The Wanderers

I first read this book not long after it came out in the 70s, when I was barely a teenager (if even that, I don't recall the exact year) and it quickly became one of my favorite books. Since then, Richard Price has gone on to write many more novels, a few of which (including The Wanderers, of course) were made into movies. I don't think any of his books, however, can be better than this, his first one. I should mention here that someone called this a collection of short stories. This is not accurate. It's a novel; I've read it at least three times, I should know :) Someone probably got confused because Price named the chapters, not a very common practice, so perhaps it sounded like they were stories. This novel is not for the squeamish; it is full of sex, violence and profanity. Perhaps even more disturbing to some readers might be the prevalence of racial slurs. The characters in The Wanderers speak the language of the streets, and there is no attempt to censor or prettify anything. This, indeed, is the primary strength and distinction of the novel. It's an uncompromising look at a particular place and time, namely a poor section of the Bronx in the early 1960s. In one way, despite all the violence, The Wanderers has a certain innocence, at least compared to what street gangs became in later years. There are no drive by shootings (or any shootings that I can remember) or drug dealing, which became commonplace on urban streets by the 1970s. Still, while you are reading it, you are transported back to the era in which it is set, and you get a real sense of the danger of the streets, even back then. The Wanderers is a kind of coming-of-age tale for a street gang of the same name. In the first chapter, we are introduced to the world in which these teens live; street gangs are numerous, and based on ethnic identity. There are Italian, Black, Irish and Chinese gangs. Perhaps the most bizarre of the gangs described are the Ducky Boys, a whole neighborhood of dwarf-like Irish kids who carry straight-edge razors. I was sure that this was something Price had made up, but someone from the Bronx of that time once told me there really was such a gang. The novel follows the lives of the gang members, Richie, Perry, Joey, Eugene and Buddy as they try to figure out their lives in this rough environment. Although you may think of street gangs as being made up of thugs, criminals or at least tough characters, the Wanderers are really just teenagers trying to make the best of things in challenging circumstances. Like teenagers everywhere, they go to school, fall in love and worry about their future. There is an unusual honesty about this novel. People and events are presented in an uncompromising way without the usual filters of a moralizing narrator or a neat (and artificial) story line where everything always works out for the best. One example of this, which I already alluded to, is the rampant racial and ethnic prejudices of just about everybody in the boo

Anyone who has felt even the slightest pangs of nostalgia for the early '60s should read this marvellous novel. It will shatter their idyllic view of that era forever. The Wanderers is a raw depiction of working class Italian-American life in The Bronx circa 1960 and makes you realise how unglamourous and miserable living in the ghetto must have been back then (probably still is). Bad homes, rough girlfriends, violence lurking on every street corner - it's the ultimate punk rock novel. Yet amidst the despair, this is an outrageously funny book and Price, himself a native of the The Bronx though far more cultivated than he'd like everyone to believe, captures the nuances of the lingo perfectly. There was a film made of The Wanderers but it's thoroughly lightweight with a really nauseating sub-theme of different races uniting, nauseating because it rings totally false. On the subject of racism as with many other themes of the novel, Price doesn't air-brush - he gives you the prejudices that existed unadulterated. And the novel is far richer for it.

This is probably Price's best work ever. He effectively re-creates the atmosphere of early-1960's street gang life, populating it with a memorable cast of characters. All the elements are here - humor, tragedy, gritty realism, with an occasional touch of the truly bizarre. Most readers will find it impossible to read this novel only once; it is one of the few which deserves repeated readings. If you have seen the movie, read the book - it's even better. I know very little about Mr. Price, but he must have been a street kid; no one else could have told this story as effectively.

This is a perfect book. The best "street" dialogue I've read (and you don't have to be from the "street" to recognize its authenticity), and probably the best portrayal of "young adults." Yes, it does take place in the multiethnic Bronx (just before it got way more multiethnic) of the early 60s, but almost all Americans who have attended public high schools can easily identify with the types of characters.And try to find a hardcover copy of the first-edition just to see Richard Price's 1974 author photo. He looks like a Black Sabbath roadie.

Richard Price manages once again to succeed at capturing the feelings and human experiences of life in the inner city of New York, this time the Bronx of the early 60s. He writes like the literary version of Martin Scorsese, depicting the sudden violence as well as the deep feelings his characters live through. The focus is on the street gang The Wanderers, a tight-knit group of friends in their teens, and their struggles to survive in a land of parental abuse, adolescent sex, and brawls with other gangs. The streetwise novel chronicles their lives in an unflinching way and places the reader directly in the middle of the tension, never judging and always real. This is a fascinating novel that was made into a film, however the book holds many deeper emotions the screen version could not convey.