The celebrated author of Clockers delivers his most compelling and accomplished novel to date.
A white woman, her hands gashed and bl... read full description
A white woman, her hands gashed and bl... read full description
reviews
Jan 11, 2009
Jack
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Dec 29, 2007
Matthew
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this is an amazing book. After reading it I put it down and then read four more by Price--there's quite an evolution in his plotting. But throughout his books, the dialogue is as good as any I've read. His novels are as novels should be: deceptively easy to read--simple at first glance, but filled with complex prose and just enough wisdom that the reader doesn't notice until the last page is turned.
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Sep 29, 2011
Allison
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This is my first Richard Price novel and I'm very happy that I got around to reading it. I'm also glad that I didn't find out until I had pretty much finished the book that it's based on actual events.
I first picked this up because I also never got around to watching the movie (with Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson) which I thought looked pretty decent. This is the story of Brenda Martin (a white woman), whose car is jumped (by a black man) while her four-year-old son is asleep in More...
I first picked this up because I also never got around to watching the movie (with Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson) which I thought looked pretty decent. This is the story of Brenda Martin (a white woman), whose car is jumped (by a black man) while her four-year-old son is asleep in More...
Sep 19, 2010
Emily
rated it: 
I was obsessed with Clockers after I slogged through it and got sucked in halfway through, so I had high hopes for Price's follow-up, which is set in the same fictional NJ town of Dempsy. Unfortunately it is a little overwrought and tends to rely a bit too much on Price's favorite device of ruined and abandoned places. My favorite scene in Clockers was the 'baby hospital' chapter, which literally took my breath away, but in Freedomland we see at least 2 scenes set in ruins, and it gets to be a b
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Jan 12, 2011
Andy
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Freedomland by Richard Price
12.31.2010
I don’t know what it says that a writer I lean on learn about the hood is a middle-aged Jewish guy with an MFA. There might be an authenticity gap here. Maybe that’s why The Wire seems to be a hipster/boho phenomenon. I am not going to focus on that.
This novel is so good. Ugly hot summer. The cruddy Armstrong Homes on the border between majority black Dempsy (Darktown) and the majority white Gannon. A slim white woman who More...
12.31.2010
I don’t know what it says that a writer I lean on learn about the hood is a middle-aged Jewish guy with an MFA. There might be an authenticity gap here. Maybe that’s why The Wire seems to be a hipster/boho phenomenon. I am not going to focus on that.
This novel is so good. Ugly hot summer. The cruddy Armstrong Homes on the border between majority black Dempsy (Darktown) and the majority white Gannon. A slim white woman who More...
May 23, 2009
Jessica
rated it: 
Picked up Price because I'd read somewhere that he was a huge influence for Dennis Lehane.
I can't really put my finger on why I didn't like this more. I didn't like Brenda, mostly because I didn't trust her (the cynic in me, I suppose). I wasn't too fond of Lorenzo's interactions with Brenda, but I liked him when he wasn't around her. I don't rightly know how to explain that one, but there you go. I didn't particularly care for Jesse, either. She gave off an undesirable aura that I More...
I can't really put my finger on why I didn't like this more. I didn't like Brenda, mostly because I didn't trust her (the cynic in me, I suppose). I wasn't too fond of Lorenzo's interactions with Brenda, but I liked him when he wasn't around her. I don't rightly know how to explain that one, but there you go. I didn't particularly care for Jesse, either. She gave off an undesirable aura that I More...
May 24, 2011
Daisyaday
rated it: 
From the beginning, with a distraught mother and a missing child, I wondered why the authorities didn't question her with a polygraph, the way Susan Smith was. Well, I suppose it would have shortened the novel, which would have been a blessing. I just can't care about these characters the way I would like to have. Brenda is semi-comatose most of the time and Jesse is annoying, especially the way she treats her puppy-dog loyal brother. Lorenzo is trying to be a good cop, but comes off as bein
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Feb 07, 2011
Jenny
rated it:
Lordy, it took me almost a month to finish this book - all 735 pages of it! At one point, I almost wanted to stop reading it, but there's a mystery in it that I wanted resolved, and the book had too many other things going on in it to be able to skim through and figure out what happened. Plus at that point, I was already 450 pages in and felt like I should finish it because I'd spent time on it already.
