false 1862313 0374299250 9780374299255 2996 869 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862313.Lush_Life_A_Novel 16481 Richard Price 5405 1277 4 0 false Sat Nov 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 18:19:06 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 29 15:25:49 -0800 2009 1
While The Wire's whole point, however, was this dismantling of our institutions and systems -- of the 20th Century American ideal -- Lush Life is more about collisions. New York's Lower East Village has become a mish-mash of people. Project kids, wannabe artists, immigrants, orthodox jews, and just a heartbeat away from (very white) nouveau riche neighborhoods. And when the murder of a charming white guy happens in the wee hours of the morning on a dark street in the heart of this salad bowl of multiculturalism -- the police are ill-equipped to figure out why.

My relationship with Price's work to this point has been a great hit and a miss. Clockers is spectacular. Freedomland, I've failed to finish twice. For whatever reason, I cared not about the story in the latter. The former, I could read over and over again. The problem, with Freedomland, I think, is because I didn't believe it. My love of The Wire is rooted in the "realness" of the characters and situations. While watching, I believed I could head to Baltimore and see Snoop or Prop Joe in the streets. That McNulty and The Bunk really were working murders when not drinking themselves into oblivion. It was real.

Price's worlds are just as real. From the moment he presents a scene, a location, or a turn of phrase, it feels authentic. Nothing is too big or too small unless it should be. Matters of race ripple throughout the lives this story touches, yet it's never the largest elephant in the room. It just is. Not as imagined. Not as we idealize or magnify or overlook.

Things just are. Lush Life is a reminder of this on every page.]]>