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Jun 14, 2011

Nina rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. I read it because of a recommendation of a coworker who knows I'm obsessed with The Wire - I never would have picked up this book on my own, even though I knew he wrote some episodes for the show. I didn't think I was capable of enjoying a crime novel. So I was pleasantly surprised when it was clear early on in the book that the crime mystery was actually secondary - it provided a good structure for the novel that I think kept the story focused throughout, even t More...

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Oct 31, 2008

Sherry (sethurner) rated it:

I enjoyed this mystery much more than some of the Amazon reviewers. There are two main characters, a former TV writer named Ray and his high school friend, Tweetie. Ray is back in town trying to reestablish a connection to his daughter Ruby. When Ray is beaten nearly to death, Tweetie, an almost retured cop, comes in to figure out what happened. I found the plot to be interesting, and the characters to be complicated enough to hold my attention. Price does a nice job with the atmosphere and More...

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Dec 22, 2008

Carmine rated it:

Very good addition to modern urban-setting fiction by Richard Price. As with his other books he uses misdirection in the plot to make a point -- the book essentially is about how even the best intentions can be propelled by vanity, and the consequences of that for both any given individual and this modern moment. The plot involves a television writer who moves back to his boyhood home in northeastern New Jersey, and who, after starting a job at a local school where he teaches writing, is found More...

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Apr 23, 2008

Melody rated it:

Ray Mitchell lived in the housing projects in Dempsey, New Jersey when he was a kid, but, despite many setbacks, he has become successful, writing for an award winning TV series about inner city high school students. He’s divorced, with a 12 year old daughter that he hardly knows, and hell bent on making life easier for folks still living in the projects.

Richard Price knows the language and characters of the streets. His descriptions and dialog create fully formed images in your h More...

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Oct 19, 2007

Max rated it:

More literary than Leonard and a little less dark than Ellroy, Price ranks among the masters of modern crime fiction. His procedural detail is quite competent, but he excels at character nuance and offers some of the truest American dialog around.

Set in the public schools and projects of New Jersey's Dempsey neighborhoods, the novel is a natural extension of issues addressed in the fourth season of HBO's The Wire. It explores race, crime and poverty, and gives an unnerving account of More...

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Sep 06, 2007

Scott rated it:

Samaritan was the first Richerd Price novel I read. I did so because Price introduced the re-issued Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr., and being a huge fan of Selby, I had to read someone who became a writer because of Selby, as I had a very similar experience. Anyway, I was not disappointed. Price does not have the pyschological depth of Selby, but he has a clear, distinct voice that has plenty to say. Samartian is gripping pyschological tale of a man done in by his own deeds. Price i More...

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Jun 17, 2008

Deborah rated it:

It's easy to forget what a good writer Price is. Writing for movies and TV has sharpened his sense of character and dialogue. Ray is one of the most complex characters I've come across in fiction in awhile. What really does motivate us to try to do "good?" And how do we react when the consequences of our acts of "charity" aren't what we expect? Or worse, when those consequences are negative and we feel they are what "we deserve?" The twist at the end was wrench

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Jul 02, 2010

Batsap rated it:

This book was lent to me by a friend who didn't have the time to read it. At first I put it off for a while, thinking that it was just a standard run-of-the-mill crime novel - which I love, but have to be in the right mood for. However, within reading the first few pages of starting to read this I realised I had seriously underrated it.
The 'whodunnit' of this novel is the attack that the main character Ray suffers, but the solving of the crime is second to the fascinating character study t More...

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Jan 21, 2009

Beverly rated it:

Excellent gritty urban crime fiction with definite literary quality. Ray Mitchell grew up in the projects of fictional Dempsey New Jersey and he returns there after a checkered career and a stint as a TV writer. He is compelled to help people and he is nearly killed for his trouble. An old friend from the projects, Nerese Ammons, now police, investigates the crime. Reminds me of Updike in the strength and centrality of Ray's point of view.

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May 28, 2008

Matt rated it:

The scenes were well set with high resolution imagery. The character flaws make the book, not forced plot devices. The story telling within the book is a treat. Overall, I'd say the man knows how to turn a phrase.

However, the book lost a little steam towards the end.

It isn't a relatively highly rated book of Price's, so I'm excited to read more.

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Dec 06, 2009

Jack rated it:

A good read, and about what you've come to expect if you're familiar with Richard Price's work. The police officer, Nerese, feels a little familiar, but the victim on the case, Ray Mitchell, is one of his better-drawn characters (perhaps because it's rare in a price novel for the victim to survive and thus get a chance to experience the aftermath of the crime). And at any rate, the reason to read a price novel isn't for drastic new directions or characters, it's for his ability to make familia More...

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Aug 09, 2008

Dunny rated it:

almost five star. This book is really good. Price is remarkable at driving so much character development, NY/NJ devotion/stroking through simple whodunit plots that would almost be disappointing if one wasn't so attached to the characters by the time of the tell. Not quite Clockers but damn near.

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Jan 20, 2009

Steph rated it:

A decent story about the struggles of a man who is trying to fix the life he has splintered into so many pieces...and who tries to grasp firmly of his past as a way to venture into his future. Not nearly as good or involving as Lush Life, Price's most current work, but a well played out portrait.

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Oct 14, 2007

Steve rated it:

I've enjoyed everything I've read of Richard Price (Clockers, Freedomland). He's got a nail-on gift for inner-city dialogue, and his character development is gritty and absolutely believable. The story's not as interesting as Clockers, but still deserves a 5-star for his prose.

