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Riots I Have Known
“Dark, daring, and laugh-out-loud hilarious, Riots I Have Known is one of the smartest—and best—novels of the year.”—NPR
“Chapman establishes himself as a master of wit, satire, and heart.”—Apple Books
“[A] gritty, bracing debut.”— Esquire
“Dazzling...Supremely mischievous and sublimely written.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
An unnamed Sri Lankan inmate has barricaded himself inside a prison computer lab in Dutchess County, New York. A riot rages outside, incited by a poem published in The Holding Pen, the house literary journal. This, our narrator’s final Editor’s Letter, is his confession. An official accounting of events, as they happened .
As he awaits imminent and violent interruption, he takes us on a roller coaster ride of plot and language, determined to share his life story, and maybe answer a few questions. How did he end up here? Should he have remained a quiet Park Avenue doorman? Or continued his rise in the black markets of postwar Sri Lanka? What will become of The Holding Pen , a “masterpiece of post-penal literature” favored by Brooklynites everywhere? And why does everyone think the riots are his fault? Can’t they see he’s really a good guy, doing it for the right reasons?
Smart, wry, and laugh-out-loud funny, Ryan Chapman’s Riots I Have Known is an utter gem—an approachable send-up that packs a punch. Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine , says, “Ryan Chapman has written a rocket-powered ode to literary creation and mass incarceration. Weaving satire and seriousness into a singularly rambunctious monologue, Riots I Have Known is a breath of fresh air.”
“Chapman establishes himself as a master of wit, satire, and heart.”—Apple Books
“[A] gritty, bracing debut.”— Esquire
“Dazzling...Supremely mischievous and sublimely written.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
An unnamed Sri Lankan inmate has barricaded himself inside a prison computer lab in Dutchess County, New York. A riot rages outside, incited by a poem published in The Holding Pen, the house literary journal. This, our narrator’s final Editor’s Letter, is his confession. An official accounting of events, as they happened .
As he awaits imminent and violent interruption, he takes us on a roller coaster ride of plot and language, determined to share his life story, and maybe answer a few questions. How did he end up here? Should he have remained a quiet Park Avenue doorman? Or continued his rise in the black markets of postwar Sri Lanka? What will become of The Holding Pen , a “masterpiece of post-penal literature” favored by Brooklynites everywhere? And why does everyone think the riots are his fault? Can’t they see he’s really a good guy, doing it for the right reasons?
Smart, wry, and laugh-out-loud funny, Ryan Chapman’s Riots I Have Known is an utter gem—an approachable send-up that packs a punch. Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine , says, “Ryan Chapman has written a rocket-powered ode to literary creation and mass incarceration. Weaving satire and seriousness into a singularly rambunctious monologue, Riots I Have Known is a breath of fresh air.”
128 pages, Hardcover
First published May 21, 2019
60 people are currently reading
2948 people want to read
About the author
Ryan Chapman
3 books286 followersRyan Chapman is a Sri Lankan-American writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who currently lives in Kingston, New York.
His debut novel "Riots I Have Known" (Simon & Schuster, 2019) was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a best book of the year by Electric Literature and The Marshall Project. His second novel "The Audacity" will be published by Soho Press in April.
His criticism and humor pieces have appeared in Bookforum, The New Yorker, The Guardian, McSweeney's, The Los Angeles Times, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Frieze, and elsewhere. He’s received fellowships from Millay Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the James Merrill House, and currently teaches at Vassar College and the Sewanee School of Letters.
He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a contributing editor at BOMB.
His debut novel "Riots I Have Known" (Simon & Schuster, 2019) was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and named a best book of the year by Electric Literature and The Marshall Project. His second novel "The Audacity" will be published by Soho Press in April.
His criticism and humor pieces have appeared in Bookforum, The New Yorker, The Guardian, McSweeney's, The Los Angeles Times, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Frieze, and elsewhere. He’s received fellowships from Millay Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the James Merrill House, and currently teaches at Vassar College and the Sewanee School of Letters.
