From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Construction was started on the Empire State Building on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1930. It was just as the Depression was beginning to squeeze America in its death grip and every job was sacred. Kelly, who created first-rate working-class heroes in Payback and The Rackets, takes a fascinating look at how New York City was run at the end of the Jazz Age—by bribe, kickback and political machination. The characters are tough and vengeful: Michael Briody, steelworker, WWI vet, IRA gunman; Johnny Farrell, a "narrowback" lawyer who functions as the mayor's bagman; Grace Masterson, a beautiful painter who lives on a houseboat on the East River, holds dark secrets and counts both Briody and Farrell as lovers; and Egan, the governor's dour henchman. Historical figures of the time round out the cast: FDR, the governor of New York, making sure that nothing will hinder him on the way to the White House; Mayor James J. (Jimmy) Walker, a dapper rogue and master practitioner of "honest graft"; Judge Joseph Force Crater, stooge of Tammany, destined to be eclipsed in a legendary way; and Al Smith, the "Happy Warrior," a political has-been now in charge of the construction of the world's tallest building. Kelly weaves a fascinating tale that captures the cadences and decadence of art deco New York, where desperate working-class have-nots and powerful elite swells collide violently in a nation on the brink of great change. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
"The Empire State Building will dominate the Manhattan skyline," all New Yorkers realize in 1930 as construction proceeds, but then, too, "nothing gets built in Gotham without a kickback." Thus is the basic premise of this, to borrow construction language, riveting novel evoking in authentic detail the underside of New York City politics during the era of Mayor Jimmy Walker. Kelly's story is basically the tale of a love triangle between Johnny Farrell, an important aide to the mayor; Johnny's artist girlfriend, Grace Masterson; and construction worker and part-time boxer Michael Briody. Each of these characters represents, without the flatness of type, a significant element of the fabric of New York City as the Empire State Building rises ethereally above the street-level realities of hard economic times and how big-city government works. Kelly successfully melds actual historical figures and fictional ones, but in the end, it is New York City itself that emerges as the central character here: a place that makes people the way they are. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Thomas Kelly knows how to tell a story. Empire Rising is a vivid, evocative, enthralling tale of gangsters, pols, an enduring New York mystery, and the hard, joyful work of building the Empire State Building. This is historical fiction writing at its best." --Kevin Baker, author of Paradise Alley

"In Empire Rising Thomas Kelly looks backwards and forwards at the same time: he knows the value of who we once were and the possibility of what we might still become. At the heart of this audacious novel is a unique love story between two 1930's immigrants, a beautiful young artist and an ironworker, both so compellingly drawn that one almost forgets the scaffolds which hold them together: corruption, power, greed, art and desire. Great buildings, like great stories, are created layer upon layer. While the Empire State Building rises to dominate the New York skyline, Kelly gives vent to human loves and disappointments in this, an American story that will be recognized everywhere." --Colum McCann, author of Dancer and This Side of Brightness

"Empire Rising is, at bottom, a love story, told by one of my favorite authors: a writer of candor, grace, wit, and skill, who writes about the characters who make New York what it was and always will be: a place where the unique spirit of the Irish hovers over every sidewalk, building, street, and alleyway." --James McBride, author of The Color of Water

"Tom Kelly's labors in Empire Rising recall those he chronicles in the creation of New York City's signature skyscraper, piling mind over matter and then matter over mind, until we reach striking heights. It is where the old world met the New Deal, and was bloodied into something better. This is an honest book, observed by turns with a cold eye and a kind one, with a tough grip." --Edward Conlon, author of Blue Blood

"Empire Rising is vivid, vibrant, and raw, a story about beauty and corruption, idealism and violence, as intricate as New York City itself." --Lauren Belfer, author of City of Light

"An audacious and compelling narrative by a master storyteller: tough, tender, and beautifully imagined, this intensely American tale is universal in its scope." --Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea

"No writer owns New York . . . [but] Thomas Kelly stakes his claim-on a group, Irish immigrant construction workers, and on a transaction that is central to the political geography of the city: the kickback . . . Compelling . . . The plots barrel along, the characters are wildly colorful-and there is dead-on authenticity to the dialogue and the atmospherics. There is also a bracing, and rare, appreciation for the sheer satisfaction of honest work . . . A big-hearted and admirably ambitious writer . . . Kelly takes lots of chances, drawing his characters broadly, jamming the plots with coincidence, violence and melodrama . . . Kelly's city is palpably alive an passionate." --Joe Klein, The New York Times Book Review

