Fotografía de autor

Thomas Kelly (1) (1960–)

Autor de Empire Rising

Para otros autores llamados Thomas Kelly, ver la página de desambiguación.

4 Obras 281 Miembros 12 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

Thomas Kelly worked in construction, graduated from Fordham & Harvard, then served as Mayor David N. Dinkins' liaison the labor unions. A Teamster, he writes for "Esquire" & the "Daily News". His first novel, "Payback", has been adapted by David Mamet for a feature film. (Bowker Author Biography)

Obras de Thomas Kelly

Empire Rising (2005) 141 copias
The Rackets (2001) 77 copias
Payback (1997) 60 copias
Sandhogs (2008) 3 copias

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Fecha de nacimiento
1960
Género
male
Lugar de nacimiento
New York, New York, USA

Miembros

Reseñas

An evocative, well written and accurate historical novel.
 
Denunciada
Mark_Feltskog | 9 reseñas más. | Dec 23, 2023 |
I happened to stumble across this novel in the library. The first thing that attracted me to it was the cover, and then I found out that it is historical fiction and I knew I had to read it. This novel is about the building of the Empire State Building. Briody, an ironworker working on the Empire State Building, also helps run arms, explosives, and other things back to Ireland to help the Irish republican cause. His world gets turned upside down when he meets Grace Masterson, who happens to be the mistress of Johnny Farrell a crooked man of New York politics. The two fall in love and become in danger of Farrell finding out about their romance.
I loved that the book showed glimpses of what it was like for the workers who built the Empire State Building. I loved the romance between Briody and Grace. I have to say that I wasn't fond of the ending but I understand why it was the way it was. I would recommend this novel to historical fiction lovers, and people interested in New York.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
dpappas | 9 reseñas más. | Nov 16, 2011 |
During the '80s building boom in New York, Billy Adare was a sandhog (tunneler). He attended school at night in the hope of getting a law degree. His brother, Paddy, was an enforcer for Jack Tierney, who ran the construction racket in the West Side.

The author describes the difficulty these sandhogs had with the dust, building safety and poor working conditions. Most of them were Irish and the Mob wanted to replace them with newly immigrated Poles, pay less and pocket the difference.

When a union rep is beaten to death by Tierney's crazed brother, Billy's friends ask him to check with his brother, Paddy, to see if they can find who is strong-arming them.

The author does a nice job in describing New York of the '80s, with the music, the politics and views of the time. There is a great deal of violence in the book and much of it is aimed at the sandhogs who wanted nothing more than to make a living.

Billy is a nice character and represents the author's theme of a dwindling race, the Irish in the Bronx and their struggle to better themselves.

Well done and interesting.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
mikedraper | otra reseña | Mar 30, 2010 |
Authentic and suspenseful recreation of Depression-era New York through an ironworker who spends his days high atop the rising Empire State Building and his nights doing the bidding of Irish Republicans
½
 
Denunciada
billgreer | 9 reseñas más. | Mar 19, 2009 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
4
Miembros
281
Popularidad
#82,782
Valoración
½ 3.5
Reseñas
12
ISBNs
89
Idiomas
6

Tablas y Gráficos