He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a contributing editor at BOMB.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
May 13, 2019
There are few survivors in Ryan Chapman’s comic novella. “Riots I Have Known” is a compact cluster bomb of satire that kills widely and indiscriminately. Even the narrator is counting down the minutes to his impending death.
But until then, there’s no shutting this guy up. Nicknamed “MF,” he’s an inmate serving nine consecutive life sentences in New York’s Westbrook state prison, which is currently going up in flames — and trending on Twitter. A Sri Lankan American, like the author, MF never sacrifices his extraordinarily refined taste, no matter how incongruous the context. Barricaded in the prison’s new media center behind a pile of Aeron chairs, he’s determined to provide “an official accounting of events, as they happened” — at least until the fire or some unloosed psychopath snuffs him out. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
But until then, there’s no shutting this guy up. Nicknamed “MF,” he’s an inmate serving nine consecutive life sentences in New York’s Westbrook state prison, which is currently going up in flames — and trending on Twitter. A Sri Lankan American, like the author, MF never sacrifices his extraordinarily refined taste, no matter how incongruous the context. Barricaded in the prison’s new media center behind a pile of Aeron chairs, he’s determined to provide “an official accounting of events, as they happened” — at least until the fire or some unloosed psychopath snuffs him out. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
May 24, 2019
Absurd satire that defies easy categorization. The main character is an erudite sociopath who has locked himself inside the Westbrook prison’s Will and Edith Rosenberg Media Center for Journalistic Excellence in the Penal Arts due to a prison riot that is occurring just outside its doors. There are strong hints that MF may have caused the riot. As the creator and editor of ‘The Holding Pen’, a post-penal literary magazine, he published a poem (in Spanish) that seems to have triggered the current violence.
While the inmates murder and fight just outside; MF recounts his childhood in Sri Lanka, his work as a doorman for the Bearnaise in Central Park West in Manhattan, and the literary achievements he has accomplished as editor of ‘The Holding Pen’. MF hilariously skewers the prison staff, other inmates, and anyone else he can think of. Chapman’s writing will remind you of Paul Beatty’s brand of humor. Recommend.
While the inmates murder and fight just outside; MF recounts his childhood in Sri Lanka, his work as a doorman for the Bearnaise in Central Park West in Manhattan, and the literary achievements he has accomplished as editor of ‘The Holding Pen’. MF hilariously skewers the prison staff, other inmates, and anyone else he can think of. Chapman’s writing will remind you of Paul Beatty’s brand of humor. Recommend.
June 8, 2019
Hilarious and smart satire of all things America. (readers of the book please note I didn't say 'devastating.')
August 19, 2019
It is with deep regret and great annoyance that I must announce that David Foster Wallace is alive and well; this should not be taken as a good development. Chapman's debut novel is one that only contemporary literature majors could love and, as a contemporary literature major, I think it's pretty much trash: reference-heavy to a fault, devoid of any but the barest traces of authentic human feeling (and, yes, it could work as entirely satire, but it just doesn't for me), and saying absolutely nothing about mass incarceration. I accept that it may just not have worked for me, and maybe the pretentiousness of the "post-penal" literary journal editor is meant to be simply amusing, but I never laughed. There's a difference between smart and clever and this falls decidedly on the latter (and worse) side of that spectrum.
January 9, 2025
“Westbrook is the elder sibling to the new maximum-security facilities in the tri-county area, part of the construction boom for those politicians without recourse to gambling revenue. I'm told there's a recipe for installing a correctional facility on the outskirts of town; the base ingredients include one hundred unemployed blue-collar workers and a mayor with steep alimony.”
In the middle of a riot at the New York Westbrook state prison, the narrator, referred to as “MF”, has barricaded himself in the media center awaiting the end.
“The tenor of my own shuffling off this mortal coil will be determined by whoever first breaks down my meager barricade here in the Will and Edith Rosenberg Media Center for Journalistic Excellence in the Penal Arts….”
