{"id":2762,"date":"2025-05-05T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2025-05-05T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:35:00","slug":"book-review-job-junky-by-rudy-ridolfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=2762","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Job Junky by Rudy Ridolfo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Job Junky<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Rudy Ridolfo<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Memoir \/ Work<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9781069354532<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 162 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Eric Mayrhofer<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Rowdy, frenetic, and a little bit filthy, Job Junky<\/em> hurtles along with shocks and fun.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If there was a machine for taking a pair of books, mashing them together, and making a new, insane third thing, this is what would play out: Hunter S. Thompson\u2019s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas <\/em>would go in first, Tom Perotta\u2019s Bad Haircut <\/em>would follow it, and Rudy Ridolfo\u2019s Job Junky <\/em>would blast out the other side\u2014most likely riddled with bullet holes and tangled in some anonymous person\u2019s discarded underwear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And to be clear: that\u2019s a pretty good thing.<\/p>\n

In a blisteringly fast 90 pages, Ridolfo relates \u201ca rundown of my life while striving for a dream.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>As he works his way toward making it as an actor, those reading his memoir witness the odd jobs he takes to assert his independence as a young man in the 70s, 80s, and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Unlike a greatest hits radio station, however, his resume has no standard gigs. Many have worked as an overnight donut shop employee, but I\u2019d wager few worked at a donut shop where their boss invited them upstairs, seduced them in an occult-themed apartment, and almost sacrificed them. I also feel pretty confident guessing that not many busboys find themselves working with a celebrity chef who whips out a 0.44, runs from the LAPD, and turns out to be a vigilante (possibly\u2026maybe\u2026probably). \u00a0<\/p>\n

Job Junky<\/em> has story after story like these, larger-than-life exploits that usually involve sex and often find Ridolfo harrowingly close to violence. Readers diving into his anecdotes might be worried for the author as they race through each short episode, but his danger is their blessing. Reading this book is wild.<\/p>\n

That is thanks in large part to Ridolfo\u2019s guiding principle. \u201cBasically,\u201d<\/em><\/strong>he says, \u201cI\u2019m a workforce nomad type o\u2019 guy.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>His journeyman nature, combined with his well-documented willingness to stick around just because a job is interesting, results in stories so sensational they could make a stuntman\u2019s life feel boring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s also because of the author\u2019s style. His voice is raw and unfiltered. His writing feels authentic, his imagery vivid. A particularly great passage is when he describes having dinner with his beanpole of a friend, as well as his friend\u2019s wife as she consumes an entire rump roast by herself \u201clike an alpha wolf on a carcass always eyeing the others over her snarling nose.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reading experience is so evocative that when we turn the page and read about the job where he walked in on multiple, separate sexual encounters between colleagues\u2014and liked it (for a minute anyway)\u2014we\u2019re too entertained to mind the sometimes-jarring tonal shifts. They\u2019re moving too quickly between spectacles to notice a lack of specificity that holds the narrator and some of his deeper truths at arm\u2019s length. This distance may keep readers from achieving the true emotional connection that would make Job Junky<\/em> an undisputed homerun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As is, Ridolfo\u2019s book is a rush. It\u2019s textured with all the grit and grime of the 70s\u2019 and 80s\u2019 most outrageous films. It\u2019s fun and shocking. And it\u2019s a book any reader should find a chance to make quick work of.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Eric Mayrhofer\u2019s book review of Job Junky <\/em>by Rudy Ridolfo! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Job Junky by Rudy Ridolfo<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Job Junky by Rudy Ridolfo Genre: Memoir \/ Work ISBN: 9781069354532 Print Length: 162 pages Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Eric Mayrhofer Rowdy, frenetic, and a little bit filthy, Job Junky hurtles along with shocks and fun. If there was a machine for taking a pair of books, mashing them together, and making a new, insane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}