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Love is a Racket
Everything's a racket for Jeffty Kittridge, ex-wannabe scriptwriter living on the skids in LA: the two-bit cons he pulls to try and make ends meet, the way he convinces himself he's not drinking, how he tries to persuade the local shark that he can pay back that 15K. Trouble is, he's not very good at it: he's seen jail twice, he's got those early-morning DTs, and he's just received a payment-due reminder of broken fingers. In fact, Jeffty is what some might call a big-time loser, and he's getting bigger all the time.
But then he stumbles across Mona, the street-smart, homeless girl whose exquisite looks inspire lust, love - and the ultimate scam. Mona is Jeffty's dream come true, his one-way ticket out of there, his future. Could Lady Luck have dealt him a decent hand at last?
But then he stumbles across Mona, the street-smart, homeless girl whose exquisite looks inspire lust, love - and the ultimate scam. Mona is Jeffty's dream come true, his one-way ticket out of there, his future. Could Lady Luck have dealt him a decent hand at last?
430 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
4 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
John Ridley
217 books92 followersJohn Ridley IV (born October 1965)[2] is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for 12 Years a Slave, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the critically acclaimed anthology series American Crime. His most recent work is the documentary film Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.
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This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 4, 2023
Jeffty Kittridge initially moved to LA to be a screenwriter. He got close to the big time, but it fell through and now he is a small-time con artist with a gambling debt. His loan shark, Dumas, is now breaking his fingers for non-payment, so Jeffty needs to find a racket to make $30,000 fast. Things with an old friend good at poker falls through. Then Jeffty spots teenage prostitute, Mona. She resembles an old movie star, and he figure he can use that to fleece the aging Hollywood producer who was once in love with her.
While this has strong characterisation and sharp dialogue, that is all it has going for it. John Ridley is a talented writer, but the story was an absolute bore. Plus, our main character is a racist (although he is black), misogynist and homophobe. The homophobia in particular runs rampant to the point where you wonder why the main character/author was so obsessed with it. Jeffty's views likely don't represent the author's, but I got very tired of the "f" word being used to describe gay people throughout the story, always in a derogatory fashion. The racism, misogyny and homophobia is all that more noticeable because, for long stretches, nothing is really happening plot-wise.
I didn't like the main character or his unrelenting bigotry and I ultimately didn't care what happened to him.
This took me two weeks to read. I really didn't like it.
While this has strong characterisation and sharp dialogue, that is all it has going for it. John Ridley is a talented writer, but the story was an absolute bore. Plus, our main character is a racist (although he is black), misogynist and homophobe. The homophobia in particular runs rampant to the point where you wonder why the main character/author was so obsessed with it. Jeffty's views likely don't represent the author's, but I got very tired of the "f" word being used to describe gay people throughout the story, always in a derogatory fashion. The racism, misogyny and homophobia is all that more noticeable because, for long stretches, nothing is really happening plot-wise.
I didn't like the main character or his unrelenting bigotry and I ultimately didn't care what happened to him.
This took me two weeks to read. I really didn't like it.
May 12, 2010
At several points Love Is a Racket is outright offensive in its depiction of Jeffty Kittridge's Hollywood skid-row world. Yet, Jeffty's narrative voice is so compelling, so real, that you want to know how he makes out.
The novel begins with Ty--a heavy working for the local loan shark, Dumas--breaking Jeffty's fingers. The fingers become a symbol of Jeffty's relentless bad luck as he tries and fails time and again to make the $15,000 he owes Dumas. Years ago, the reader discovers, Jeffty had come to Hollywood as an aspiring scriptwriter (a life that Jonathan Ridley lived, ultimately writing episodes of Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and The John Laroquette Show), but he now declares himself a grifter, a gambler, and, gradually, a drunk. Several roads to salvation emerge in Jeffty's nightmare life.
At one point, it seems that a day at the races just might erase his debts. His "friend," Nellis, reappears at another moment--a junkie and, strangely, a master of Zen poker who hopes to win Jeffty's money for him. And, finally, Mona, an attractive young homeless woman, keeps showing up until Jeffty realizes that she is his last chance for escape.
Despite its grim subject matter, the book is sexy and often outright funny. ("My good luck was LA's a great place to work. Except for the smog and the gang violence, the brushfires in summer, the rain and floods in the winter, it's great.") Ridley injects bits of Eastern mysticism and icy realism to suggest a deeper truth behind Jeffty's tragicomic façade. While it's not a book for the overly sensitive, it is a masterpiece of noir black comedy that recalls Elmore Leonard's best writing.