Hearing the chaos outside, he tries to write his last blog entry or maybe part of the last issue of the Holding Pen or possibly even his memoir.
“I deserve it, and this is the truth, or a truth, and the one I claim….I am the architect of the Caligulan melee enveloping Westbrook's galleries and flats. Must the final issue of The Holding Pen be my own final chapter? Can any man control the narrative of his life, even one as influential as mine?”
The Holding Pen, an online journal of the literary work of Westbrook prisoners’, was conceived by the publicity hungry Warden Gertjens, who made MF its editor. MF, referred to as “the Widow Killer” and whose crime(s) brought him a verdict of nine consecutive life sentences, felt qualified to take on the editorial responsibilities, having received a superior education with the Jesuits. He holds the literary submissions to a high standard and exercises the right to modify or deny printing to any subpar work.
“Am I saying that I’m the Godard of contemporary prison literature? I’m not not saying it. Sitting here and typing these words as the violence thrums down the hall, with Death's arctic exhalations on the back of my neck, I can no longer pretend false modesty; the true fans of the Holding Pen expect no less. It is no longer the time for ‘being polite’; now is the time to ‘start getting real.’”
References to the Holding Pen and its editor begins to appear in various media platforms, in artistic works and in academic essays. As he writes his last entry, MF recounts episodes from his childhood in Sri Lanka, his career as the doorman at the upscale Manhattan’s Bearnaise apartment, his affair with his fellow prisoner McNairy, and his literary journey to stardom.
"You see, the artist stands alone. He stands alone from his people and at the same time among his people, not unlike the incarcerated man at once inside of and outside of society. You might argue because of this I have a doubled artistic temperament or at least a concentrated artistic temperament. I don't expect my critics or my lawyer…to understand; they delineated small lives for themselves, they never sought the edge of the cliff.”
“These carceral commons, if you'll allow a subjective bias, is an animal place, with the thinnest veneer of civilization, a semitransparent veneer through which I've spied the truth, through which- to borrow a phrase from my psychotropic-drug-addled friends in C Block- I've ‘seen through the bullshit.’ The arc of time bends toward nothing save for time itself.”
The narrator’s crime(s) and the cause of the riot were never clearly stated, but I simply did not care. A satire on the prison system, social media and popular culture, and literary fiction and criticism. A hilarious read.
“…we kill each other with violence…they kill us with banality.”
In the middle of a riot at the New York Westbrook state prison, the narrator, referred to as “MF”, has barricaded himself in the media center awaiting the end.
“The tenor of my own shuffling off this mortal coil will be determined by whoever first breaks down my meager barricade here in the Will and Edith Rosenberg Media Center for Journalistic Excellence in the Penal Arts….”
Hearing the chaos outside, he tries to write his last blog entry or maybe part of the last issue of the Holding Pen or possibly even his memoir.
“I deserve it, and this is the truth, or a truth, and the one I claim….I am the architect of the Caligulan melee enveloping Westbrook's galleries and flats. Must the final issue of The Holding Pen be my own final chapter? Can any man control the narrative of his life, even one as influential as mine?”
The Holding Pen, an online journal of the literary work of Westbrook prisoners’, was conceived by the publicity hungry Warden Gertjens, who made MF its editor. MF, referred to as “the Widow Killer” and whose crime(s) brought him a verdict of nine consecutive life sentences, felt qualified to take on the editorial responsibilities, having received a superior education with the Jesuits. He holds the literary submissions to a high standard and exercises the right to modify or deny printing to any subpar work.
“Am I saying that I’m the Godard of contemporary prison literature? I’m not not saying it. Sitting here and typing these words as the violence thrums down the hall, with Death's arctic exhalations on the back of my neck, I can no longer pretend false modesty; the true fans of the Holding Pen expect no less. It is no longer the time for ‘being polite’; now is the time to ‘start getting real.’”
