Sometimes a work of fiction absolutely does make good on the promise to bring us to another world. And sometimes a novel can make a reader see the world through fresh eyes. New to paperback, Ryan Gattis’ All Involved delivers both as it brings us to a place and culture that few of us can ever know.
Set in a small area of central Los Angeles during the six days in 1992 of the LA riots after the verdict in the Rodney King trial, we read about something else that occurred that week. While the police and media and national guard troops were occupied with widespread looting, fires and violent rioting, scores were settled between the rival clicks and crews that make up the subterranean world of the Chicano gangs.
Arranged as a collection of seventeen interconnected narratives, Gattis is adroit in his ability to use seventeen distinct voices without stretching too far. Without the use of an omniscient narrator, we are immersed in this world from the beginning by the inner thoughts and private lives of the individuals portrayed. The landscape and the culture of this world in which these characters and their stories live may seem unfamiliar and inaccessible to many of us if not for Gattis’ rich character development.
Dedicated to writing the characters himself and not relying on others’ real life stories – because this is after all a work of fiction – Gattis nonetheless did his research, spending more than two years talking to former gang members, firefighters, and many other Lynwood and other Los Angeles community members from the 1980s and early 1990s, dedicated to bringing to life the memories: the smells of the neighborhoods with and without the fires that blackened the skies during those days, the clothing people wore, the music they listened to.
When we read each character’s account, we are not just reading about violence or gang rivalries. Many of the characters have a brilliant personal philosophy that made me set down my reading and think for a bit. Others talk about family and loyalty in a way that most anyone from any culture can understand and relate to.
One such insight comes from a gang member who relates a story about taking his children to see the knights’ performance at Medieval Times and his realization that the legendary and romanticized knights of that time in history weren’t much different from his own world: the banners and the clans and the fighting to the death for honor and territory. And cannot we all look at history through that lens? Seeing a story from a time in America’s recent history from an angle that is almost untold, All Involved has called upon me to more objectively evaluate all available stories when interpreting news and current events.
All Involved has also challenged me to explore ways in which I move through this world seeing myself as separate and not at all involved. At first I looked around my Boston house and thought how “this” isn’t anything like the world I know. Then I thought about when I “lived in LA”, which actually means I lived in Pasadena and spent weekends in Santa Monica or Silverlake and how “this” isn’t anything like the Los Angeles I know.
The book opens with the first narrative: an unaffiliated brother to two gang members is murdered in cold blood to settle a score. The weaving of narratives from nurses and gang members and bystanders and firefighters challenged me to find more connections and similarities in the world around me.
As much as I read, it has been a long time since I have felt the sense of sehnsucht that used to follow finishing a novel – no matter how delicious the text. That said, even after days have passed, I cannot get these characters and their stories out of my mind. Sometimes the best gifts in literature are the ones we do not expect to change our own point of view.
Jennifer Tyler is a freelance writer in Boston, MA. In years past she has reviewed books and written in collaboration for the blog Three Guys, One Book and worked for years as an independent bookseller and author events coordinator.