I read a review where the reader didn't like either Lorenzo or Jesse. I didn't lik More...
I read a review where the reader didn't like either Lorenzo or Jesse. I didn't lik More...
Dec 17, 2009
Laura
rated it:
I don't know what I expected from this -- certainly not the brilliant exposure & exploration of racism in America I got. Price's dialogue is dead-on, and his stories are just heartbreaking. Un-put-downable.
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Dec 21, 2010
Miranda
rated it:
"I decided to read this book when I saw the advertisements on TV for the movie which came out earlier this year. With a cast of Morgan Freeman and Julianne Moore, and a promising storyline, I thought it would be a great read. Unfortunately, while the story was interesting, I felt like I was reading another ""gritty thriller"" that had little to stand out from other books in this genre. The charactors seemed to want to break free of the stereotypes that they were based on
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Dec 09, 2010
Yousef
rated it:
I got through about 1/3 of this book before losing interest. While Price's writing style is very good at times, the plot is very slow to develop beyond the first chapter. My feeling was Price's story, about a white woman who claims to be carjacked on the "black" side of a New Jersey town, is secondary to setting the atmosphere of underlying racial tensions and urban black life was meticulously envisioned. I watched the movie adaptation starring Samuel L. Jackson as the protagonist (I a
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Aug 17, 2008
Ira
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Clockers and Lush Life, in my mind, are classic modern works of fiction. Freedomland does not belong in their character. Price seems to have become entranced with his own gifts on this one and forgotten what his bread and butter are. Story & Dialogue. Here the story appears to be interesting at first but I was eventually let down with about a few hundred pages to go. And the dialogue was lacking, though better than most other books but not up to Price par. My most significant criticism with this
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Apr 29, 2008
Daisy
rated it:
Price is an author in the vein of David Simon. He's a white man who, for whatever reason, can really write about the black experience. I don't know if that's a fair or accurate assessment - or one that he would even want to claim - but it's the feeling I get when reading his novels.
Price uses some of the same tricks as Simon, the most prominent being his unwillingness to dumb down or explain street slang, his jumping straight into a story without bothering to lay out an easily under More...
Price uses some of the same tricks as Simon, the most prominent being his unwillingness to dumb down or explain street slang, his jumping straight into a story without bothering to lay out an easily under More...
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Jul 04, 2010
Jesse
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I haven't yet read anything by Richard Price that wasn't huge, real, and brilliant. Say what you will about how often he gets tagged as a genius for his skill with dialogue: the guy deserves it, over and over. In this book, he considers the greater issue of racial tensions in New Jersey with a far more sweeping scope than in Clockers or Lush Life, both fantastic in their own rights, and works an intensely fascinating crime story out of that. I'm always a little in awe of his talent, but I'm so g
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Jun 27, 2011
Michael
rated it:
I devoured this book. It's reasonably long but it's a page turner. From beginning to the end every chapter is a cliff hanger.
That said the book did not move me. I liked the lead character, but other than that I did not feel for anyone. And it looks as if nothing and few characters were changed that deeply.
I don't regret reading it, but I felt as if I was reading the book "red dragon". As if the book was more about a movie script than a novel.
That said the book did not move me. I liked the lead character, but other than that I did not feel for anyone. And it looks as if nothing and few characters were changed that deeply.
I don't regret reading it, but I felt as if I was reading the book "red dragon". As if the book was more about a movie script than a novel.
Oct 17, 2009
Patrick
rated it:
Read Lush Life, which I had heard rave reviews about and was slightly disappaointed in, - in my humble opinion, it did not live up to the hype. I found this book to be a much more entertaining read, everything tied in, eveything made sense, I cared about the characters. That held true to a much lesser degree in Lush Life. I have one more Price book on my shelf, we'll see if Price gets a thumbs up or down after the third book!
Jan 29, 2010
Kay
rated it:
I saw the Freedomland movie trailer (and thought no thanks) long before I knew of Richard Price. Since then I've become a huge Price fan, so I let that skepticism go -- and I'm awfully glad. He has such a gift for creating an atmosphere and getting the reader inside the heads of all the players in a conflict. He has an unexpected way of telling a story you might think you know.
