Lush Life
Author:Richard Price
Reviewer:Bill Rice
Summary:Richard Price wrote a book called The Wanderers when he was 24. That’s a hard act to follow. But Price managed pretty well, writing screenplays for The Color of Money and Sea of Love, along with some good books, including Clockers. He also spent a season writing for HBO’s The Wire.
Richard Price wrote a book called The Wanderers when he was 24. That’s a hard act to follow. But Price managed pretty well, writing screenplays for The Color of Money and Sea of Love, along with some good books, including Clockers. He also spent a season writing for HBO’s The Wire.
No surprise that Price knows a thing or two about dialogue, then. And his latest book, Lush Life, is all about the dialogue. Sure, it’s a crime story. But it’s more about how people—at least people in New York City—talk to each other.
Which is great—for about the first 150 pages or so. Then things get real slow. Then it’s just mildly depressing. The truth is, it’s hard to feel anything for these characters.
Richard Price is a brilliant writer. But anyone looking for Price’s best work would be better off tracking down a copy of The Wanderers or checking out The Color of Money.
Bill Rice