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Mar 08, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I absolutely could not put this book down! Price, the author of "Clockers," writes the dialogue so effectively it felt like the characters were having their conversations right in front of me. It's pretty gritty, but absolutely one of the most fun reads I have had in a while!

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Mar 12, 2009

Donna rated it:

Pretty good. Not as good as the reviews gave it though. Urban Fic of Ray, a man who comes back home to Jersey projects to feel better about himself, teach kids at local high school, reconnect with daughter, etc. Ray receives a near-death beating. His childhood friend, Tweetie, who's now a cop and a month away from retirement becomes determined to find his beater. Turns out it was the son of the married woman he was seeing. The son hated his incarcerated father and when Ray left, the son fel More...

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Dec 21, 2007

Dalee rated it:

This book has been sitting around my house for months and I finally picked it up. Wow! I have never read a crime pop fiction that has so much character devo in it. It is so well written and fascinating... enjoyed every page.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2008

Jamie rated it:

Lush Life has been getting a lot of super press, so found this earlier novel for a non-twenty-five dollar price. Eh. Lots of wonderfully drawn minor characters shoehorned into a less than compelling mystery plot.

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Jul 27, 2011

Luke added it

A very good novel. The plot centers around a mystery, but it would be reductive to call this a mystery novel. Price is much more concerned with his characters and the world they live in than in twist and turns. The fact that the mystery is engrossing and the ending is genuinely surprising is just an added bonus.

Price is a master of dialogue. I think he's even better than Elmore Leonard. His characters are also incredibly vivid. Even his minor characters are fully realized. They are always real More...

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Jul 27, 2011

Andrew rated it:

Reading Richard Price is all about enjoying the dialogue. The verbal interactions are just superb - at times funny and at times crushingly sad, but always, always brilliantly observed. Like Clockers and Lush Life (the other Price novels I've read) it's set in the less glamorous parts of New York and the stars of the tale are all from 'the projects', the high rise public housing built for low and moderate income families. I won't tell you how the story unfolds but I would urge just about anybody More...

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Mar 31, 2011

Jesse rated it:

I think I'm getting used to how good Price is going to be, so I expect more and more from him. This covers a lot of the same ground as "Freedomland," but not with the same socioeconomic depth of focus: it's closer to the characters, farther from the macro picture of the community. All the same, it deals with the same issues of race, poverty, guilt, and responsibility as that book and his others. A strong and worthy read, though compared to, say, "Clockers," it's not as huge a More...

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Jan 17, 2009

Peter rated it:

It made me deliciously anxious.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2009

Pam rated it:

A "white guy from the projects" who overcomes addiction, then becomes a writer for a gritty TV drama returns to his old stomping grounds to 1) make amends with his teen daughter and 2) become a do-gooder to the people still living in the projects. Things go badly wrong & he survives a near-deadly assault. A childhood acquaintance who is now a nearing-retirement cop overcomes Ray's stonewalling efforts to solve the case. Not up to the gold standard of Clockers, Freedomland, etc. but h More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Paddy rated it:

Liked Lush Life so checked this out of the library. Liked it fine, but the main guy, Ray, doesn't click. The other lead character, Nerese, is real, however. Addicted to giving, Ray uses other people like fixes. Nerese examines her motives more deeply, but she's not the former cocaine addict. And, hey, what's up w/ the name Ruby for children in recent novels? I'm over it.

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Jul 10, 2011

Debra marked it as to-read

Stephen King says: "Samaritan blew my mind . . . An absolutely riveting story; the reader is hooked from the first page, as they say. The tension builds until the story thrums like a wire in a windstorm. Until you can’t put the book down, because you just have to know. This is a [. . .] fine story by a novelist who is currently at the height of his powers.”

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Sep 01, 2010

Christopher rated it:

Not as memorable to me as Price's other two novels set in the fictional NJ city of "Dempsy" (itself a mash-up of Newark, Bayonne, Union, Jersey City, & half a dozen other third world feral cities in the US) but as good or better than 90% of the genre fiction published & on par with at least the better literary fiction coming out these days.

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Dec 28, 2009

Joshua rated it:

The more I read from Richard Price, the more it grates on me that every character speaks in the same hard-boiled voice and has the same street-wizened cynicism about their lot in life. Aside from that, the plot in Samaritan drifted around aimlessly, and the motivations of the characters didn't seem to make much sense.

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Jan 07, 2012

Sherry rated it:

This was a very compelling book about a screenwriter who returns to New Jersey and tries to help out his neighbors, only to become the victim of a violent beating. His childhood friend Nerese is a police detective who tries to solve his case. He refuses to name his assailant. I was hooked to the end.

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Dec 22, 2009

Dan rated it:

This book deserves a better review than i am prepared to give just now... I have nothing to remark that properly honors the book itself or how i feel about it. I must grok.

Still, it deserves something. Some sentiment. Here goes:

I knew shortly after beginning Samaritan that Price is going to be one of those writers whose whole collection i would devour, shamelessly and systematically, like unguarded deviled eggs.

I hereby designate this area sacred. A space f

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Mar 24, 2009

Ethan rated it:

A bad guy gone good returns to his ghetto NJ town to teach for free. He meets some of his old friends who never made it out and ends up severely beaten. The whodunit is well done, but the characters are pretty lame. I won't even try to compare it to Lush Life.

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