Lush Life: A Novel by Richard Price Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Lush Life: A Novel
Book Review: "Two eyewits trump no evidence."
Summary: 4 Stars
As Eric Cash and Ike Marcus are walking Ike's drunk friend, Steve Boulware, home from an all-nighter in New York City, they are confronted by two "dark" males, intent upon robbery. Eric immediately "gives it up," but Ike quietly approaches the robbers, saying "Not tonight, my man." Within seconds, he is dead, shot in the chest. Accounts of the robbery and murder differ among the witnesses, and the police, led by Det. Matty Clark, a long-time Irish cop, take Eric, a victim, into custody on suspicion, interrogating him and turning him into a permanent enemy.
New York's Lower East Side, where the action takes place, is changing. Bohemian students wanting to be poets and writers, like Eric and Ike, have moved in. Many long-time immigrant populations have moved out, and the neighborhood is racially and culturally mixed. Almost anything seems to go, socially, and drugs are an active part of the scene. Looming over the area are the Lemlichs, a series of project houses in which the residents do whatever they can to survive, often ganging up against a hostile outside world and resorting to drug sales for income and escape.
Det. Matty Clark, running the investigation, is stymied by the lack of evidence and witnesses, the reluctance of the neighborhood to talk, and the desire of his own department to close the case as soon as possible--without involving the press. Ike's father, Billy Marcus, numbed by the news of his son's murder, is reliving his life with Ike, alternately blaming himself, the police, and Ike's companions for Ike's death. Eric Cash, wanting to escape the horrors of the murder, is hoping to move elsewhere, the fruitlessness of his life as a writer finally recognized.
Famous for his ability to tell a story in the dialogue of street slang, author Richard Price creates a panorama of life in the city so vivid that it feels like an unpleasant movie unreeling behind one's eyes. The dialogue and the images it inspires are realistic, gritty, and often full of heartache, as characters grow before our eyes. Their interactions become the clashes and miseries we experience in nightmares. As Price explores various points of view, he also shows the randomness of the characters' interconnections and the power of the city itself to alter dreams and the future.
As Price explores his characters and their behavior, he sometimes veers off into subplots which delay the story without adding significant new information. Matty Clark's problems with his sons, his brief flirtation with Billy Marcus's distraught wife, and a long section in which Steve Boulware conducts Ike's memorial service could have been shortened significantly, while still retaining thematic integrity. Price's vision is huge, and his ability to show the widening circles by which one event can draw in large numbers of unsuspecting characters is successful, however, despite the novel's excesses. Mary Whipple
Book Review: Sorry to put it this way, but it bored me to death
Summary: 1 Stars
I really do not recall ever having such a hard time trying to get into a novel. This book starts out with so many small portions of the story, so many characters that are not described properly and a complete reliance on dialogue, that it is almost impossible to figure out what the author is trying to achieve. Every day for a couple of weeks I would sit down with this book and try to go a little further, but the result was always the same, utter boredom after a few pages.
I don't think that what turned me off this book was the slow pace, since I have enjoyed many novels with this characteristic. The lack of proper descriptions and the poor construction of the story are much more noticeable problems. I can see the similarities between many of the dialogues in this book and the ones in the TV show "The Wire". The reason why the show was enjoyable for me is that the visual aspects of it provided the information that the author is missing in his writing.
I am extremely disappointed with this effort, since I was looking forward to having a great time and found myself felling as if I was being punished instead.
Book Review: More appealing to the head than the heart
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me start by saying that I'm a huge Richard Price fan. His earlier books--Bloodbrothers and The Breaks in particular--were epiphanies to me. For my money, Clockers is a contender for the Great American Novel. Technically, Lush Life is just as adroit--the snappy pacing, the spot-on descriptions, the breathtaking attention to detail, the surefire characterisations, all of which are Price specialities, are there, honed to stiletto sharpness. But while the plot would appear to offer plenty of opportunities for emotion--a 20-something man is murdered during an aborted hold-up, and in the course of the investigation we meet his mad-with-grief father--the overall effect is clinical rather than empathetic. That may be because none of the characters are really sympathetic; even the murdered man comes across as someone you'd avoid speaking to at a party for more than a few minutes. The result is a gripping read that keeps you flipping the pages so that you can absorb Price's dazzling word wizardry and learn the outcome of the investigation. Yet once you finish the book, the story and the characters, unlike those of Price's best books, are unlikely to remain with you.Book Review: Marvellous
Summary: 5 Stars
A great book: Superb dialogue,riveting plot,well drawn characters and all within a run-down area of New York. The description of the contrast between the poor residents and the increasing number of white wannabes is particularly effective
The main characters,Matty Wright and Yolanda Bello, can join the pantheon of great detectives with John Rebus and Steve Carella.
This the first book by Richard Price which I have read and my enjoyment was not impaired by seeing "The Wire". I look forward to reading more.