Ridley's second novel (after Stray Dogs, 1997) brings panache and a kooky premise to a familiar setting. Jeffty is an African American L.A. grifter whose hustles inevitably fail, whose screenplay everyone deems "beautiful" and whose plot to wring money from old-time movie mogul Moe Steinberg is as quintessentially Hollywood-gothic as a mansion on Mulholland Drive. Jeffty concocts the scam of a lifetime to enact revenge on his bookie, Dumas, whose goon breaks Jeffty's finger. Sadly for him and for us, Dumas proceeds to bump off Jeffty's best chance of making the payback money (and the story's most interesting character): Nellis, a wife-killing junkie who wins fortunes by applying Zen techniques to poker games.
Jeffty is left to run his scam using a beautiful street girl, Mona, who bears an uncanny resemblance to James Dean's dead, sometime girlfriend, the real-life movie star Pier Angeli. It seems Steinberg may have orchestrated Dean's death in order to get close to Angeli. Jeffty's sure that when he sees this perfect replica, dressed up in 1950s clothes, Steinberg will refuse her nothing. While the swindle plays out, a cop called Dentphy pressures Jeffty to inform on Dumas. By the time the scam and story reach their climax, the characters don't know whom to trust and neither do readers. The preposterous plot is less important than Jeffty's voice, saturated with classic noir self-mockery and convincingly compromised morals.
Even if Ridley ignores such glaring questions as why he keeps a gun he never uses, or why Dumas leaves Jeffty alone long enough to carry out his plan, die-hard fans of neo-pulp will forgive these slips with hardly a second thought. 50,000 first printing.
The novel begins with Ty--a heavy working for the local loan shark, Dumas--breaking Jeffty's fingers. The fingers become a symbol of Jeffty's relentless bad luck as he tries and fails time and again to make the $15,000 he owes Dumas. Years ago, the reader discovers, Jeffty had come to Hollywood as an aspiring scriptwriter (a life that Jonathan Ridley lived, ultimately writing episodes of Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and The John Laroquette Show), but he now declares himself a grifter, a gambler, and, gradually, a drunk. Several roads to salvation emerge in Jeffty's nightmare life.
At one point, it seems that a day at the races just might erase his debts. His "friend," Nellis, reappears at another moment--a junkie and, strangely, a master of Zen poker who hopes to win Jeffty's money for him. And, finally, Mona, an attractive young homeless woman, keeps showing up until Jeffty realizes that she is his last chance for escape.
Despite its grim subject matter, the book is sexy and often outright funny. ("My good luck was LA's a great place to work. Except for the smog and the gang violence, the brushfires in summer, the rain and floods in the winter, it's great.") Ridley injects bits of Eastern mysticism and icy realism to suggest a deeper truth behind Jeffty's tragicomic façade. While it's not a book for the overly sensitive, it is a masterpiece of noir black comedy that recalls Elmore Leonard's best writing.
Ridley's second novel (after Stray Dogs, 1997) brings panache and a kooky premise to a familiar setting. Jeffty is an African American L.A. grifter whose hustles inevitably fail, whose screenplay everyone deems "beautiful" and whose plot to wring money from old-time movie mogul Moe Steinberg is as quintessentially Hollywood-gothic as a mansion on Mulholland Drive. Jeffty concocts the scam of a lifetime to enact revenge on his bookie, Dumas, whose goon breaks Jeffty's finger. Sadly for him and for us, Dumas proceeds to bump off Jeffty's best chance of making the payback money (and the story's most interesting character): Nellis, a wife-killing junkie who wins fortunes by applying Zen techniques to poker games.
Jeffty is left to run his scam using a beautiful street girl, Mona, who bears an uncanny resemblance to James Dean's dead, sometime girlfriend, the real-life movie star Pier Angeli. It seems Steinberg may have orchestrated Dean's death in order to get close to Angeli. Jeffty's sure that when he sees this perfect replica, dressed up in 1950s clothes, Steinberg will refuse her nothing. While the swindle plays out, a cop called Dentphy pressures Jeffty to inform on Dumas. By the time the scam and story reach their climax, the characters don't know whom to trust and neither do readers. The preposterous plot is less important than Jeffty's voice, saturated with classic noir self-mockery and convincingly compromised morals.
Even if Ridley ignores such glaring questions as why he keeps a gun he never uses, or why Dumas leaves Jeffty alone long enough to carry out his plan, die-hard fans of neo-pulp will forgive these slips with hardly a second thought. 50,000 first printing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2017
Ieri, 4 agosto 2017, mentre sul mare di fronte a Umago si stava alzando il sole, i turisti tedeschi si lanciavano ad occupare le sdraio in piscina come i progenitori nelle Ardenne e l’impianto di condizionamento dell’albergo dava i primi segni di cedimento, alle ore 8.25 circa l’urlo “è giunto il momento della vaccata letteraria” attraversava le mie sinapsi rese pigre dal sonno.
