Lush Life

For me, it was the characters that made "Lush Life", not just the dialogue, and Price seems to be able to make a name into a person with just a few words. I liked this book because it was a police procedural in which the victims, witnesses and perpetrators of the crime around which it centers were each treated fairly by the author. I was interested in all of them. Price really has the "show, don't tell" thing down. He's never preachy or morbid, like some crime-fiction authors, but doesn't shy away from the tension created by a neighborhood that is a gentrifying ex-ghetto cozying up to the modern-day projects. At the beginning of the book, the author makes the reader feel satisfyingly involved in the intense questioning of murder suspect Eric Cash by detectives Matty Clark and Yolanda Bello, but by the time it is revealed that Cash didn't do it, the reader feels as sleazy and as sorry as the interrogators do for how they leaned on him. Cash is a weak person -- and Clark and Bello are flawed, too -- but they are all very human. So are the neighborhood lawyers, reporters, crazies and thugs, and the young shooter himself. Price unflinchingly calls the racism, classism and PD bureaucracy as he sees them, but injects enough humor into the book that reading it is a sweet experience, not a sour one. "Lush Life"'s main draw isn't the plot, which is fairly standard. The best thing about the novel is the people who inhabit Price's Lower East Side, good, bad and indifferent.

I picked up Lush Life prepared to like it, because I don't know of a better writer today with an eye for detail and an ear for detail. Those two senses make for a powerful combination when it comes to writing, as long as you have the discipline. And, for all of its 400-plus pages, Price shows he is up to the task. The writing never sags. In flashes, he shows that he could create such a creamy style that you might keel over from too many calories. In most of the book, you get the feeling that Price has set his characters in motion and just watches them act based on their essence. The narrative follows no typical arc for mystery fiction or suspense -- even though the centerpiece is a murder and how the city reacts around the violence. It might help to know New York's lower east side, but that's no requirement; I live out west. This is about humanity bouncing off each other, living with each other, setting standards for behavior as individuals and collectively, in small informal groups and in large organized ones. In the end, one line stays with me, and it surfaces in a brilliant spot: "Do you survive because of what is in you? Or because of what isn't..." Put this up there with Freedomland and Clockers, but don't overlook The Wanderers, Samaritan, and Bloodbrothers.

Lush Life is a great read, really enjoyable, compelling reading. I'm surprised to see it referred to as a police procedural--that genre is pretty limited. Calling Lush Life a police procedural is tantamount to calling Pride and Prejudice chick lit. While Lush Life has some elements in a police procedural--there is a dead body and police are involved--Lush Life goes beyond the typical police procedural example. Why is this one so terrific? Outstanding dialogue, complex, flawed characters with complicated motivations, entertaining forays into personal lives, humor and wit. Enjoy!

(The title for this review is from "Lush Life," by Billy Strayhorn.) Don't pick up a copy of Richard Price's "Lush Life," unless you're ready to give up your weekend. It's compulsively readable, and it's that good. It's also pretty depressing, but depressing in that, "Oh, God, that's life," way. "Lush Life," is a police procedural that takes place over a little more than a week in the gentrified Inferno of NYC's lower east side. We meet the gentry, the old-timers, the cops, and, of course, the criminals. Nobody's clean, everybody's skimming, everybody's on the make for one thing or another, one guy gets shot in a mugging gone bad, and hell breaks loose in hell. "Lush Life," has a lot going for it. The characters seem right, and true; the mileu is nailed; most of the pieces seem to be absolutely right-on, though I had a problem with a New Orleans style memorial service that tipped over the top; and the dialogue is so good it could have been written by Satan himself. One character seems to be the moral hinge of the novel - the father of the young man killed in the mugging. He's both pathetic, and a wraith, and he falls apart and comes back together more than once as he reaches for meaning and redemption. Is there meaning, is there redemption? Check out the last stanza of Billy Strayhorn's incredible lyrics to the Duke Ellington tune, Lush Life: "Romance is mush/stifling those who strive/so I'll live a lush life in some small dive/And there I'll be/While I rot with the rest/of those whose lives are lonely too..."

In all fairness, I am an ex born and bred Bronx girl. I lived in lower Manhattan in the 70s when it was Funksville...and safe because the mafia still contolled the streets. I never ventured into the lower east side on the other side of Bowery as it was too scary. Richard Price is an amazing writer. He has the ability to get into a character's head. His writing is compassionate to all sides of the story. His grit is about real life tragedy in novel form. This book is his best yet. I have been reading it non-stop throughout the weekend. Just as he did in his writing for The Wire, he approaches all sides of reality. Unlike when I lived on Elizabeth St., this part of NYC is now ultra-pseudo-hip. With gentrification comes those who watch, disenfranchised in their own neighborhood. The neighborhood becomes their "bank." Price weaves a tale with characters from all the various characters of this lower east side neighborhood. Not surprisingly, it contains echoes of Nicole duFresne's murder in that neighborhood. Outsiders who move in who just don't know how to react to those with harmful intent as they probably never lived in such a melting pot of race and monetary disparity. She said "what are you gonna do? Shoot us?" and got shot dead when all the muggers wanted was their wallets. Ike says, "Not tonight, my man" and he too ends up dead. As Price puts it, suicide by mouth. This books really shows the the disparity between people occupying the same neighborhood. Most of the action is confined to this neighborhood, which includes cops, corner boys, white youngsters trying to be hip, older hipsters who were once young, pioneers who lived in this pre-cool-funky neighborhood, Israelis, Arabs, Latinos and Asians. I love Price's writing as he painstakingly details a short period of time as it unfolds in this murder investigation. He hits the marrow of the bone with his characterization and I hinge on every word as a Price book release is an infrequent cause for celebration. What can I say. I love everything he writes. If you loved The Wire, you will love this. He captures a moment in the ever changing face of downtown Manhattan. BRAVO RICHARD PRICE.