References to the Holding Pen and its editor begins to appear in various media platforms, in artistic works and in academic essays. As he writes his last entry, MF recounts episodes from his childhood in Sri Lanka, his career as the doorman at the upscale Manhattan’s Bearnaise apartment, his affair with his fellow prisoner McNairy, and his literary journey to stardom.
"You see, the artist stands alone. He stands alone from his people and at the same time among his people, not unlike the incarcerated man at once inside of and outside of society. You might argue because of this I have a doubled artistic temperament or at least a concentrated artistic temperament. I don't expect my critics or my lawyer…to understand; they delineated small lives for themselves, they never sought the edge of the cliff.”
“These carceral commons, if you'll allow a subjective bias, is an animal place, with the thinnest veneer of civilization, a semitransparent veneer through which I've spied the truth, through which- to borrow a phrase from my psychotropic-drug-addled friends in C Block- I've ‘seen through the bullshit.’ The arc of time bends toward nothing save for time itself.”
The narrator’s crime(s) and the cause of the riot were never clearly stated, but I simply did not care. A satire on the prison system, social media and popular culture, and literary fiction and criticism. A hilarious read.
“…we kill each other with violence…they kill us with banality.”
July 15, 2019
During a riot, a prisoner looks back on his time as the editor of the prison's viral literary journal. The author drops so many names and $10 words, I wondered if he wasn't trying to win a bet. It's only a little over 100 pages, and I wished it was shorter.
December 15, 2019
The blurb for this book "guaranteed" me laughter. Some lines were, in fact, funny. I did get the lovely phrase "aspirational underlining" (something I do fairly frequently) from Riots I Have Known, and for that I'm grateful. Other than that, it's maybe a half-step up from drop the soap jokes. It's built on a sturdy premise, has some lovely bits about the warden and things prisons do to earn money/get recognition, fawning literary journal mavens, but they go nowhere. I wanted to find it funny, but about 30 pages in, I couldn't stop wondering if Kalief Browder would have found this at all amusing. Prison is a real thing. In this farcical book, the prison is part of the farce. A clever writer thought of a clever premise then presents his erudite comedy act via a book being typed while he's awaiting the end of an actual riot or perhaps his death. Neither of those things, or much else, beyond his twitter celebrity, seems to mean a thing to him. For satire to work for me, there has to be some skin in the game (from someone - anyone.) I never felt like that was the case here. Of course it's pretentious to have a post-penal award-winning literary journal (because that actually does feel true to life.) But that's just the set-up and the jokes never paid off. I wanted to laugh. I was ready to laugh. The laughs never came.
The comparisons to The Sellout and The White Tiger seem ...All the authors are of color, is that how we compare books now? Those books were sharp, smart commentary on their respective subjects, had much to say, and the satire was well-earned. This book is more like a mockumentary from someone who doesn't love the subject enough to mock it well.
Maybe Chapman could've faked it, or hired sensitivity readers, but I agree with Rebecca Makkai: if you need to hire sensitivity readers, you probably should already have friends and people in your life who can tell it to you directly before any attempt to satirize their lives.
I do feel like Ryan Chapman may be a talented writer, and I'd read another book from him. The problem with this one was the massive chasm between the subject matter and the tone of the book. It might have worked better as a scary psychopath book, rather than a wannabe humorous one. Only a psychopath could react the way the narrator does to the situation in which he is trapped.
The comparisons to The Sellout and The White Tiger seem ...All the authors are of color, is that how we compare books now? Those books were sharp, smart commentary on their respective subjects, had much to say, and the satire was well-earned. This book is more like a mockumentary from someone who doesn't love the subject enough to mock it well.
Maybe Chapman could've faked it, or hired sensitivity readers, but I agree with Rebecca Makkai: if you need to hire sensitivity readers, you probably should already have friends and people in your life who can tell it to you directly before any attempt to satirize their lives.