Feb 17, 2009
Cathy
rated it:
B+, There's a reason books shouldn't be made into movies. In this case a major character was left out which is partly why I felt let down at the end of the movie version (viewed it before reading the book and I could tell something was missing). The book allows you to enter into the character's lives much better.
Mar 29, 2011
Lizzie
rated it:
We saw the trailer and the plot tease made me curious, then the reviews said the book was better. A police procedural, about the cop and reporter working a missing child case in which the mom accuses a black man of carjacking and throws the community into racial rioting. Pretty good, though too slow moving at times.
Aug 09, 2011
Neven
rated it:
A hopelessly sad book, full of the narrative of life, but refusing to let words of good come up for air. Price can write with a manic confidence, dumping out the frustrations and entire life stories of dozens easily. His stubborn refusal to write the obvious can be a bit distracting, but I have to respect his choices, depressing as they often are.
Apr 05, 2009
Anastacia
rated it:
SWEET LORD. It wasn't until the dead middle of the book that it started to get interesting, and I almost quit reading before then. I probably should have. I thought this would be a great read because I know that Price is similar or close to David Simon, creator of The Wire and author of Homicide, which is a fantastic book and one of my all-time favorites. This, however, was not the case. It was a terrible read. The plot was a good one, but the events surrounding it were ridiculously unbeli
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Aug 26, 2010
Catherine
rated it:
Loooong. Yes, I wanted to know what really happened, and yes, character's backgrounds, reactions, etc can be part of the story, but wow, small print, lots of pages, story went on and on. . .
This is a book I was actually able to put down for days and not mind "missing" it.
This is a book I was actually able to put down for days and not mind "missing" it.
Aug 07, 2010
Anna
rated it:
This was a fun book to read over the summer, definitely a page turner. There were some sections that were much too obvious for me, and maybe partially because I read it really fast I began to notice the repetition in the descriptions of some of the characters... but I loved the way this guy used punctuation in his dialogue to make you really able to hear the characters.
Feb 24, 2009
Jim
rated it:
This was pretty damned good as well. Like most of the Price work I've read, it's infuriating and the mystery is not so much the key as the characters. Impressive, even if getting to the resolution was grating and maddening.
Mar 24, 2010
Leora
rated it:
After reading Freedomland, Richard Price quickly became my guilty pleasure. I have since listened to the audio version of "Lush Life" (great audio, fantastic text), and read "Clockers." There are one or two more sitting on my bookshelf. Yes it's a cops novel, but the questions is not whodunnit, it's something deeper and better. Here, there are real racial tension issues and questions of the role of a reporter, a cop, and a mother, in figuring out what happened to a kid. No o
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Jul 27, 2011
Jane
rated it:
Page after page, we had to go over the inner life and nervous condition of the white female character. What of the majority-black neighborhood? The men @ the shade-tree barbershop? The old ladies? I kept waiting for that!
Mar 21, 2009
Thomas
rated it:
I heard the movie was terrible but don't let that scare you away. I read this when it came out and thought it was the best book I had read in years. The characters are alive and you can talk to them (scream at them).
Aug 26, 2009
Marguerite
rated it:
I like this more than three stars, less than four. At 546 pages, it's a commitment, though the second half moves pretty briskly. The newspaper reporter subplot, while interesting to a former journalist, didn't ring true. No reporter I know gets that much leeway. I suspect detectives don't, either. But neither thing detracted from the story. I might look for other books by Richard Price, but not for a while. I want to play the field for a bit first.
Nov 21, 2008
Elaine
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Francine Prose recommended this author in her book on writing. Interesting race dynamics, but reads like a poor man's Tom Wolfe.
Nov 05, 2008
Luke
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I would give this a 3.5 if I could... It's a fine book, written by one of the writers for The Wire. I'm always a sucker for tales or urban decay. This one gives such a deep glimpse into the lives of the main characters, it's quite astounding. It's like 700+ pages, and takes place over the course of about a week. Now that's detail.
Still, some of the plot points and character decisions just don't add up. It's like this pervasive gloom of realism hanging over the text, but some of the t More...
Still, some of the plot points and character decisions just don't add up. It's like this pervasive gloom of realism hanging over the text, but some of the t More...
