Press: Reviews, Interviews, & Stories

By Paula L. Woods, The Los Angeles Times (December 2, 2020)

Los Angeles Times: How an outsider novelist nailed ‘The System’ of crime and punishment in South L.A.

"There are so many subgenres of crime fiction, all with their own traditions and tropes, that mastering any one of them could entail a lifetime of writing. But in “The System,” Ryan Gattis seems to capture the lion’s share of them. His fifth novel powerfully illuminates every corner of the law-and-order universe — from drive-by shootings to cops to courts, from corrections officers to parole agents and beyond. In unfurling the aftermath of a gang-related shooting, he builds a bridge of understanding — even for readers who think this might not be their kind of book — to a system that impacts us all."
Go

By Caterina Soffici, La Stampa - TTL (08 Febbraio 2020)

La Stampa: Se Wall Street crolla rubi ai narcos per dare ai poveri

"Ryan Gattis è uno di quelli che non ha paura di metterci la faccia. E’ un narratore potente e maneggia da Dio la materia ostica che tratta. Gattis descrive bene la sofferenza e guarda la vita dalla parte degli ultimi. E’ un autore dalla scrittura potente e autentica, che si intreccia con la sua vita."
Go

By Rob Latham, L.A. Review of Books (SEPT 18, 2017)

L.A. Review: Webs of Desire and Power

"Safe is an intense and gripping novel. As Ricky’s and Rudy’s stories start to come together and fuse, the suspense is palpable, and the multiple meanings of the book’s title resonate. Musing on his long-suffering wife, who has stuck by him despite the hazards of his occupation, Rudy thinks: “She could’ve had a normal life if she wanted, a husband that didn’t have a messed-up eye and a messed-up fade and worked at the DMV or something, you know? Somebody safe.” Meanwhile, Ricky has come to the hard-won realization that “safety was for other people […] Not us. Never us. All we got handed was risk and running.” The pursuit ends, unforgettably, at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, looking out at Terminal Island. For all our running, Gattis suggests, we can never escape the prisons we have made for ourselves."
Go

By Hannah Beckerman, The Observer (22 Aug 2017)

The Observer: Safe by Ryan Gattis review – a Ghost story with a difference

"A junkie turned safe-cracker is pursued by criminals in Gattis’s gripping novel about hope, his second book set in Los Angeles’ ganglands."
Go

By Michael T. Fournier, Chicago Review of Books (Aug 21, 2017)

Chicago Review: ‘Safe’ Is the Punk-Rock Crime Thriller Los Angeles Deserves

"With its dueling narrators and breakneck pace, Ryan Gattis’s new novel Safe is the sort of thriller well-suited for a beach chair, a lean and frenetic read that leaves you satisfied with no guilty aftertaste. And several elements not typically found in crime thrillers make this one distinct."
Go

By Kristin Centorelli, Criminal Element (Aug 3, 2017)

Criminal Element: Safe by Ryan Gattis

"What really makes this a standout is Gattis’s talent for portraying people that operate firmly in the “gray zone” (some tending toward the darker end) as very, very human and his obviously exhaustive research into the many ins and outs of various criminal enterprises. ... I loved these characters. I love that Ghost just wants to do some good in his very messed up world before he goes out for good. Hell, I loved this book. Gattis explores some pretty big themes—like addiction, mortality, and of course, the huge gap that can lie between right and wrong—without sacrificing an undeniably cinematic touch. Also, the ending will surprise you. In a good way. If you’re looking for something intelligent, fast-paced, sometimes funny, and certainly noir but with a huge heart, snap this one up."
Go

By Sarah Begley, Time Magazine (July 20, 2017)

Time Magazine: Do-Gooders in Gangland in Ryan Gattis' Safe

"Ryan Gattis’ new novel, Safe, pits two narrators against each other — both of them bad guys trying to be good. Ricky Mendoza Jr., a.k.a. Ghost, a former addict who cracks safes for the DEA, has decided to go rogue in a “ghetto Robin Hood” plot to steal from gangsters to pay off mortgages of those in need. (It’s 2008, and the financial crisis looms.) This puts him at odds with Rudolfo “Rudy” Reyes, a.k.a. Glasses, a powerful gangster’s right-hand man who hopes to inform on his boss and start life fresh."
Go

By Emmanuel Hecht, L'Express (Aug 20, 2015)

