If you like noir where the protagonist starts off with a problem and descends deeper and deeper into the circles of his/her personal hell, you will be pleased with most of the novels published in the Hard Case Crime series. Sometimes, we get a bit of catharsis when a character with seeming little hope manages by an act of courage, fortitude, inspiration, or innovation to throw off the chains holding him like Prometheus for his circumstances to eviscerate him incessantly. At other times, we suffer with the protagonist’s hubris and watch the tragic flaw flay him layer by layer as the consequences of his/her arrogance filet her/him with one cut after another. I’m not going to reveal which formula Fake I.D. takes. The would-be actor, mostly bar bouncer, named Tommy Russo is creative enough for the former and arrogant enough for the latter. You aren’t sure which it will be until you reach the final pages. And that’s how it should be.Fake I.D. takes its title from the bouncer’s job at, you guessed it, checking identification to turn away minors. Yet, one gets the sense that the eponymous term refers more to the protagonist’s image of himself than to this procedure (even though it is cited at several points in the book). The story begins in the parking lot of a Jai Alai fronton. While waiting for the doors to open and going over both the Jai Alai entrants and the Daily Racing Form, one of the racetrack habitués touts the possibility of getting into a syndicate for claiming a horse and becoming an owner. In spite of the fact that this “tout” looks and smells like a total loser, he turns out to be the rather eccentric owner of two shoe stores. And, in spite of the fact that Tommy doesn’t have enough money to invest, he agrees to get involved. Of course, Tommy only has two ways to get that much money in a hurry—gambling or stealing. As he tries to earn it by gambling, one helplessly watches him go underwater, then ahead full, and, of course, losing virtually all of it. Then, one watches the dishonest things he does to get a bankroll to parlay into his dream of becoming a horse owner. What The Days of Wine and Roses did to illuminate the horrors of alcoholism, Fake I.D. does to illuminate the futility of a gambling addiction. Will he steal from people he cares about? Or, is he such a sociopath that he doesn’t really care about anyone? Is his facility with lying a result of his creative will to survive in crisis or is it more of an indication that he really is unfeeling and insensitive. At times, the characters around him really get sucked into the “reality distortion” field that is Tommy Russo.To be sure, there are some plot holes big enough for an NFL back to run through. Why does Tommy drop by the apartment of a woman to flirt (and possibly fool around) when he really despises her on multiple levels? Why does he risk being caught at one thing by flying to Las Vegas on the spur of the moment when he would have to know that he needed to stay inconspicuous? How is it that he is “alone” in one location at one point and yet, conveniently seen by two different people? How is it that he can’t accept his good fortune at not being a suspect for one thing or another without trying to implicate others with not-so well-placed lies? Well, okay, that last one definitely fits his character and his “reality distortion” field.Fake I.D. is artfully crafted and well-written. With heavy heart, I found myself following Tommy from disaster to disaster with that sense of foreboding. I wasn’t always right about what was going to happen. There were times I thought he was going to face problems sooner than he did and times when he faced problems on a delayed basis. Yet, even as I anticipated some kind of double-cross at the racetrack at the same time Tommy was dreaming of a transformation from loser to respected owner, I wasn’t prepared for the exact result. I was both surprised and vindicated. I felt both good and bad. It was worth reading to the end, but I sure am glad I wasn’t reading that book when I was going through one of my personal bouts with depression. Tommy Russo, even as a horse owner, is not someone I’d want to associate with for longer than the time it took to read this novel.
