Everybody Smokes in Hell Audiobook By John Ridley cover art

Everybody Smokes in Hell

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Everybody Smokes in Hell

By: John Ridley
Narrated by: Peter Francis James
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About this listen

 When Filthy White Guy buys about a hundred burritos and blows up the microwave of the convenience store where Paris Scott has been working for 30 long nights, Paris decides his life couldn't be more of a mess. But when he gives Filthy White Guy a ride home to a Bel Air mansion, things really start to explode.

From the dark desperation of Los Angeles to the false neon hope of Las Vegas, acclaimed author John Ridley steers a viciously careening ride through a world of dope dealers, Hollywood agents, two-bit felons, and three-dollar strippers. Narrator Peter Francis James expertly voices the flamboyant longings of people who will pay any price to flirt with a dream, even if it's someone else's.

©1999 International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation (P)2004 Recorded Books Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense
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Critic reviews

"As usual, Ridley ably strings together a series of unlikely events, making them seem wholly plausible. Continual action, believably unsympathetic characters, and minimal description combine to keep the reader riveted. A welcome change of pace from much of today's plodding fiction." (Library Journal)
"Strong-as-firecrackers plot...Day-Glo dialogue...[A] seriously noir-ish, ultra-violent, ultra-high-speed, occasionally hilarious, dark farce of a novel." (The Washington Post Book World)
"[A] relentless pace...Ridley seems to have a knack for capturing the comic-tragic, tragic-comic lessons of life that seem so prevalent in this half of the twentieth century." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

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This is one of the best audio books i've ever heard. The book is written so lyrically and performed so smoothly that I wanted to back up and hear certain passages and descriptions again. The plot moves quickly and is very clever as well.

Lyrically written and wonderfully performed

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I found this book to be extremely entertaining. If profanity and violence offend you, stay away, but I found it well worth the time. The absurd situations encountered by hapless characters evoked outright laughter. I found the narrator extremely skilled, especially given characters ranging from a ghetto drug dealer to a psychopathic white girl contract killer. This is certainly dark comedy at its finest.

Funny, violent and ridiculous.

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This story reminded me of Pulp Fiction, and moved quickly. The author doesn't waste any time with superfluous character development. He gets to the point and moves the story forward.

Fantastic

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Perhaps it was mostly the reader's buzzing monotone that made this audiobook so nauseatingly dull, but I doubt it. The combination was too much for me, and I cleared it off my MuVo after listening to roughly half. Humor? None. Excitement? Zip. Engaging characters? Witty dialogue? Look to Richard Price, Robert Tanenbaum or Elmore Leonard for a better listen.

Droning disappointment

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A potentially good story- it appears to be well written but the narration is painfully bland and irritating and makes the audiobook extremely hard to listen to and tolerate... its a real shame becuase everything else ive listened to by John Ridley is really good

good potential but poor narration

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