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Jul 03, 2011

Leftbanker rated it:

This was one of my favorite books of the 1990s. The burned-out cop character was a bit of a cliché, but the setting of the novel in an a sort of post-apocalyptic New Jersey housing project was the work of inspired journalism. Price had a lot of great insights in this work that could have only been the result of going out and being a witness to the world he was describing. As the great novelist once said, "You can't make this shit up."

I’m sure this novel is completely ignore More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2008

Adam rated it:

Like Dostoevsky meets Tupac and it's pretty awesome for it. An amazingly complex and l-o-n-g tale of half-flawed people negotiating the pretty bleak world of the north Jersey projects. Every time I thought one of the characters was stooping to stereotype, Price introduced another layer of ambiguity that made much of said characterization ring true. Best of all, the story is so long that no detail is extraneous; the author had time to make everything more or less add up to something. Even Str More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 28, 2007

Gus rated it:

I am a huge fan of Richard Price. One of the most compelling things I find about him is this complete sea change he made in his writing between The Breaks (1983) and Clockers (1992). Pre-Clockers his books were these fairly light, but always hilarious (Ladies Man is certainly one of the funniest books I've ever read) stories about working class guys struggling w their various foibles. Then he writes Clockers, this epic crime novel so realistic it reads like journalism, without any of the goofine More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2007

Naeem rated it:

Price is a careful thinker and writer. He is really an ethnologist of the urban. The show the Wire is based on this book. Bonfire of the Vanities is not half the book that Clockers is -- style be damned.

There is a chapter on heroin addicts who live in a condemned building and who take out and sell the copper tubing in order to get there fix. This chapter is as poetic, as generous, as painful as anything I have read. It would make Charles Dickens envious.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Greg rated it:

Reading Clockers was a lot like watching The Wire, and that's a good thing. As I said in my comment when I started reading this book, I'm happy I never read this before now, and that I had never seen the movie adaptation, which I'm sure is quite good, but which would have ruined some of the book. Not having anymore episodes of The Wire reading this was a nice way for a bookish and non-street white boy to return to the world of slinging drugs in the projects, and go 'slumming' so to speak among More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2007

Maya rated it:

God, I love this book. Everything about it is perfect--you love everyone but no one is flawless. This is one of the best books I've ever read. I think the subject matter may lead a lot of people to think it's not their cup of tea (drugs and violence), but it's really good and esp fun if you know the Jersey City area.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2009

Stewart rated it:

If I could, I'd rate Clockers a solid 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the Spike Lee film of the mid-nineties, and the combination of the recent hype surrounding Price's new novel, Lush Life, and his award-winning writing for The Wire, finally boosted this classic crime-drama to the top of my reading list. Clockers succeeds in vividly capturing a certain socio-political zeitgeist of the late-1980s and early 1990s, when continuously splashed across the New York City tabloids were lurid accounts of t More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2009

Seth rated it:

This book was "The Wire" ten years before they started making "The Wire." If you loved that show like I did, you HAVE TO read this book. Then go get Lush Life and read that too!

Truth is, this book doesn't really get going until AT LEAST page 250 of 600, but if you stick with it, if you actually read into the 400s and finish this baby, you'll be every so glad that you did. It's unlike most of what else you'll find out there. Totally a mix of mystery, realism, chara More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Martin rated it:

Richard Price just came out with "Lush Life" which takes place in NYC, and when I read that he was a writer for "The Wire" TV series and because I love a certain kind of police procedural I tried "LL" and was moderately pleased - so a friend said go back to this old book (his first) and though it was alot like the characters in "The Wire" i found it had all the ingredients I enjoy and make me think: gritty realism, intelligently and realistically imagined More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Len rated it:

I'd had Clockers on my to-read list for a long time and I finally picked it up on Swaptree.com recently and I'm really glad I did. What an amazing novel! Price is a hell of a storyteller. His writing is raw and intense -- this story is told through two perspectives, one a homicide detective and the other a crack dealer. It was so fascinating to see the story through both sets of eyes. Price is neither a cop nor a drug dealer, but he sure as heck must have spent time with both, either that or he More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 29, 2008

Trip rated it:

"The Wire - in convenient book form" has been my pithy description of Clockers.