I do feel like Ryan Chapman may be a talented writer, and I'd read another book from him. The problem with this one was the massive chasm between the subject matter and the tone of the book. It might have worked better as a scary psychopath book, rather than a wannabe humorous one. Only a psychopath could react the way the narrator does to the situation in which he is trapped.
June 20, 2019
Chapman has certainly perfected the art of writing an insufferable character as he monologues with so much distance from the reader that by the end of merely 120 or so pages any semblance of likeability has all but evaporated into the hours it took to wade through his pretentious apologia.
There are some clever metaphors here but more than a little eyerolling from this reader. For all the wit I didn't find this novella very funny, or very meaningful.
There are some clever metaphors here but more than a little eyerolling from this reader. For all the wit I didn't find this novella very funny, or very meaningful.
December 13, 2019
I loved this weird little book with the most erudite and loquacious narrator I've read in a long time. This book was startlingly funny but it didn't have much to say, I don't think, about prisons in general. It was very funny. A novel about a prison trying to survive in the modern era, and a man facilitating it's survival through literariness and the publication of a literary journal. A hilarious book.
February 13, 2019
I am a sucker for voice-driven soliloquies, dark humor, absurdism, French culture, intelligence, and Ryan Chapman, so this book stood no chance of me not loving it. It's two of my favorite books, Benjamin Hale's "The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore" and Martin Amis "The Zone of Interest" rolled into one, and the narrator's quest to turn in the final copy of his prison's newsletter before the sh** hits the proverbial (or real?) fan delighted this former literary magazine editor. This is a charming, wildly smart book with one of the best titles I've ever come across. Pre-order it-- you're in for a terrific surprise.
February 10, 2019
Brought me back to reading Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading. A small book that packs in so much. Excellent debut.
May 27, 2019
Gulped down in one sitting interrupted by a storm and some temper tantrums. Bizarre and real and full of invention.
May 25, 2019
This book won't be for every reader, and I suppose any reader would have to be in a certain mood for satire this acidic. But I found this to be a smart and entertaining romp through the world of a "post-penal literary magazine" during a gigantic prison riot which our narrator may or may not have (indirectly) caused. I'll be very interested in what this author does next.
May 22, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of Riots I Have Known by Ryan Chapman. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.
I have a feeling this is a case of wrong reader, right book. I’m the type of reader who enjoys a story, not a soliloquy or diatribe, and while the unnamed narrator is beyond clever and astute his wit was burdensome for me. I just don’t have the patience for satire or the perseverance for parody. I like my humor straightforward and this was dark and twisty.
I’m sure others will find this novella hilarious and thoughtful. There are certainly many pensive musings and laugh out loud absurdities but for me it was too difficult to get through all the monologues and biting commentary. Ryan Chapman is a talented author and I would gladly attempt another book by him in the future.
I have a feeling this is a case of wrong reader, right book. I’m the type of reader who enjoys a story, not a soliloquy or diatribe, and while the unnamed narrator is beyond clever and astute his wit was burdensome for me. I just don’t have the patience for satire or the perseverance for parody. I like my humor straightforward and this was dark and twisty.
I’m sure others will find this novella hilarious and thoughtful. There are certainly many pensive musings and laugh out loud absurdities but for me it was too difficult to get through all the monologues and biting commentary. Ryan Chapman is a talented author and I would gladly attempt another book by him in the future.
August 6, 2019
Leyner-esque, but not without a certain Nabokovian pathos--I loved it!
January 9, 2020
A novella that is deeply, deeply in love with its narrator's voice (and itself) which became exhausting - the loopy, looping sentences, the drops of high and low culture, the social media references that will age this book tremendously serve only to distance the reader and narrator from the narrative. You can see this book patting itself on the back. It's tiresome and I don't recommend a page of it.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
February 27, 2022
Riots I have Known is a wicked little novella, that will not be for all tastes. The erudite narrator, sprays words like machine gunfire, as he mulls over the raging riot brewing just outside his barricaded door. He also recounts his childhood and the events that led up to his imprisonment. I can't help but be reminded of David Foster Wallace. For me, it falls short of greatness but I still found plenty to enjoy here.
