot progresses, Kelly appears compelled to up the ante by killing off character after character so that one starts to wonder if anyone's going to survive until the end. The writing tries way too hard to be hard-boiled and almost comes off as parody at times. In fact, the whole book tries to hard in general, and never feels organic--the results is a book that will momentarily divert the reader, but hardly linger long in the mind.