To expand upon that, it's a character study that does nothing to dispel the popular image of the homicide detective (a world-weary skeptic, partly corrupt, slightly alcoholic, alternately caring too much and too little), but does much to explain how he got that way. Same song, different verse for the low level captain of a drug crew.

Great dialogue, incredible detail, mostly-good paci More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Joyce rated it:

Strike is a black teeneager in Dempsey, New Jersey, a crew chief for a major drug distributor. He runs a group of clockers , young teenagers who sell bottles of cocaine, although he himself doesn t touch the stuff--he has enough trouble with his ulcer.[return][return]Rocco is a Dempsey Homicide detective, who is a borderline alcoholic. He becomes obsessed with Strike when Strike s brother Victor turns himself in for killing another drug dealer; Rocco is convinced that Victor is lyin More...

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Dec 11, 2008

Matt rated it:

Clockers - the term refers to the low-level, 24-hour drug slingers staked outside the projects - was written in 1992, and takes place before then. Which is why it took me so long to figure out why the characters referred to the cops as "Furies." It's because the police drove Plymouth Furies. Natch.

My disorientation has a point: this is a book that takes place in a world that most goodreads.com members have never been to. It's set in the fictional town of Dempsey, but is as r More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

John rated it:

Gritty and Honest Fictional Portrayal Of Drug Dealer's World

Richard Price's "Clockers" is a gritty, honest, brutally realistic portrayal of a young drug dealer trying to go straight, set in a bleak urban landscape of a fictional New Jersey city (In reality it is Jersey City, since Price mentions real streets in his gripping narrative.). Strike, the young dealer, is a mesmerizing protagonist, neither hero or villian, trapped by dire circumstances in his drug-infested, crimin More...

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Sep 26, 2011

Patrick rated it:

I saw the film version of Clockers when it came out in the mid 90s. I remember liking it, but the details are a bit fuzzy in my mind. I was inspired to pick up the novel version, written by Richard Price, of it after reading Nick Hornby’s rave about it. And sure enough it proved to be a compelling read. Price is excellent with the telling details about being a cop and a clocker that gives the novel an air of authority. His understanding of the drug game, his depiction of the day to day work of u More...

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May 22, 2011

Xirxe rated it:

Obwohl dieser 800-Seiten-Wälzer ausschließlich im Drogenmilieu spielt, ist es kein Krimi oder Thriller im klassischen Sinn. Die beiden Hauptfiguren sind Rocco, Detective, und Strike, ein 'leitender' Clocker, einer der schwarzer Dealer die rund um die Uhr ihren Stoff verkaufen. Als sich in Strikes Umfeld ein Mord ereignet, gerät er in Roccos Visier.
Um einen solchen Plot herum einen 800-Seiten-Roman aufzubauen, würde sicherlich etwas langatmig ausfallen. Doch der Schwerpunkt dieser Geschich More...

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Oct 06, 2010

Brett rated it:

The book tells the story of Strike, a street drug dealer in a fictional New Jersey city. When the drug kingpin he works for suggests that Strike can move up in the organization if another dealer is killed, Strike tries to find a way to have the guy killed without doing it himself.
This is the second book by Richard Price that I’ve read. Price is always described as someone who writes “gritty” books and I think that’s an apt description. His fictional town of Dempsy comes alive through More...

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Jan 07, 2010

Dan rated it:

i'm still relatively new to the urban-crime-fiction genre, but this is probably the best example of it i've found so far. and yes - like many people say in other reviews on here - it's the perfect book for fans of the wire, especially ones as obsessive as me. in fact, rocco klein is in many ways a less romanticized mc nulty - the blueprint is all there (absent dad, alcoholic, righteous, over-committed, prone to faulty judgments). on television (even HBO), there's obvious pressure to make this so More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 22, 2011

Stefani rated it:

Richard Price captured the greed and commingled desperation/hopelessness of characters whose desire to leave their doomed surroundings is only surpassed by their fear of reprisal if they do. The book seems perfectly tailored for a TV or movie adaptation given it's fast-paced and gripping plot-line, which had me staying up well past my bedtime to continue reading. And, since finding out that Price has written for the Wire as well as several screenplays, I'm more inclined to believe that was his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 01, 2010

Christopher rated it:

In the first of his novels set in the fictional inner city of "Dempsy, NJ" Price carries his readers through a world most people would rather pretend doesn't exist. The novel is brilliantly paced, but for me it was Price's remarkable use of language that stands out. As a fan of more experimental writers, like Irvine Welsh, who use phonetic spellings to capture the sound & beat of distinctive speech, I was amazed at how capable Price was of giving his characters' voice which could be More...

