When many authors pen “ambitious” novels, they overstuff their books
with infinitesimal details about arcane subjects that they’ve recently
become expert in. Whether ticking off the contents of a vagabond
magician’s bag of tricks, or painting tableaux of whaling boat mess
halls, some are so eager to show off their savant-y knowledge that
readers have to wonder if the writer learned anything in the course of
his research that didn’t make the book’s final edit.
Richard Price, on the other hand, betrays his cellular familiarity
with the Lower East Side in Lush Life, his riveting eighth
novel, without once sounding like he’s broken a sweat. Price is the
ultimate New York tour guide, possessed with nuanced understandings of
Manhattan’s street corners, dialects, police procedures, immigrant
sweatshops, and racial tensions, all of which are employed,
flourish-free, in Lush Life.
The story orbits a late-night murder: After a night of drinking,
writer-turned-restaurant-manager Eric Cash trudges home with two
acquaintances. When one is gunned down, Eric claims they were mugged,
but two “eyewits” tell the cops he’s lying. Price doesn’t keep the
truth from his readers, but instead explores the personal, criminal,
and racial fallout from the conflicting versions of events.
Price was a writer for The Wire, and fans of HBO’s gritty,
operatic crime show will love this book. Price’s fluent grasp of police
procedure is devastating. Lush Life‘s strongest moment comes
right after the murder: Price devotes 30 pages to the activities of one
patch of sidewalk as Detective Matty Clark tries to get a handle on the
ensuing chaos. Without leaving the block, Price details a microcosm of
gut instincts, lies, and social complexity within the touchy Lower East
Side. Price follows this with 80 pages on Detective Clark’s first
sleepless 24 hours on the case, and the prose is as pounding and rich
as anything you can imagine.
The last novel that kept me reading under the covers so late into
the night was Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. Both
falling under the cloak of pulpy genre writing, each is written with a
mastery of craft and sharpened philosophical inquiry, matched only by
the breathtaking intensity of protagonists trapped in a tightening
vice.