È un appuntamento quasi irrinunciabile: terminate le prime e sospirate giornate di lettura compulsiva, generalmente appaganti, giunge il momento in cui la mia materia celebrale brama un testo di timbro estivo, uno di quei romanzi in cui volti una pagina dopo l’altra inseguendo un improbabile protagonista e rendendoti perfettamente conto che di quelle frasi fra meno di una settimana non sarà sopravvissuto NULLA.
La vaccata letteraria dell’agosto 2017 è stata “Cose che capitano solo a Los Angeles” di John Ridley.
Cose che capitano solo a Los AngelesIl protagonista, Jeffty Kittridge, è uno sceneggiatore fallito che vive di piccole truffe ed espedienti a Los Angeles. Presto – direi a pagina uno – scopriamo che deve un sacco di soldi al ras di turno (un mafiosetto dal nome improbabilmente letterario, Dumas) e che ogni suo tentativo di estinguere il debito va incontro a risultati rivedibili.
È l’occasione per dare il via a un romanzo ricco di elementi che contraddistinguono la vaccata letteraria: risse e rumori di ossa infrante, spari inevitabilmente indirizzati alla fronte (e relativa disgustosa descrizione degli effetti), sesso a capitoli alternati. Ma – mannaggia a Ridley – il romanzo si riempie imprevedibilmente di riflessioni sulla Vita, sull’Amore e sul Destino che potrebbero persino essere profond, ma cavoli! No! io volevo solo una di quelle robe che leggi e il tempo passa e tra due giorni non ti ricordi un tubo, e invece il finale mi ha persino lasciato l’amaro in bocca.
Quindi ora non so se ho letto una Vera Vaccata Letteraria o no. E mi toccherà approfondire.
HTTP://www.capitolo23.com
È un appuntamento quasi irrinunciabile: terminate le prime e sospirate giornate di lettura compulsiva, generalmente appaganti, giunge il momento in cui la mia materia celebrale brama un testo di timbro estivo, uno di quei romanzi in cui volti una pagina dopo l’altra inseguendo un improbabile protagonista e rendendoti perfettamente conto che di quelle frasi fra meno di una settimana non sarà sopravvissuto NULLA.
La vaccata letteraria dell’agosto 2017 è stata “Cose che capitano solo a Los Angeles” di John Ridley.
Cose che capitano solo a Los AngelesIl protagonista, Jeffty Kittridge, è uno sceneggiatore fallito che vive di piccole truffe ed espedienti a Los Angeles. Presto – direi a pagina uno – scopriamo che deve un sacco di soldi al ras di turno (un mafiosetto dal nome improbabilmente letterario, Dumas) e che ogni suo tentativo di estinguere il debito va incontro a risultati rivedibili.
È l’occasione per dare il via a un romanzo ricco di elementi che contraddistinguono la vaccata letteraria: risse e rumori di ossa infrante, spari inevitabilmente indirizzati alla fronte (e relativa disgustosa descrizione degli effetti), sesso a capitoli alternati. Ma – mannaggia a Ridley – il romanzo si riempie imprevedibilmente di riflessioni sulla Vita, sull’Amore e sul Destino che potrebbero persino essere profond, ma cavoli! No! io volevo solo una di quelle robe che leggi e il tempo passa e tra due giorni non ti ricordi un tubo, e invece il finale mi ha persino lasciato l’amaro in bocca.
Quindi ora non so se ho letto una Vera Vaccata Letteraria o no. E mi toccherà approfondire.
HTTP://www.capitolo23.com
December 21, 2008
This story is about a small time con-man/losing gambler's adventures in trying to pay back his Haitian loan shark, Mr. Dumas.
Our main character, Jeffty, always loses--even when one thinks he wins, he still loses. Jeffty's old best friend, Nellis, drops back into his life and makes him lose hope. Mr. Dumas makes Jeffty lose his friends. Mr. Dumas's apologetic henchman, Ty, makes Jeffty lose his lunch and dexterity and self esteem. The dirty policemen make Jeffty lose any street credibility. And finally, Mona, the street urchin, makes him lose his mind. These are only 5 of the characters that cause Jeffty to lose, but the book is filled with many more.
Jeffty just may have the where-with-all to pull out one last con and get out of the racket.