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Feb 13, 2010

Quinn rated it:

As usual, Price leaving me pretty speechless. The symmetry of this book is even more pronounced than Lush Life--which moves between several characters--and Samaritan, which mostly focused on one. Clockers tick-tocks between the cop--who like most of Price's cops is close to retirement, has family problems and is just a little more introspective and sensitive than his peers--and the gangbanger kid--who like most of Price's gangbanger kids is new to the game, has family problems and is just a li More...

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Mar 23, 2009

Ginny rated it:

Disappointing because I really liked "The Wire" and it was mentioned as an influence on the series. The author wrote some of the episodes. And, actually there was a scene in the book whose dialogue was reproduced in one of the episodes of "The Wire." The book is about police and drug dealers, told from both viewpoints, showing how much the 2 groups have in common and how they inhabit the same world. It has the same dogged refusal to allow any false sense of hope or redempt More...

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Nov 21, 2009

Amanda rated it:

"Dempsey burnin'."

As in The Wire, in Clockers Richard Price explores the front line in the War on Drugs through two infantrymen on opposite sides of the conflict. There's Rocco Klein, homicide investigator, and Strike, lieutenant on the rise in the Dempsey projects. The late-night murder of a fast-food restaurant manager forces Rocco and Strike's paths to collide. Each is trapped, clocking on his side of the line. Clockers makes it clear that this is an unwinnable, endless More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2009

Claire rated it:

I had thought, reading it, that it was written by a black person. Back before the internet was so ubiquitous, and it was slightly harder to determine such things. Still, that's no excuse. Will experience it differently on re-read, if I ever do.

I read a bit in a library of a book about Spike Lee, and particularly about the making of the film of this- and that Spike Lee really wanted to capture the non-glamour parts of this life, which the book did so well at. So there's one vote for t More...

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Sep 05, 2007

Mark rated it:

Richard Price is a hell of a writer. Vivid urban street scenes and characters, with an authoritative understanding of the culture, sharp, realistic dialogue, good plot movement. I really need to check out his other work. This one was masterful, and the movie didn't do it justice.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2011

Kyle rated it:

"...Strike experienced a moment of pure clarity: he would never make it out of here, would never rise above his current position as Rodney's lieutenant, because all the intelligence and prudence and vision came to nothing if it wasn't tempered and supported by a certain blindness, an oblivious animal will that Rodney had, that Champ probably had and that he, Strike, did not have. Rodney would survive all this - Champ, Buddha Hat, Darryl Adams, Jo-Jo, the Homicides, the Latinos, the Mafia, t More...

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Nov 24, 2008

Ethan rated it:

Great book. I have never read Price before but Joel Robinow turned me onto this book. I assume he tracked it down after getting deep into The Wire. Man, this book was mid 90s i think but there is so much dialog, vibes and even characters that show up in The Wire slightly morphed. The dialog is so good in this book it is difficult to remember that Richard Price is neither a 17 year old inner-city gang banger or an alcoholic cop. Truly stunning voices. I would go so far as to say that one would b More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 21, 2007

Kevin rated it:

So unreal, perfect, intimidating, self-reflective 700 page book you never want to end. Triggered the creation of HBO's "The Wire," which kinda floats the same appeal. Anthem for a drowning city too stubborn to grab onto the buoy.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Ryan rated it:

How many times have white writers or movie directors tried to take on life in the so-called 'hood amongst African-American youth? Whether the novel is good or not--and this one isn't that exciting--such constant portrayals of young black men as drug dealers living in crime-ridden inner cities presents kids like me--rural white boys--with a highly skewed picture of modern African-American life. But it is easy to play into the stereotypes--and one can even point to real life counterparts to these More...

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Jan 31, 2011

Molly rated it:

This is one of those books that makes you reconsider other books you've rated with five stars. I wish I could give it 10 stars. I think it's a masterpiece: a stunning work of dialogue and character and place. There were times I felt like I was picking my way through a post-apocalyptic landscape, but one that was so truly realized that it broke my heart with its depiction of the late '80s crack and AIDS epidemic. Price wrote 'Clockers' after years of research -- in the cars, on the streets, in th More...

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