"Big, bold, bruising novels about the real world of work just don't come along that often. You have to go all the way back to the fiction of Theodore Dreiser to find the mold for this variety of book. And between Dreiser's novels and our own time you won't find all that many books that fit the bill until you get to the recent fiction of the relatively unknown New York writer Thomas Kelly. Kelly's latest novel, his third, takes us, in fact, back almost to the roots of realism as a style, when a certain heat steams up from the page as a wrier tells of things in strong nouns and verbs that demonstrate what makes the world go round . . . It's an engaging book in the grand old realistic tradition, a gripping piece of national history, a nicely felt love story, that takes us into the building sites and busy streets and nightclubs, the bedrooms and backrooms and shops and churches that make up the world of Jimmy Walker's New York, a city of rivets and bullets, kisses and payoffs, that becomes, because of Kelly's convincing storytelling manner, every city. He certainly shows us how it works." --Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

"Empire Rising is Thomas Kelly's third novel, and his best. It's a great historical thriller filled with grit and atmosphere from the 1930s. It's also a brilliant love story about a building and a city . . . Empire Rising takes [Kelly's] talent to another level." --Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

"Engaging."--Tom Walker, Denver Post

"New York in1930 shines through the pages with high resolution . . . Kelly reveals genuine talent." --Peter Campion, San Francisco Chronicle

"The poet laureate of hard-hatted working stiffs, Thomas Kelly serves up a tough-'n'-tender thriller." --Jonathan Miles, Men's Journal

"A tough urban thriller . . . with rich characters, expert pacing and pitch-perfect dialogue, Empire Rising ratchets Kelly's work up a notch." --Scott Stephens, The Plain Dealer

"A gifted writer . . . Kelly fills his story with a tapestry of characters with rich backgrounds, complex emotions and real motivations . . . Brilliant . . . Well crafted and meticulously thought out." --Ron Bernas, Detroit Free Press

"A satisfying slice of local historical fiction, the kind that makes you feel mildly educated and thoroughly thrilled." --William Georgiades, New York Post

"This is a thriller . . . complete with countless betrayals, a car chase and a dramatic rescue at a Long Island Gold Coast mansion." --Dan Cryer, Newsday

"A superior action novel and a great love story." --David Keymer, Library Journal (starred review)

"Colorful . . . Enjoyable . . . Fascinating." --Paige Newman, MSNBC.com

"An extraordinary thriller." --Esquire

"Epic . . . Ambitious . . . The erection of the Empire State Building is . . . a sort of prism through which the reader may view the sweeping changes occurring at the time." --Adam Dunn, CNN.com

"This fascinating and highly readable story of the people who built what is sometimes called the eighth wonder of the world is a fitting tribute to that time and place," --Judi Baxter, PW Daily

"Kelly weaves a fascinating tale that captures the cadences and decadence of art deco New York, where desperate working-class have-nots and powerful elite swells collide violently in a nation on the brink of great change." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A knowledgeable, vigorously detailed portrayal of big-city political and fiscal skullduggery and corruption, featuring a generous host of brawling characters . . . Kelly's mastery of narrative drive holds the attention." --Kirkus Reviews

"[A] riveting novel evoking in authentic detail the underside of New York City politics . . . Kelly successfully melds actual historical figures and fictional one." --Brad Hooper, Booklist



Book Description
A Novel of High-Stakes Romance and Betrayal, Set During the Race to Finish the World's Tallest Building

In Empire Rising, his extraordinary third book, Thomas Kelly tells a story of love and work, of intrigue and jealousy, with the narrative verve that led the Village Voice's reviewer to dub him "Dostoevsky with a hard hat and lead pipe."
As the novel opens, it is 1930-the Depression-and ground has just been broken for the Empire State Building. One of the thousands of men erecting the building high above the city is Michael Briody, an Irish immigrant torn between his desire to make a new life in America and his pledge to gather money and arms for the Irish republican cause. When he meets Grace Masterson, an alluring artist who is depicting the great skyscraper's ascent from her houseboat on the East River, Briody's life turns exhilarating-and dangerous, for Grace is also a paramour of Johnny Farrell, Mayor Jimmy Walker's liaison with Tammany Hall and the underworld.
Their heartbreaking love story-which takes place both in the immigrant neighborhoods of the Bronx and amid the swanky nightlife of the '21' Club--is also a chronicle of the city's rough passage from a working-class enclave to a world-class metropolis, and a vivid reimagining of the conflict that pitted the Tammany Hall political machine and its popular mayor against the boundlessly ambitious Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Colin Harrison, in The New York Times Book Review, called Kelly's The Rackets "A well-paced, violent thriller, [and] an elegy for the city's old Irish working class." In Empire Rising, Kelly takes his work to a new level: telling of the story of the people who built the "eighth wonder of the world," he makes old New York the setting for a rich and unforgettable story.