July 26, 2019
Full disclosure: Ryan Chapman is a friend. But even if he wasn’t, I’d be dazzled by this book. This is a book so relentless you might seek solitary confinement by its end. That’s not a bad thing, especially if your goal is to read new, timely and dynamic voices.
June 7, 2019
This debut by the incredibly talented Ryan Chapman is the literary equivalent of dropping a bomb in an erupting volcano and then somehow setting the soundtrack of the disaster to verse of such an incisive quality that it cuts through the raw power of nature and the terror of man.
July 27, 2019
I would give it a zero. Such pretentious writing! $50 words in every sentence. Gave up on it before struggling thru 50 pages, which it unusual for me. Hated it!!
September 19, 2019
A book that's slight in size but offers amazing wit dolloped throughout. It reads like the most pretentious and un-self-aware literary review/critique you've ever stumbled upon, with plenty of observations by Chapman on the human experience from within his narrator's incarcerated point of view. The prose tiptoes around the plot, courtesy of the style of the book and the narrator's insistence on being pulled off into several distracting directions. But is there a message to the book overall? I'm still not sure. The wordplay and descriptions of the goings-on in the narrator's life are almost worthy of a Wodehouse comparison, but just enough not so that I can't see this being re-read by me in the near future. It's not unlike walking into a favorite restaurant, ordering something exotic and new from the menu, only to come away saying "Well, THAT was different."
December 23, 2019
This darkly hilarious and remorseless narrator has one of the best narrative voices I’ve ever read. Erudite and sesquipedalian and coy, he has a lot to say (and claims a sense of urgency to say it) as a prison riot closes in on him. But does he ever get to the point? I’m not sure. In fact, I wasn’t sure, in general, what message or feeling I was supposed to take from the novel, wasn’t sure what, at the heart of it, the narrator was saying exactly. And one of it’s truly great strengths—a ridiculously masterful use of language—was at times for me a weakness, as sorting through the purposefully highbrow language (ironically, I found the word sesquipedalian while trying to figure out how to describe the narrator) got a little tiring. But man, oh, man is Chapman smart. Hats off to him, big time.
August 22, 2021
This book is the definition of “whip smart.” Mr. Chapman is clearly very clever, but I found this book to be a huge bummer. The laughs I was promised were more anxiety induced than I expected, and for a book this challenging there was little to no pay off for me. I’m giving it a 3 star rating because there isn’t anything particularly wrong with it; it was an original concept, expertly executed, and accomplishes it’s intentions. It just wasn’t my jail cup of toilet wine. Read this if you think the stupidity of modern culture, and the soul death of humanity is “hilarious!”
July 23, 2023
3.5 stars. Laugh-out-loud funny in many places. The humor about politics (e.g., Albany corruption) and literary pretensions was great, but the jokes about prison sexual assault and other violence ... not so much. I listened to the audiobook, which was good, but the jabs and references come so fast (especially in the early chapters) that it's easy to miss some of them.
July 25, 2019
2.5 stars - good first book but kinda heavy handed with the prose/references.
August 12, 2019
This is like a McSweeney's essay that ran long. It's witty and totally of-the-moment, but has less substance than many McS pieces.
June 1, 2019
This book was vivid and engaging from the first lines. Chapman has a talent for both dialogue and description. A recommended fiction choice.
December 26, 2019
More like 3.5.
This was a very amusing novella, and despite the abundance of references/SAT vocab words, it didn't come across as pretentious at all. The major stumbling block here is that
A fun read for sure, but don't expect a satisfactory ending.
This was a very amusing novella, and despite the abundance of references/SAT vocab words, it didn't come across as pretentious at all. The major stumbling block here is that
A fun read for sure, but don't expect a satisfactory ending.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews