ALL INVOLVED the gritty, deeply authentic new book from Ryan Gattis, is the first major American novel to paint a fully-realized portrait of Los Angeles under siege during the six days in 1992 when violence erupted in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. An uncompromising, kaleidoscopic vision of the turmoil, told through the voices of disparate, finely-drawn characters, this “symphonic, pitch-perfect, superlative novel” (David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas) pulsates with high velocity urban tension.
Focusing on a neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles ignored by the media, and allowed to run wild by overextended law enforcement during the nearly 121-hour rampage that left sixty dead and countless others beaten, robbed and emotionally scarred, ALL INVOLVED begins just a few hours after the controversial verdict sent angry citizens into the streets. It opens with the slaughter of an innocent: Ernesto Vera, an aspiring chef, is walking home from his job working a taco truck when he is brutally attacked and killed by the black-clad members of a gang. Though not a gang member himself, Ernesto’s brother, Ray, aka Lil Mosco, is the target of the intended message the rival gang is ending. Ernesto’s death in the lawless street unleashes a flood of further vengeance.
As each anxious day unfolds, interlocking stories simmer and ignite. The experiences of underworld street gang members converge with firefighters battling the city ablaze. Anglo police, a Korean vigilante, a trauma nurse—all add their singular perspectives to the tapestry of anger and despair. With the immediacy of a film, propelled by disturbing images and told with an unvarnished narrative style that expertly captures the everyday reality of the characters’ lives, Gattis’s masterful novel not only recreates those fateful events in Los Angeles, but lays bare larger prejudices and complexities that define modern-day America.
Ryan Gattis is a novelist, lecturer at Chapman University, and a member of urban art crew UGLAR (uglarworks.com). He is the author of the novels Roo Kickkick & The Big Bad Blimp; Kung Fu High School, The Big Drop: Homecoming and The Big Drop: Impermanence. He lives in Los Angeles.
ALl INVOLVED BOOK TOUR:
*Los Angeles dates
*Los Angeles, 04/08: Skylight Books, 7:30pm
Oakland, 04/14: Diesel Bookstore, 6:30pm
San Francisco, 04/15: City Lights, 7pm
Denver, 04/16: Tattered Cover, 7pm
*Los Angeles, 04/19: LA Times Festival of Books Fiction: Untold Stories Panel, 12:30pm
Houston, 04/22: Brazos Bookstore, 7pm
Pasadena, 04/24: with Chaz Bojorquez & Lilliam Rivera, Vroman's, 7pm
Seattle, 04/29: University (District) BookStore, 7pm
Portland, 04/30: Powell's, 7:30pm
Seattle, 05/03: Eagle Harbor Book Company, TBD
San Diego, 05/12: Warwick's at the La Jolla Riford Library, 7pm
