Price, Richard 1949-

views updated

PRICE, Richard 1949-

PERSONAL: Born October 12, 1949, in New York, NY; married Judith Hudson; children: two daughters. Education: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, B.S., 1971; Columbia University, New York, NY, graduate study, 1972–74, M.F.A., 1976; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, further graduate study, 1973.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—10 Jones St., New York, NY 10014. Agent—Dorothy Vincent, Janklow & Nesbit Associates, 445 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022; fax: 212-980-3671.

CAREER: Writer and educator. Hostos Community College, lecturer in English as a second language, 1973; New York University, lecturer in urban affairs, 1973; lecturer in creative writing, State University of New York at Stony Brook, beginning 1974, New York University, 1974 and 1977, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1976, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, 1978–79, and Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1980.

AWARDS, HONORS: Edith Mirrilees grant in fiction from Stanford University, 1972; Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation grant, 1973; MacDowell Colony grant, 1973; Yaddo fellow, 1977, 1978, and 1980; Playboy Magazine Nonfiction Award, 1979; MacDowell fellow, 1979; Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1999.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Wanderers, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1974, reprinted, 1999.

Bloodbrothers, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1976.

Ladies' Man, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1978.

The Breaks, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Clockers, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1992.

Freedomland, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Samaritan, Knopf (New York, NY), 2003.

SCREENPLAYS

Night and the City, Twentieth Century Fox, 1992.

Three Screenplays: The Color of Money, Sea of Love, Night and the City, Grove (New York, NY), 1993.

Mad Dog and Glory, Universal Pictures, 1993.

Kiss of Death, Twentieth Century Fox, 1995.

(With Alexander Ignon) Ransom, Buena Vista, 1996.

(With John Singleton and Shane Salerno) Shaft, Paramount Pictures, 2000.

Also contributor of introduction and interview to Men in the Cities, 1979–1982, by Robert Longo, Abrams (New York, NY), 1986.

Author's fiction, articles and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals, including the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, New Yorker, Esquire, Village Voice, and Rolling Stone.

ADAPTATIONS: Clockers was adapted as a feature film, by Spike Lee, 1995.

SIDELIGHTS: Despite his desire not to become known as the "Voice of the Bronx," Richard Price has often had his work compared to that of other writers who have focused on the problems of growing up male in various urban centers of the United States—most notably James T. Farrell (Chicago) and Hubert Selby, Jr. (Brooklyn). Price's grittily realistic portrayal of gang life in the Bronx, The Wanderers (published when the author was only twenty-four years old), was hailed as "an extraordinary first novel" by Newsweek contributor Charles Michener. Continued the critic: "Like the nerviest of the teen-age gang members who give the novel its title, Price prowls the 1960s jungle of a North Bronx housing project and its environs without fear—or shame. His switchblade prose is not interested in shadows but flesh and blood…. His dialogue has the immediacy of overheard subway conversation. His wit is capable of perceiving the dopey pathos behind adolescent swagger and obscenity as well as capturing the surrealistic exhilaration of mass violence."

Rick Kogan of the Chicago Sun-Times called The Wanderers "one of the few powerful and worthwhile novels of the year…. The language of The Wanderers is tough, the gang's actions often crude and vulgar. But it is an important novel for just those reasons. It is real. It is a work that tells its tale in the best possible way—using real characters in a real world…. Richard Price has gathered the pieces to the puzzle of his own youth and the puzzle of growing up in urban America. In The Wanderers he has put all the pieces together and they fit like a charm."

"[The Wanderers] could be the flip side of 'American Graffiti,'" declared Michael Rogers in Rolling Stone. "Price's book chronicles the adventures and depreda-tions of one gang, the Wanderers, during their last year of high school—an amalgam of sex, violence and humor, glued together with superb dialogue and unsentimental sensitivity…. While the book is clearly episodic, and many of the chapters could easily stand on their own as short stories, Price nonetheless manages to blend his humor and horror to create a sense of wholeness."

Hubert Selby, writing in the New York Times Book Review, noted that "although [The Wanderers] is a book specifically about adolescence, and a portion of the Bronx, its scope goes beyond the emotions of teenagers and the setting of the Big Playground. Richard Price has the empathy and objectivity of a true artist, and so we also experience the adult world outside, struggling with its own inadequacies, ignorance, misconceptions. The Wanderers is an outstanding work of art because Mr. Price never imposes himself on the reader. His dialogue is musically true and emotionally correct. He respects his art and his subject, and illuminates our daily world with insights that allow us—at times force us—to feel closer to other human beings whether we like and approve of them or not."