L'Express : Cinq Cracks pour la Rentrée Littéraire

« Le maestro Ryan Gattis a orchestré cette apocalypse en donnant la parole à 17 personnages, acteurs ou témoins, du dealer à l'infirmière, du flic au sapeur-pompier. Chacun y va du "je" pour raconter la cité des Anges proie du Malin, et tous ces solistes participent à la symphonie de la descente aux Enfers. »
Go

By Pat Kenny, Brian Kennedy, Mary O'Rourke, & Others

Eason Book Club on The Pat Kenny Show: All Involved (Radio, 20 min)

An Irish book club on News Talk dissects All Involved with possibly the most charming discussion ever had on Ryan Gattis's work—featuring such gems as: "Just get into it! Pull it around you!" and "I'd love to be a gangbanger."
Go

By Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times (April 29, 2015)

The New York Times: ‘All Involved’ by Ryan Gattis Is Set in the Days After the Rodney King Verdict

"In fact, Mr. Gattis does a remarkable job not only as a ventriloquist but also as a Method actor, inhabiting an array of characters: Latino gangbangers, Korean shopkeepers, drug dealers, graffiti artists, a nurse, an anonymous law enforcement officer, a fireman who has learned that working in “one of the heaviest gang-involved areas in the gang capital of the world” is like working in a war zone. These people rarely seem like representative types; rather, they emerge as individuals whose dreams and impulsive actions are deeply rooted in their pasts and in their tangled, often conflicted relationships with family members and friends."
Go

By Gene Seymour, USA TODAY (Apr. 26, 2015)

USA Today: Novel offers explosive look at L.A. riots

"Twenty-three years ago this month, a jury acquitted three white Los Angeles policemen charged with using excessive force against an unarmed black man named Rodney King. Within hours of the verdict, and for six days afterward, the City of Angels was a cauldron of fire and blood. Most Americans who were alive and aware in the spring of 1992 know this story, which provides the backdrop for Ryan Gattis' novel, All Involved (***½ out of four), a poignant, fierce and often graphically brutal panorama of a city "taking itself to heaven in pieces," as one of its many characters puts it."
Go

Anarita Briganti, La Repubblica (09 Febbraio 2020)

La Repubblica: Intervista con Anarita Briganti

"Raccontare le gang, la violenza, la vita di strada sovvertendo i cliché sulla Los Angeles dei divi del cinema e delle stelle della musica pop a Ryan Gattis riesce particolarmente bene come dimostra il suo nuovo romanzo, Uscita di sicurezza."
Go

di Ryan Gattis, Corriere della Serra (Feb 2, 2020)

La Storia: L’incidente al mio naso svelato ai ragazzi difficili di Lynwood

"Sono andato alla Lynwood Middle School una sola volta, chiamato perché uno degli studenti era stato ucciso. Aveva 13 anni. Un’insegnante aveva saputo che avevo tenuto un incontro di un certo successo in una scuola superiore della zona e, mi confessò, io ero l’unico che le venisse in mente a cui poterlo chiedere. Sperava che parlassi ai compagni del ragazzo, quelli che più erano stati toccati dall’omicidio, quasi tutti ragazzini tra i 12 e i 14 anni."
Go

by Georgina Godwin, Monocle Radio (2 Jan 2020)

Meet the Writers / Monocle Reads: Ryan Gattis (18 min)

Los Angeles writer Ryan Gattis, winner of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, talks to Georgina Godwin about his latest book, Safe. A Robin Hood tale about a former junkie turned Drug Enforcement Administration safecracker who steals from gangs to give to those hurt by the 2008 financial crisis, the novel is a tight-wire thriller for modern times.
Go

Propos recueillis par Macha Séry, Le Monde (20 juin 2019)

Le Monde : Ryan Gattis : « Capter l’oralité est la question centrale de mon écriture »

Après le formidable Six jours (2015) où alternaient les voix de dix-sept personnages pendant les émeutes de 1992 à Los Angeles, l’Américain Ryan Gattis demeure dans le quartier pauvre de Lynwood avec En lieu sûr (traduit de l’anglais par Nadège T. Dulot, Fayard, 352 p., 23 €). Un ­roman noir saisissant de réalisme et d’empathie, où il suit deux personnages : Glass, un gangster doublé d’un indic qui, devenu père de famille, voudrait abandonner son gang, et Ghost, perceur de coffre de génie, sorte de Robin des bois des temps modernes, pendant la crise de 2008.
Go

by Georgina Godwin, Monocle Radio (5 Nov 2016)

Meet the Writers: Ryan Gattis (30 min)

