Lush Life: A Novel
by Richard Price
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Book Reviews of Lush Life: A Novel
Book Review: Compelling, heart wrenching, tale of humanity
Summary: 4 Stars
I loved this book. If Philip Roth and Spike Lee collaborated on a novel, this would be it. I deeply cared about the main characters Matty & Tristan and couldn't put it down. I found the language a bit distracting at first, but once I got into the story it was easy to follow and natural. It seemed truthful and not done for style purposes. The story was emotionally compelling - you watched the characters make (bad) choices but could understand their point of view and why they did. As they spiral downward, you hold out hope that they'll get it together and turn things around. Don't expect a murder mystery, with suspense and surprise - I saw this more as being about the characters, and how circumstances can influence people to bring out the best or the worst. Like other great novels, the story transcends place and time, and provides insight into the human condition.
Book Review: Lush Characters
Summary: 5 Stars
Price gives the reader details from the point of view of many characters and the suspense develops waiting for and watching them intersect. An incident, a mugging gone wrong, sets the stage. Basically a police drama a la Homicide. With witnesses, speculations, and accusations by the police. And characters twisting to do what they think they have to do.
What made this book so memorable for me was the characters with all their flaws. The detectives who follow their instincts even as the reader is sometimes horrified by them. And everyone else pulled in by the event. Price's writing unfolds slowly but steadily. It is translucent, making the conversations and thoughts and actions he relates seem like nonfiction. Price writes authentically with a sea of characters as varied as New York.
Book Review: a little disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Price's dialogue is very entertaining, but it reads like a television screenplay. Some characters, particularly the cops, exist for no other reason than to constantly snap off witty one-liners.
The biggest problem was that the story is emotionally lifeless. I never felt any sympathy for Eric Cash, Ike or Billy Marcus, Matty... The only compelling thread is the relationship Yolonda creates with Tristan, but it receives very brief treatment.
I used to spend a lot of time in the LES and Price's version of it doesn't seem quite right. Not sure why, but it's less alive. Entertaining read but I agree with the other reviewers that it can get quite slow.
Book Review: The nostalgia wore off.
Summary: 2 Stars
I was born and raised in New York City's Lower East Side in the "union built coops that flanked the east side of this grubby vista like siege towers" before the neighborhood was gentrified. The nostalgia was refreshing, but Richard Price came across as a James Baldwin / John Steinbeck wannabe. I got to page 364 and couldn't take any more contrived and pointless descriptions. It was as if he tried to make deep points with trivial events, which came to resemble an over the hill boxer who's only chance of victory were a series of unintended hay makers. The entire book was written with lines like that.Book Review: Couldn't put it down
Summary: 5 Stars
Price's book is gripping from page 1 through the end. It can best be described as a literary thriller. Price's dialogue is among the best in current fiction. Each character has a distinct voice, at times funny, pathetic, harsh, or soothing. The book, although, ostensibly a murder mystery, is better regarded as a study in victimization. Price looks carefully at how broad the definition of victim is -- does it extend beyond the corpse on the street to the "survivor" who agonizes over the choices that are made in the moments following a crime? A rich tapestry, full of very real characters.