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Summary: charlie
Review: ... Kelly's fiction sticks to you like a warm summer's night. It don't get better than this.
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Summary: Narrow lives from the cloistered Irish Colony in New York!
Review: A page turner a potboiler full of fiddle tunes with Saintly Irish descendants trying to right the corrupt world of New York politics and trade Unions.Written in typical Irish-American ghettoized prose.Where all the women are saintly moral compasses and the men hard workin, hard drinkin,hard fightin,laborers with the moral righteousness to clean up the social and political messes they helped create(kind of like the Kennedy clan). Although they live in the most cosmopolitan melting pot in the world,none of the characters have ever left the Irish-reservation they grew up in.New York has the widest array of restaurants in the world yet these bobbleheads never stray from the local pub.Kellys plot with all its politcal machinations into N.Y.C's dirty incestuous politics would be more fascinating if his cliched Irish Saints were more worldly.With all this Irish goodness Kelly fails to provide a more interestingly modern glimpse into New York than we already have from old portrayals of the Boss-hogs of Tamany Hall.The Rackets is a typical Irish-American stew it could have taken place in Boston Chicago or weeDublin because except for some Italian and Russian mobsters no ordinary Americans appear in the book(lets hope in Kellys next book he can get the sounds of ``the pipes the pipes`` out of his head for a page or two). The Rackets Summer read, Autumn forgotten!
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Summary: Disappointing Sophomore Effort From Thomas Kelly
Review: 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.
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Summary: Disappointing Sophomore Effort From Thomas Kelly
Review: 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.
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Summary: the rackets - a rip roaring read
Review: As virile as Mailer, as vigorous as Viagra, Kelly's fiction sticks to you like a warm summer's night. It don't get better than this...
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Summary: Disappointing Second Novel From New York Writer
Review: 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.
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Summary: Disappointing Second Novel From New York Writer
Review: 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.
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Summary: this books rocks.
Review: 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
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Summary: Real characters, real life
Review: 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.
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Summary: Excellent Read
Review: I came across this book in an airport bookshop and picked it up because I had once lived in the neighborhood Mr. Kelly describes. I found the Rackets to be a fascinating rendition of the the city and the people I knew while living there. I could not put it down. Kelly's dsriptions and dialogue are spot on. Highly recommnended.
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