Other critics, however, while willing to regard The Wanderers as a good first effort for a young writer, were not quite as eager as some of their colleagues to consider it a masterpiece. Laura Cunningham wrote in the Village Voice, "Sexual groupings and lower-class ambience ring true [in The Wanderers, but] the action falters. The book resembles twelve related short stories more than it does a novel. Eliot Fremont-Smith of New York concluded that The Wanderers is "not a bad book; it has moments of insight, some good writing, and a particularly strong and effective portrait of conflict between a muscular, macho father and his painfully striving son."

Price's second novel, Bloodbrothers, deals with a particularly significant summer in the life of Stony De Coco, the eighteen-year-old son of a successful electrical contractor who must decide whether to go on to college, join his father in the construction business, or work among children as a hospital aide. "In general," remarked William C. Woods of the Washington Post Book World, [this is] a bad idea for a novel; not because it isn't a worthwhile story, but because it's been written so often (and sometimes so well) that only the blueprint remains. Any novelist who takes on such familiar stuff will have to have something special going for him. Richard Price does…. [His] material fits the old formula, but it has particular promise. It's about people who haven't often found their way into fiction since James T. Farrell first put their lives on record many years ago…. For all of its surface violence, blunt language, and brute realism, Bloodbrothers is a most subtle book. Its concerns are not limited to the photographic naturalism Price handily achieves, or the presentation of an argument for the group integrity of a mocked majority. It's a novel about brotherhood, family bonds stronger than family hatreds, and ritual initiations on many levels—all of which compose a sharp portrait of a coming-of-age, in sorrow and in strength."

Though America reviewer Gerard C. Reedy revealed that he is "reluctant to admit that my fellow Bronxites realistically and constantly talk, think and act this dirtily," he did feel that "some of Price's episodes [in Bloodbrothers] are achingly moving…. [The book] offers powerful writing on almost every page. The author, like his hero, has great story-telling gifts; he also has a good feel for loneliness in the high-rise buildings of New York, or anywhere."

In his third novel, Ladies' Man, Price branches out from his usual themes, moves his Bronx characters to Manhattan, and ages his protagonist somewhat. The story focuses on a traumatic week in the life of Kenny Becker, a thirty-year-old door-to-door salesman who faces a premature mid-life crisis of sorts when his live-in girlfriend's sudden departure leaves him alone and essentially friendless. Terence Winch of the Washington Post Book World stated that "Ladies' Man does not include the panorama of anguish that sweeps through Price's earlier novels. It does, however, offer something better: it is a novel of passion and depth written with great precision and control…. [It] is one of the best novels yet on life in the 1970s…. This is a novel that covers a lot of ground. Solitude and loneliness, sex, work, and life in New York are all part of Price's portrait of Kenny Becker. But more than anything else, Ladies' Man is a novel about love and death.

After noting that Price "knows the language, mores, herding instincts and hunting habits of the bottom-class urban young just about as well as Margaret Mead got to know those who come of age in Samoa," New York Times contributor Christopher Lehmann-Haupt declared that "what keeps us reading Ladies' Man is not the pain of Kenny Becker's experience, but Mr. Price's inventiveness as a storyteller and the absolute authenticity of the people he creates…. And because Mr. Price doesn't condescend to his characters … their suffering transcends their narrow circumstances." Jerome Charyn of the New York Times Book Review felt that Price "has an amazing ear and eye for the street." The reviewer also noted: "It's a disturbing, freaky novel about sexual disgust and the pornography of our everyday lives."

In a story of about a middle-class youth trying to be upwardly mobile, Price tells the tale of Peter Keller in The Breaks. The first in his family to graduate from college, Peter returns to Yonkers doing uninteresting jobs while he waits to be admitted into law school. Fed up, Peter goes back to his college town to teach English and considers pursuing a career as an actor, all the while never being able to quite break away from his parents and his past. Price explores the hard streets of Dempsy, New Jersey, and its drug underworld in his novel Clockers. The novel revolves around homicide detective Rocco Klein and teenage crack dealer Strike who is already moving up with connections and his own dealers. Klein is working on a homicide case that brings him in contact with Strike, whose brother has confessed to killing a drug dealer. Klein, however, thinks the brother is taking the rap for Strike and begins to hound him. Writing on the MysteryGuide.com Web site, a reviewer noted that "Much of the novel is about his [Strike's] slow transformation under pressure from a credulous and greedy street criminal to something else entirely." The reviewer also wrote, "The details of daily life for the dealers, customers, cops, and bystanders are rendered with clarity and believability, and the language on all sides rings absolutely true." A contributor to Contemporary Novelists commented that the novel "is a brilliant portrayal of the black inner city, Strike and Victor the two faces of a post-Civil Rights era 'Native Son.'"

In his novel Freedomland, Price tells the story of a black man carjacking a white woman's car with her four-year-old son in the back seat. At least that is what Brenda Martin insists has happened. Because the perpetrator is black and the victim is white, the people in city of Dempsy, New Jersey, find themselves not only dealing with a crime but with the ongoing existence of racism as tensions with its neighbor, the predominantly white town of Gannon, grow. "While Freedomland has all the trappings of a good read, its most thrilling feature may well be its all-embracing vision of the community, its characters, the troubling transactions they make with each other as they avoid or confront whatever it is they love most," wrote Gene Seymour in a review in the Nation. "This vision, by itself, represents a critique, a challenge—all right then, a rebuke—to Tabloid Culture's dominion over the collective psyche." John Skow, writing in Time, noted that the "author doesn't offer a moral, simply an accurate portrayal of a society all of whose visible elements—cops, press, E.R. medics, pastors, mothers' groups, gawkers and stone throwers—take their energy from pain." Writing in People, Nick Charles commented, "It's a tour de force of character of plot."

Samaritan tells the story television writer Ray Mitchell, who returns to his hometown of Dempsy, New Jersey, volunteering his time to teach a writing class at his old high school. But Dempsy has changed since Ray was a kid, and he winds up with some unsavory friends and a romance with a woman whose husband is in jail for drug dealing. Eventually, Ray finds himself in the hospital after being struck with a vase. Ray's childhood buddy Nerese Ammons, who is black and a local cop, promises to find out who attacked Ray. The ensuing plot revolves around Ray's feelings of guilt and Nerese's search for the assailant. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that "many will enjoy as well as admire the novel." Time contributor Richard Lacayo noted that the author "has been what Ray is in Samaritan, an intruder in other people's lives. His fellow feeling with this character goes deep. What he knows about Ray you don't learn by researching the streets. Instead, you prowl your own heart. It's one more beat that Price knows how to walk with authority." Writing on the Salon.com Web site, Charles Taylor noted, "Price focuses on making all his characters vivid, not just Ray and Nerese but the ones who float through a single scene." Taylor added, "Price is trodding on explosive territory. As a good novelist should, even one addressing social issues, Price avoids ideology. And though Samaritan is his bleakest book, you put it down convinced he is trying to find, in the midst of racial and economic divisions, the things that we share. He's the reporter-novelist as despairing humanist." Writing in Kirkus Reviews, another reviewer called the book "magnificient stuff."

Price has also written or cowritten several screenplays for major motion pictures. Three of them were published in the volume Three Screenplays: The Color of Money, Sea of Love, Night and the City. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Tim Appelo noted that "his writer's voice is as identifiable as David Mamet's, and often better." The Contemporary Novelists contributor also commented on the author's strengths, noting, "Price's distinct trademark is his ear for street talk. He ably follows its changing lexicon, rhythms, and discourse communities."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale, (Detroit, MI), Volume VI, 1976, Volume XII, 1980.

Contemporary Novelists, 7th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, Volume 23, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

America, November 13, 1976, Gerard C. Reedy, review of Bloodbrothers.

American Book Review, October, 1979, review of Ladies' Man, p. 10.

Antioch Review, winter, 1979, review of Ladies' Man, p. 125; spring, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 249; fall, 1992, Steve Brzezinski, review of Clockers, p. 769.

Atlantic, October, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 114.

Best Sellers, June, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 72; December, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 321.

Book, January-February, 2003, Paul Evans, review of Samaritan, p. 74.

Booklist, May 1, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 977; April 1, 1977, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 1153; September 1, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 28; December 15, 1982, review of The Breaks, p. 537; March 1, 1992, Brad Hooper, review of Clockers, p. 1163; April 15, 1998, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Freedomland, p. 1393; January 1, 1999, review of Freedomland, p. 779; November 15, 2002, Keir Graff, review of Samaritan, p. 549; August, 2003, Keir Graff, review of Samaritan, p. 1999.

Book World, May 12, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 4; February 16, 1975, review of The Wanderers, p. 4; May 2, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. L6; May 24, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 2; January 19, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 91.

Chicago Sun-Times, March 31, 1974, Rick Kogan, review of The Wanderers.

Commonweal, December 4, 1998, review of Clockers, p. 22.

Detroit Free Press, January 5, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 4K.

Economist, December 12, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 4; February 8, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 76.

Entertainment Weekly, June 12, 1992, Gene Lyons, review of Clockers, p. 48; October 23, 1992, Owen Gleiberman, review of Night and the City, p. 42; November 27, 1992, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 73; April 23, 1993, Ty Burr, review of Night and the City, p. 60; June 25, 1993, Tim Appelo, review of Three Screenplays: The Color of Money, Sea of Love, Night and the City, p. 99; August 20, 1993, Ty Burr, review of Mad Dog and Glory, p. 66; December 3, 1993, review of Clockers, p. 67; January 7, 1996, Glenn Kenny, review of Kiss of Death, p. 66; May 22, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 62; December 25, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 134; May 14, 1999, review of Freedomland, p. 69; January 17, 2003, Tom Sinclair, review of Samaritan, p. 81; December 26, 2003, Tim Appelo, review of Samaritan, p. 21.

Esquire, June, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 44; January, 2003, Adrienne Miller, review of Samaritan, p. 24.

Fortune, August 24, 1992, Gil Schwart, review of Clockers, p. 150.

Guardian Weekly, June 14, 1975, review of The Wanderers, p. 22.

Harper's, October, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 114; February, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 59.

Hudson Review, summer, 2003, review of Samaritan, pp. 385-390.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 144; January 15, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 92; July 15, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 773; November 15, 1982, review of The Breaks, p. 1258; March 1, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 280; April 1, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 434; November 1, 2002, review of Samaritan, p. 1562.

Kliatt, spring, 1984, review of The Breaks, p. 12; March, 1994, review of Clockers, p. 12; September, 2003, Nancy C. Chaplin, review of Samaritan, p. 57.

Library Journal, June 1, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 1565; February 15, 1976; review of Bloodbrothers, p. 636; August, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 1532; January 15, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 146; June 1, 1993, David C. Tucker, review of Three Screenplays: The Color of Money, Seal of Love, Night and the City, p. 126; May 1, 1998, Mark Annichiarico, review of Freedomland, p. 140; January, 2003, Wilda Williams, review of Samaritan, p. 158.

Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 12; June 14, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 3; December 21, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 777; May 31, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 10; February 2, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. R-14.

Nation, June 1, 1992, Gerald Howard, review of Clockers, p. 755; May 22, 1995, review of Kiss of Death, p. 733; July 20, 1998, Gene Seymour, review of Freedomland, p. 25.

National Review, August 3, 1992, Paul West, review of Clockers, p. 42; July 6, 1998, James Gardner, review of Freedomland, p. 50.

New Leader, April 4, 1983, Madison Bell, review of The Breaks, p. 15; November, 2002, review of Samaritan, p. 37.

New Republic, January 6, 1979, review of Ladies' Man, p. 30; April 12, 1993, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Mad Dog and Glory, p. 28; May 22, 1995, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Kiss of Death, p. 29.

New Statesman, May 20, 1977, Julian Barnes, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 681.

New Statesman and Society, July 17, 1992, Nick Kimberley, review of Clockers, p. 46.

Newsweek, May 13, 1974, Charles Michener, review of The Wanderers, p. 125; September 18, 1978, Robin Boeth, review of Ladies' Man, p. 84; November 11, 1996, David Ansen, review of Ransom, p. 74.

New York, April 1, 1974, Eliot Fremont-Smith, review of The Wanderers.

New Yorker, May 20, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 150; November 27, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 209; February 14, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 114; October 5, 1992, Whitney Balliett, review of Clockers, p. 174; January 20, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 14.

New York Review of Books, January 25, 1979, Robert Towers, review of Ladies' Man, p. 15; March 31, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 28; June 11, 1998, Luc Sante, review of Freedomland, p. 30; July 3, 2003, Geoffrey O'Brien, review of Samaritan, p. 24.

New York Times, March 20, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 39; October 14, 1979, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Ladies' Man, p. 55; January 18, 1983, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of The Breaks, p. C14; February 13, 1983, Benjamin De Mott, review of The Breaks, p. 14; June 12, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 34; December 1, 1985, C. Gerald Fraser, review of The Wanderers, p. 42; May 28, 1992, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Clockers, p. B2, C20; June 12, 1992, Caryn James, review of Clockers, p. B8; December 21, 2002, Michiko Kakutani, review of Samaritan, p. B14, E14.

New York Times Book Review, April 21, 1974, Hubert Selby, review of The Wanderers, p. 38; June 2, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 36; June 27, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 24; December 1, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 72; May 23, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 42; June 19, 1977, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 47; November 12, 1978; October 14, 1979, Jerome Charyn, review of Ladies' Man, p. 55; February 13, 1983, Benjamin De Mott, review of The Breaks, p. 14; June 12, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 34; December 1, 1985, C. Gerald Fraser, reviews of The Wanderers and Ladies' Man, p. 42; December 12, 1993, review of Clockers, p. 36; June 7, 1998, Francine Prose, review of Freedomland, p. 14; December 6, 1998, review of Freedomland, p. 66; May 16, 1999, review of Freedomland, p. 36; January 5, 2003, Mark Costello, review of Samaritan, p. 9; January 26, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 26; February 2, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 22; December 7, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 69.

Observer (London, England), May 23, 1993, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 70.

People, June 22, 1992, Sara Nelson, review of Clockers, p. 21; October 26, 1992, Ralph Novak, review of Night and the City, p. 17; June 8, 1998, Nick Charles, review of Freedomland, p. 49.

Playboy, December, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 36; June, 1992, Digby Diehl, review of Clockers, p. 34.

Publishers Weekly, January 28, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 296; February 16, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 80; March 28, 1977, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 77; July 17, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 164; November 19, 1982, review of The Breaks, p. 64; February 10, 1984, review of The Breaks, p. 193; March 9, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 47; May 4, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 37; October 25, 1993, review of Clockers, p. 58; December 2, 2002, review of Samaritan, p. 34; May 5, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 21.

Rapport, annual, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 280.

Rolling Stone, May 9, 1974, Michael Rogers, review of The Wanderers; May 20, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 97; November 30, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 74.

Saturday Review, May 4, 1974, review of The Wanderers, p. 52; March 20, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 26; September 30, 1978, John Fludas, review of Ladies' Man, p. 52; March-April, 1983, Anna Shapiro, review of The Breaks, p. 63.

Spectator, April 26, 2003, Paul Willetts, review of Samaritan, p. 39.

Time, June 8, 1992, John Skow, review of Clockers, p. 89; July 13, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 74; October 26, 1992, Richard Schickel, review of Night and the City, p. 86; January 4, 1993, review of Clockers, p. 64; May 18, 1998, John Skow, review of Freedomland, p. 93; June 8, 1998, Nick Charles, review of Freedomland, p. 49; January 13, 2003, Richard Lacayo, review of Samaritan, p 59.

Times Literary Supplement, May 30, 1975, review of The Wanderers, p. 585; June 26, 1992, Paul Spike, review of Clockers, p. 21; May 7, 1993, Richard Cook, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 21; July 10, 1998, Andrew M. Brown, review of Freedomland, p. 21.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), December 6, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 13; December 26, 1993, review of Clockers, p. 12; January 5, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. 74.

Village Voice, May 16, 1974, Laura Cunningham, review of The Wanderers, p. 37; April 26, 1976, review of Bloodbrothers, p. 46; October 9, 1978, review of Ladies' Man, p. 135; March 1, 1983, review of The Breaks, p. 42.

Village Voice Literary Supplement, May, 1992, review of Clockers, p. 32.

Vogue, June, 1992, Andrew Kopkind, review of Clockers, p. 72.

Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2003, review of Samaritan, p. W7.

Washington Post, January 23, 1983, Jonathan Yardley, review of The Breaks, p. BW3.

Washington Post Book World, May 2, 1976, William C. Woods, review of Bloodbrothers; October 15, 1978, Terence Winch, review of Ladies' Man.

World and I, November, 1992, review of Clockers, pp. 299, 308, 315; May, 2003, Edward Hower, review of Samaritan, p. 201.