Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781410407399
Format: Large Print
ISBN: 141040739X
Label: Thorndike Press
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 707
Publication Date: 2008-06-04
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Studio: Thorndike Press

Amazon Significant Seven, March 2008: No one has a better ear and eye for the American city than Richard Price, and in Lush Life, his first novel in five years, he leaves the fictional environs of Dempsy, New Jersey, where Clockers, Freedomland, and Samaritan were set, for a few crowded blocks of Manhattan's Lower East Side. There's a crime at the heart of the story, but you don't read Price for plot. Instead, you listen as he peels apart layers of class and history through the way his characters talk to each other: hipster bartenders who tell people they're really writers, homeboys from housing projects named after the Jewish immigrants who have long left the neighborhood, and cops, cops, cops, circling the streets looking for a collar, disappearing into their cases as their own lives go to ruin. --Tom Nissley

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Ugly of the City
Comment: The author of "Clockers" and "Samaritan" has hit the ugly, dirty, life-filled streets of New York again with a murder to solve and all the skeletons in the closet of a cast of characters, from the murder victim's father to the head detectives, Yolonda and Matty. The street jargon, street food, and street life put the surbanite into neighborhoods they'd never see except on television or the big screen. Price's dialogue never wavers; his characters exist on many levels. This is a fast-paced police procedural with heart.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not easy to set aside
Comment: When I hear "police procedural", I think "mystery". This book is suspenseful but it is not truly a mystery, at least not in the way we usually mean. The puzzles in this book are those that most readers want in all good books, the ones that keep the pages turning. I wanted to know what the book's characters would say and do. I wanted to know who would come to a bad end and who would fare well. For me, the suspense was in these questions rather than who committed what crime. Besides, there were plenty of culpable people around.

The main characters in the novel are the accused, the detective who lands the case, the father of the slain. There are parallels in each of these, though more easily seen in the detective and the father of the dead son. Each grapples with his failure as a father. The accused deals with a different type of failure. All come across as searching for answers to the meaning of their lives. I cared about each one.

Other characters include a scrappy female detective from the projects; a group of young thugs whose fates do not seem in question; and, the step-mother of the victim. The book is populated with characters who have less stage time but who are essential to the book's complexity. Price finely draws all of them.

I will keep this book as one to study for its dialogue. Dialogue made it a pleasure to read; however, other than this and the book's characters, I liked its subtle mounting dread. A minor flaw was that it felt too long by about 100 pages. Even so, that did not slow me down. I looked forward to picking back up this story about Matty, Eric, and Ike Marcus's father whenever I had to put down the book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, shallow, mean-spirited, and a waste of time
Comment: This is an overblown, contrived and thin satire masquerading as social realism. I had high expectations, but I found the book predictable and self-important. Price seems to think he's wiser and more street-smart than any of his characters, but to me the book just showed how limited his vision is, whether he's looking at cops, criminals, poor young Hispanics, hipsters.... He has a good ear for voices but to make a great novel, you also need sympathetic characters and a compelling plot. This is one of those books where I felt really cheated of the time and money I had spent on it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Another keeper!
Comment: Yes, this is a crime novel and the principal murder is shattering but it's also just one ingredient in a tragic stew of cops, thugs, and other walking wounded. The chief investigators find themselves hopelessly entangled in the lives of the victimized. A theme this author likes to explore. Price colors his characters with rich detail and creates dialogue that sings like urban poetry. This is like a literary version of the great HBO series "The Wire". He is one of the best novelists working today and I highly recommended it!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile Read Despite Loss of Story/Plot Momentum
Comment: I have always been impressed with Richard Price's novels and his ability to wow both literary critics and fans of crime fiction. _Lush Life_ starts out as strong as anything I have ever read by Price. As in the past, Price demonstrates himself as a master of dialogue and detail that have made him such a respected author in a often neglected genre. He had me hooked up until the middle of the book, all of which I read in one sitting way past when I should have gone to sleep. However, once a certain conflict is resolved (anyone who reads the book will know what I am talking about), the story seems to lose speed rapidly and devolve into a mere recitation of events rather than a well told tale.

Even though the plot seems to slow down midway through, Price is still able to use the characters and their actions as an examination of the people and history that make up life in a modern American city--or in this case a small area of a city. So, despite this not being Price's best novel, I still found it thoroughly enjoyable and would recommend it to anyone interested in reading an intelligent crime novel that is more than just a well paced page-turner.

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