This book is a very subtle trap for the reader. It doesn't snap shut on you in the first 10 pages, or even the first 50 pages, but you'll get hooked and find yourself actually rooting for Tommy Russo, a clueless wannabe actor, who seems like an okay guy at first but who steadily reveals himself to be an amoral psycho. It's told in Tommy's voice and he seems to be telling the truth about what he did, step by harmless step. You notice though, that he seems to have a few, shall we say, personality defects. He's impatient, for one thing, and he can't seem to even remember the names of the various good-looking women who stand in line to go to bed with him. And then there's the gambling problem and he has these fantasies of how he's going to live when he gets rich, which are childish and let's admit it, low class. And his temper problem... is it getting worse? The reader can see that with only two walk-on parts in fourteen years to his credit, Tommy probably has no future as an actor, yet he can lie to all the people he knows and make them believe anything, to hell with their lying eyes. Why can't he see that these guys who want him to buy part of a race horse are setting him up? Or are they? I mean they seem like obvious con men but they keep missing chances to disappear with Tommy's money. Actually they seem more honest than Tommy, don't they? And the spiral keeps going down and Tommy, bless his heart, confesses all. He tells the truth except for the part he doesn't know, which is what kind of man he really is.Elitist critics would say that this book is an example of the "unreliable narrator" technique, where a first person narrator deceives the reader but that's not actually what's going on here. Tommy levels with the reader. He tells you everything he did with no whitewashing, warts and all. He's a clueless narrator, with no self-knowledge. He admits what he did and still feels blameless.The author reveals Tommy one slice at a time, paragraph by paragraph, and you want to know more and more about him until at the end you can't believe you spent so much time with such a disgusting criminal. But on what page did you first realize that he was that bad? When did you stop liking Tommy Russo? I think the voice is what sucks you in. Tommy tells his story as if you were talking to him in the bar where he works. There's not one word out of character. He's not educated, but he's eloquent in his own way. I could say that this book is a clinical portrait of a psycho fantasist, but clinical reports are boring and this novel is anything but. When you get to the end you know who Tommy is and you don't like him, but you feel sorry for him....somehow. In other words, the author played you. Perfectly. I'm going to read more by Jason Starr.
Do You like book Fake I.D. (2009)?
I decided to read Jason Starr, since one of my very favorite authors endorsed him as a writer worth exploring. I find that he writes of very flawed characters who lack the ability to look at their own behavior from a objective point of view. The characters are self-centered compulsive and seem to have no social consciousness. Starr captures the anti-social personality in his character, or in the case of the main character in Fake I.D. a compulsive gambler who is driven by his own sense of grandiosity. The story is non-stop and the character runs pell mell into one problem following quickly with others.
—Rob
Jason Starr rekindles the ghost of Goodis in this modern day rendition of noir at its peak. Edging closer to self made oblivion, Starr's Goodis inspired protagonist, Tommy Russo burns all good that comes his way. A compulsive gambler by trade and bouncer by night, Tommy also has aspirations of making it big as an actor. Unfortunately for him, dog food commercials are far from the big time and he's left with little more than a damaged self esteem and the jewelery of a promising partner. In Fake ID, we witness a man who's given opportunity, women, a chance at life only to shy away to master his own delusions. One cant help but question Tommy's mental stability after he takes up an offer to join a syndicate to become a part owner of a racehorse by a stranger. Its that irrational decision making that sets the tone for the novel leads Tommy down a shadowed path where light shines dim and whispers on the wind are the closest things he has to friendship. The speed and attention sucking nature of Fake ID is relentless; blink and you'll miss it - not in a derogatory way, this is so good you'll paper cut your fingers - I couldn't get through this quick enough! While a fast read, it's got a degree of emotional depth few others master. Tommy, the consummate train wreck that he is, is a joy to read as are bit players Debbie (his boss's drunken wife), Frank (his boss at the club he bounces), and Janene (the sometime girlfriend). This is one book that's criminal to miss for fans of noir, bygone era and modern alike - 5 stars.
—Josh
Between this one and the other Hard Case Crime novels that Jason Starr co-wrote, I think that he may be the king of creating unlikeable self-absorbed, delusional criminals as main characters. He's a little too good at it because reading an entire book featuring one of these morons makes me feel like my own IQ has dropped about 20 points, and I start worrying that I'll commit a crime out of sheer stupidity like Tommy Russo.Russo is an aging actor-wannabe working as a bouncer while losing every dime he makes to his compulsive gambling habit. When he's offered a chance to buy into a horse racing syndicate, he thinks he'll fund it by stealing his bar's Super Bowl pool money. Since he's too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time, things start falling apart in a hurry, and Tommy's crimes and behavior get worse by the minute as he struggles to cover up his theft. Another solid HCC novel, but spending an entire book in Tommy's warped head wore me out.
—Kemper