Our main character, Jeffty, always loses--even when one thinks he wins, he still loses. Jeffty's old best friend, Nellis, drops back into his life and makes him lose hope. Mr. Dumas makes Jeffty lose his friends. Mr. Dumas's apologetic henchman, Ty, makes Jeffty lose his lunch and dexterity and self esteem. The dirty policemen make Jeffty lose any street credibility. And finally, Mona, the street urchin, makes him lose his mind. These are only 5 of the characters that cause Jeffty to lose, but the book is filled with many more.
Jeffty just may have the where-with-all to pull out one last con and get out of the racket.
June 24, 2016
A tour de force of neo-noir. Mr Ridley is a master of pace and atmosphere and dialogue. Jefty is an old fashioned character in a modern masterpiece. Love is a Racket is a lean mean taut thriller that punches you in the gut from the first page and never lets up until it's incredible conclusion.
October 4, 2019
Entrare in empatia con il protagonista di questo hard boiled è un casino.
Un fallito, fatto e finito.
Ho provato una vera e propria gamma di emozioni contrastanti durante lo svolgimento della storia; emozioni che viravano dalla compassione, all'odio fino alla speranza. Speranza che a un certo punto da fallito riuscisse ad elevarsi a redento, a vincente.
Succedono tante di quelle cose che mettermi ad elencarle ci vorrebbe mezza giornata. Le ultime cinquanta pagine sono un gioello. Il finale è perfetto.
Un fallito, fatto e finito.
Ho provato una vera e propria gamma di emozioni contrastanti durante lo svolgimento della storia; emozioni che viravano dalla compassione, all'odio fino alla speranza. Speranza che a un certo punto da fallito riuscisse ad elevarsi a redento, a vincente.
Succedono tante di quelle cose che mettermi ad elencarle ci vorrebbe mezza giornata. Le ultime cinquanta pagine sono un gioello. Il finale è perfetto.
October 11, 2022
This has to be one of the worst books I've ever read. The protagonist is a small-time con-man who is a first-class misogynist. The author, a TV and movie writer, has a short story plot expanded by detailed descriptions of LA neighborhoods and repetition of plot features. And how many times can a man get thoroughly beaten up but never breaks a bone or ruptures an internal organ. He just walks away without so much as a bandage. A ridiculous waste of time.
April 21, 2021
Man, this book is like an adrenaline shot to the heart. Lots of twists and turns and one of the sleaziest main characters I’ve come across. Written by the screenwriter of 12 years a slave and the creator of American crime, this is a well written crime novel and displays wonderfully the grittiness and trashiness of Los Angeles. I look forward to reading more from him.
August 21, 2022
The only issue I have with this book is that it feels too long. About 80% of the middle could have been edited out. But even with that complaint, the writing is tight and the story is all there, a grifting loser who can't seem to get ahead.
September 24, 2018
Amazing novel , first book to read for John Ridley
May 1, 2022
Es una historia de crimen en LA llena de plot twist. Sumamente entretenido!
August 10, 2025
I found the first act to be incredibly boring. It picks back up around the halfway point but the damage is done by then.
January 25, 2009
Gritty story about a very small time conman in debt to a bookie and his efforts to get out that debt. I can't say its an enjoyable read as much that what goes on is pretty grim but it is an absorbing one. The pacing is a little odd in that there's a dramatic shift in plot direction midway through the book. The plot wasn't predictable enough that I knew for certain was coming so even the inevitable climax had enough surprises.
This is the second book by the author of Stray Dogs which became the movie U-Turn with Sean Penn that was filmed in Superior, AZ
This is the second book by the author of Stray Dogs which became the movie U-Turn with Sean Penn that was filmed in Superior, AZ
May 7, 2016
I loved his book! I read it in 24 hours, couldn't put it down. The characters and their developments through the book are so enticing. A little graphic in parts but I think it adds to the rawness of the story. The ending... The ending. I didn't expect it and it literally left my jaw gaping. One of my top 3 books of all time.
April 23, 2010
This story started out kind of slow. I started to enjoy it about half way through and kept reading until the end. I was surprised at the ending at first, but, once I thought about it, it really should not have been a surprise. Maybe a two and a half star rating.
November 15, 2008
Ick. I might have liked it better if I cared about any of the characters.
November 1, 2010
this was really good.
February 21, 2012
pulp tradition take-off, goes thru moves but doesn't compel or come alive.
December 28, 2013
Not my usual kind of thing, but I loved it. Gangsters, poverty, drunkenness and violence. Very well done.
January 25, 2016
Very dark...
November 23, 2019
Permite ponerte en la situación del personaje principal, hasta sentir lástima por el. Sin duda el final fue de mis cosas favoritas, sorprendente y triste desde mi punto de vista.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews