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 enlarge | Author: Richard Price
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
Buy Used: $10.00
Used (5) from $10.00
Rating:  163 reviews
Sales Rank: 2749148
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0747595445
EAN: 9780747595441
ASIN: 0747595445
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lush and Lengthy September 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found myself in the last 125 or so pages skimming the text, just wanting to finish the story, but no longer interested enough in the characters to read carefully. This is not a good sign. Price has a nice sense of the setting but, really, there isn't enough of a story, and what's there isn't interestng enough, to justify the book's 450 pages. The quirky style is a question of taste; I rather like it but I could see it beginning to annoy less patient readers. Other, more genre-oriented writers -- Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Lawrence Block, Walter Mosely -- do this sort of thing better, with more focus and discipline.
 The Price is Right September 12, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Richard Price is as good of a dialogue writer as exists today in my mind. "Lush Life" is his latest novel that brilliantly showcases his skills and keen knowledge and insights of city life, particularly NYC life.
Other reviewers have already covered the plot so I won't spend my commentary focusing on that. The novels pace is criticized by some reviewers but I view the pace of the novel from a different perspective. The first third of the book moves at lightning speed -- from Ike Marcus's murder through Eric Cash's interrogation. The action and especially dialogue is sharp and crisp with Price in full control. Where other reviewers felt the book slowed at this point, I think Price did a great job capturing the ebb and flow of the investigation that slows to a crawl and this is reflected in the pace of the book.
Ultimately, Price delivers not only great dialogue but great lead characters. One gets immersed in the psyche of Eric Cash, the aspiring actor and restaurant manager who begins to realize his life is not leading where he'd like; Billy Marcus, the grieving father of Ike, shutting out family and friends and trying to cope with extreme loss; Matty Clark, the NYPD detective whose family life is a wreck but committed to his job and work. While we all have seen these character types before, Price makes them feel fresh and new, weaves them and their stories together seamlessly and adds the additional layer of his brilliant dialogue between the characters. Lastly, Price creates a real sense of place -- the Lower East Side of NYC and the rest of the NY metro area come to life. Being from the area, the city comes alive on the pages of "Lush Life".
All in all, this is one of the better books I've read this year and highly recommend investing the time to read "Lush Life".
Warning to crime novelists September 5, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Warning to crime novelists: This book is so good it might make you want to toss it all in.
Slice (After Slice, After Slice) Of Life September 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Price's LUSH LIFE starts with a miracle: the Virgin Mary has appeared in the frost of a convenience store's glass freezer door. A line of penitent believers gathers, paying money for a chance to pray for a miracle of their own. The line is several blocks long, and it obstructs the entrance to a cafe where 34 year-old Eric Cash works. Out of fealty to his boss (an old friend), Eric and a coworker, Ike, join the line and make the Mary disappear by opening the freezer door.
Price's writing style is all about reality, all about authenticity. Not only is he a master of the click and flow of dialogue, but he also sets scenes with an inexplicable deftness, like someone simply flipping a switch that lights up a stage. Price's light is warm, encompassing, but not particularly sympathetic. It's no coincidence that his story starts with a miracle debunked, or that on the way to the miracle, Eric and Ike pass a church that has -- apparantly of its own accord -- collapsed into itself. Icons, metaphors, grand idealistic totems -- Price's novel doesn't have much respect for them. Even grander themes, larger purposes, these are all shrugged off in favor of more interesting minutia. It's hard not to be impressed by how eloquently Price illuminates every speck of grit, whether it's on the streets of the city or in the hearts of its citizens.
The story is "about" a mugging-turned-murder, but this is really just a jumping off point. Price uses this moment of accidental violence to spur a story that stretches its tentacles into all areas of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, from the bureaucratic busy-bodies that hamper justice more than they aid it, to the hood rats and gangster-wannabes who are trying to find a way to prove that their life isn't just another pointless miracle, another ruined temple. Much like The Wire (which Price has also contributed to), LUSH LIFE tries to be diplomatic with its details. No one is judged, not really, and nothing is left out.
This ends up resulting in what some might call "overkill." So anxious to provide an unadulterated slice of life, Price goes a little overboard with the details, with the facets, with the broad view. I'd use the old "forest for the trees" analogy here, except the trees in this case are so beautifully described. Still, the luxuriant attention to every speck and spot makes this slice of life novel read more like an entire pie of life. For those with big appetites, it comes highly recommended.
As real as life gets September 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It succeeded as a plausible procedural, as a description of city life, and as a tragedy. Every character is utterly plausible, and nobody acts implausibly in the service of the plot at any point. It's not as exciting as a typical thriller novel, but it's amazingly vivid and real.
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