Lush Life

Starred review from January 21, 2008
Master of the Bronx and Jersey projects, Price (Clockers
) turns his unrelenting eye on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in this manic crescendo of a novel that explores the repercussions of a seemingly random shooting. When bartender Ike Marcus is shot to death after barhopping with friends, NYPD Det. Matty Clark and his team first focus on restaurant manager and struggling writer Eric Cash, who claims the group was accosted by would-be muggers, despite eyewitnesses saying otherwise. As Matty grills Eric on the still-hazy details of the shooting, Price steps back and follows the lives of the alleged shooters—teenagers Tristan Acevedo and Little Dap Williams, who live in a nearby housing project—as well as Ike’s grieving father, Billy, who hounds the police even as leads dwindle. As the intersecting narratives hurtle toward a climax that’s both expected and shocking, Price peels back the layers of his characters and the neighborhood until all is laid bare. With its perfect dialogue and attention to the smallest detail, Price’s latest reminds readers why he’s one of the masters of American urban crime fiction. Author tour.

Starred review from April 28, 2008
With a perfect ear for dialogue, Bobby Cannavale sounds like he grew up on the same patch of New York's Lower East Side that Price so effectively captures. It's a neighborhood in the midst of gentrification where an unplanned late-night murder of a truculent yuppie bartender by a teenage wannabe gangsta affects the lives of an assortment of disparate Manhattanites. Chief among them are Matty Clark, a dedicated and honorable detective, and Eric Cash, a restaurant manager temporarily accused of committing the crime. As Clark, Cannavale adds just the right mixture of weariness and frustration. He adds dimension and surprisingly subtle touches to all of Price's already rich characters—Clark's patently insincere superior officer, Cash's humane employer, a smarmy actor and, most importantly, the sad, angry, poetry-scribbling killer and the victim's omnipresent guilt-ridden, wraithlike father. Better yet, Cannavale delivers Price's sometimes mind-boggling slanguages (including cop-speak, Ebonics and a sort of restaurateur rap) as smoothly, effortlessly and clearly as an expertly trained Old Vic thespian interprets lines from the Bard. Simultaneous release with the FSG hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 21).

Starred review from May 1, 2008
Eric Cash, protagonist in this adaptation of Price's latest novel, is a man whose life in New York is not meeting his expectations. Aspiring actor, author, and restaurateur, Eric is a manager of a Manhattan restaurant in 2003 and at a personal dead end. Then one evening Eric joins Ike, a new bartender, for a round of after-work bar hopping. By the end of the night, Ike has been shot dead and Eric is the main suspect. The remainder of the work combines a standard police procedural with commentary on life in New York City during the first decade of the 21st century. The whodunit part of the book contains enough twists and turns to hold listeners' interest. More powerful are Price's descriptions of the different neighborhoods of Manhattan, making the city as much a character as any human in the story. Price also provides a fascinating array of people, running the social gamut from street hustlers to wannabe artists to the city's power elite. Reader Bobby Cannavale does an excellent job translating the tale from print to the spoken word, bringing the many characters to life. One of the better audiobooks produced recently, it is highly recommended for all audio collections. [Price shared a 2007 Edgar Award as cowriter of HBO's miniseries "The Wire; Lush Life" is also available as downloadable audio from Audible.com.Ed.]Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg

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