Los Angeles-based US author Ryan Gattis is an extremely interesting character in his own right. He tells Georgina Godwin how being thumped in the face by a college friend on acid helped to shape his career and gives us some insight into the workings behind his latest book ‘All Involved’. Plus: Ryan reads a passage from early on in the book where the protagonist narrates his own death.
Go

L.A. Review of Books, Feat. Tom Lutz, Laurie Winer, and Seth Greenland (May 19, 2016)

Radio Hour: Ryan Gattis (28 min)

This week’s show features an interview with Ryan Gattis, author of All Involved, a novel set during the 1992 LA Riots, focusing on a sliver of Los Angeles almost completely ignored by the media at the time and told through seventeen interconnected first-person narratives. Gattis, who is a member of the LA street art crew UGLARworks, describes how he spent over two years researching the novel, interviewing a wide range of people that had lived through the riots, from nurses, firefighters, and police officers to gang members and graffiti artists.
Go

di Gloria Ghioni, Il Libbraio (21.03.2016)

Il Libraio: Il racconto della periferia in rivolta: un corpo a corpo tra letteratura e Storia

Oltre quattrocento pagine di azione, pensieri, colpi di scena e… fiamme: il romanzo di Ryan Gattis con cui ha esordito in Italia, Giorni di fuoco (Guanda), racconta da una prospettiva davvero insolita gli scontri di Los Angeles del 1992. La tv e i giornali ci avevano tempestati, allora, perché era un caso quasi unico per forza e intensità: in seguito a un processo da cui erano stati scagionati i poliziotti che avevano malmenato un tassista di colore, la città è stata messa a ferro e fuoco per sei giorni.
Go

by Andy Greenwald, Grantland (RIP), 6/11/15

The Andy Greenwald Podcast: Ryan Gattis on L.A. Riots (53 min)

Ryan Gattis, author of the novel All Involved, joins Andy Greenwald to discuss the 1992 L.A. riots that inspired his book, and how the city has (and hasn't) changed.
Go

Shad, Radio Q: Canadian Broadcasting Company (June 1, 2015)

Radio Q: Ryan Gattis on the lasting wounds of Los Angeles Riots (22 min)

When writer Ryan Gattis moved to Los Angeles in 2008, just down the street from Skid Row, he saw a city that still bore wounds from the deadly riots in 1992. His acclaimed new novel All Involved explores the fallout after two LAPD officers were acquitted for the beating of Rodney King -- a turning point that led to violence, arson and the deaths of 53 people. For Gattis, the answer, or at least part of it, can be found in what he calls "the hidden Los Angeles."
Go

by Mariella Frostrup, BBC Radio 4 (24 May 2015)

Open Book: Ryan Gattis on All Involved (28 min)

Ryan Gattis talks to Mariella Frostrup about his new novel All Involved, a fictional account of the 1992 Los Angeles riots told from the perspective of 17 different characters caught up in the violence from gang members to fire fighters. Also on the programme, resident close reading expert Sarah Dillon scrutinizes a passage of Ian McEwan's prose; we offer advice to someone in search of the perfect novel for a hen night and Saud Alsanousi, winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, sends us a literary postcard from Kuwait.
Go

Tim Lewis, The Guardian (10 May 2015)

The Guardian: Ryan Gattis - ‘I knew I’d need to tell my own story as a survivor of violence’

"The novelist on winning the trust of LA gangs for his novel set during the city’s 1992 riots, and the injury that changed his own life."
Go
What People Are Saying
About Safe
Who told Ryan Gattis he could be this good? ... Like a great cracksman, he hears the tumblers of language turning, and he's an expert at making them give.”
David Kipen
Los Angeles Magazine
More of What People Are Saying
What People Are Saying
About All Involved
...a high-octane speedball of a read: gritty, nerve-racking, sometimes excruciating in its violence and at the same time animated by a bone-deep understanding of its characters’ daily lives in a gang-ravaged neighborhood in Lynwood, South Central.”
Michiko Kakutani
The New York Times
More of What People Are Saying
What People Are Saying
About Safe
This macho, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet novel benefits from the extensive research Gattis has done on the L.A. gang scene ... and that deep knowledge informs electrifying plot twists.”
Sarah Begley
Time Magazine
More of What People Are Saying
What People Are Saying
About All Involved
An overwhelming and fully immersive performance from Gattis, who finds the humanity and poetry in the most inhumane of circumstances. A solid addition to all fiction collections, though not for the fainthearted.”
Library Journal
Library Journal on All Involved
More of What People Are Saying