About the Author
Thomas Kelly's first novel, Payback, is in development as a feature film; his second, The Rackets (FSG, 2001), is being adapted for a forthcoming ABC series produced by Sydney Pollack. Kelly splits his time between Manhattan and Ireland.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"It is 1930, and ground has just been broken for the building dubbed "the Eighth Wonder of the World." One of the thousands of men working high above the city is Michael Briody, an Irish immigrant torn between his desire to make a new life in America and his pledge to gather money and arms for the Irish republican cause. When he meets Grace Masterson, an alluring artist who is depicting the great skyscraper's rise from her houseboat on the East River, Briody's life turns exhilarating - and dangerous, for Grace is also a paramour of Johnny Farrell, Mayor Jimmy Walker's liaison with Tammany Hall and the New York underworld." Their heartbreaking love story - which takes place both in the rough neighborhoods of the Bronx and amid the swanky nightlife of the '21' Club - is also a chronicle of the city's passage from a working-class enclave to a world-class metropolis, and a vivid reimagining of the conflict that pitted the Tammany Hall political machine against the boundlessly ambitious Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FROM THE CRITICS

Joe Klein - The New York Times

And at the center of Thomas Kelly's New York, more vital than plot or characters, is politics. Not the politics of elections, personalities, reform or progress -- no, this is the politics of the never-ending transaction. Public employees' unions may supplant Tammany, bundled campaign contributions may replace envelopes filled with cash, and new ethnic groups provide the crooks and the muscle labor. But the buildings still go up, the contracts are still let out (and not always to the lowest bidder) and zoning variances remain an adventure. There are lawyers, insurance brokers, pension fund managers and mobsters crawling all over each other for a payday, and good government sorts (''goo-goos'' is the term of art) trying to thwart them. Kelly is too smart for idealism, too romantic for reflexive cynicism. He is a realist, who understands that there's just too much here -- too much money, glamour, power -- for the city to ever completely reform itself. The structures are too big to run without a little grease. Empire Rising is an ode to urban grease; I'll never look at that grand old building the same way again.

Publishers Weekly

Construction was started on the Empire State Building on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1930. It was just as the Depression was beginning to squeeze America in its death grip and every job was sacred. Kelly, who created first-rate working-class heroes in Payback and The Rackets, takes a fascinating look at how New York City was run at the end of the Jazz Age-by bribe, kickback and political machination. The characters are tough and vengeful: Michael Briody, steelworker, WWI vet, IRA gunman; Johnny Farrell, a "narrowback" lawyer who functions as the mayor's bagman; Grace Masterson, a beautiful painter who lives on a houseboat on the East River, holds dark secrets and counts both Briody and Farrell as lovers; and Egan, the governor's dour henchman. Historical figures of the time round out the cast: FDR, the governor of New York, making sure that nothing will hinder him on the way to the White House; Mayor James J. (Jimmy) Walker, a dapper rogue and master practitioner of "honest graft"; Judge Joseph Force Crater, stooge of Tammany, destined to be eclipsed in a legendary way; and Al Smith, the "Happy Warrior," a political has-been now in charge of the construction of the world's tallest building. Kelly weaves a fascinating tale that captures the cadences and decadence of art deco New York, where desperate working-class have-nots and powerful elite swells collide violently in a nation on the brink of great change. Agent, Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"The biggest building in the world calls for the biggest payoff"-so declares Johnny Farrell, fixer to New York City mayor Jimmy Walker. It's 1930, and ground has just been broken for the Empire State Building. Enter Farrell's beautiful mistress, Grace, an artist sketching the building's construction, and riveter Michael Briody, who moonlights for mob boss Tommy Touhey and runs guns for the IRA. They fall passionately in love and struggle with being stuck in the glue of corruption. "Everybody is out for themselves. Why not us?" argues Grace. Kelly (Payback) unravels a thrilling tale of crooked pols, tough-guy cons, sadistic cops, and priapic judges. His use of actual historical figures (Walker, Al Smith, and FDR) draws the inevitable comparison with E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, but Kelly owes as much to great crime novelists like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Michael Connolly. This is a superior action novel and a great love story that will appeal to a wide audience. Strongly recommended for most fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/04; March 2005 marks the 75th anniversary of the Empire State Building.-Ed.]-David Keymer, Modesto, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews