Richard Price is Right

Richard Price circa 1997 [photo: Robert Birnbaum]

Way back when, when I discovered Richard Price’s first novel, The Wanderers (later made into a movie of the same name), I had no idea that years later I would have read all his novels, each a worthy benchmark of his prodigious talent to chronicle real life (Or as the dust jacket of The Whites asserts , “…vividly etched portrayals of urban America”)  in New York City’s mean streets (Freedomland might as well have been set in NYC). His eighth novel Lush Life centered on the story of Eric Cash, a would-be writer and actor was a somewhat more interior narrative.

Now comes The Whites (Henry Holt), whose Melvillian allusion is no throwaway gesture,with a group of NYPD police friends calling themselves the Wild Geese; sharing past and present travails (no spoilers to be found here) especially one detective Billy Graves.Once again Price exhibits a vest knowledge of street level minutiae including the tricks of the undertaker trade (the use of super glue). Additionally, Price is, as always adept, with his descriptive talents—I doubt anyone has ever described a house looking like “pterodactyl’s birdcage.

Price has also done some film work (Sea of Love, Clockers the forthcomingChild 44)) and participated in the nonpareil HBO series, The Wireand seried he produced called NYC22.

Here’s a snippet from my 2003 chat with Richard Price

Robert Birnbaum: Anything to say about Random House having Mark Winegardner continue the Godfather saga?

Richard Price: I couldn’t care less one way or another. I’m worried about my books.

RB: (laughs)

RP: They had that lady write that sequel to Gone with the Wind a couple of years ago. Everything is so cheesy now.

RB: So when you pass away in fifty years, will you mind if someone continues to write under your name?

RP: Well, if I’ve passed away, I doubt I’ll give a crap one way or another.

RB: You’ve been quoted as saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough write screenplays.” Are you still writing for movies?

RP: In fact, I’m late with one right now.

RB: Because you are on this tour talking about Samaritan?

RP: Yeah, but it’s how I make my money. Otherwise I couldn’t afford to write books.

RB: (laughs)

RP: Really.

RB: That’s terrible.

RP: Yeah, if I were living by myself in Kansas, I probably wouldn’t need to write screenplays. But I live in New York with a wife and two kids.

The Whites by Richard Price as Harry Brandt

Here is Price talking about his friendship with David Simon and working on the Wire

Currently reading Find Me by Laura Van Den Berg (FSG)

The Year That was: The Best American Annuals

Fifty Best American Short Stories 1915 1965 edited by Martha Foley

Since 1915 Houghton Mifflin (et al) has maintained the tradition of publishing a yearly anthology of short fiction (ably assembled, for many years, by Martha Foley) entitled not surprisingly Best American Short Stories. Leaving aside the unfortunate American overuse of superlatives, this annual collection is high quality rivaled only by the yearly O Henry Prize stories compendium. Each year a guest editor is presented with about a 100 stories, drawn from a very broad and diverse mix of publications and culled from a much larger group by the current series editor.

As is the practice of Best American annuals, novelist Jennifer Eagan guest edited 2014’s volume. Among the contributors are, CHARLES BAXTER, ANN BEATTIE, T.C. BOYLE, PETER CAMERON, JOSHUA FERRIS, NELL FREUDENBERGER, DAVID GATES, LAUREN GROFF, BENJAMIN NUGENT,JOYCE CAROL OATES, KAREN RUSSELL and Laura Van Den Berg. Worthy reading.

The Best American Short Stories 2014 edited by Jennifer Eagan

 

Sometime in the 1980’s Best American Essays  (and Best American Mystery Stories )was added to the soon to be burgeoning Best American brand under the direction of Robert Atwan. This year’s essays anthology is guest-edited by John Jeremiah Sullivan, he of the celebrated essay collection Pulphead.  Even if you are not familiar with this  all-star cast of writers such as DAVE EGGERS, EMILY FOX GORDON, MARY GORDON, VIVIAN GORNICK, LESLIE JAMISON, ARIEL LEVY, YIYUN LI, BARRY LOPEZ, CHRIS OFFUTT, ZADIE SMITH, ELIZABETH TALLENT,WELLS TOWER, PAUL WEST and JAMES WOOD, be assured that the topics chosen range far and wide with refreshingly original explications.

The Best American Essays 2014 edited by John Jeremiah Sullivan

Baltimore’s talented crime story novelist Laura Lippman hosts this year’s Best American Mystery Stories 2014 and consciously avoids drawing from the usual suspects thus including surprising names for the genre— MEGAN ABBOTT, DANIEL ALARCÓN, RUSSELL BANKS ,JAMES LEE BURKE ,PATRICIA ENGEL, ERNEST FINNEY, ROXANE GAY, CHARLAINE HARRIS,JOSEPH HELLER, ANNIE PROULX and LAURA VAN DEN BERG.

Best American Mystery Stories edited by Laura Lippman

Sometime around the turn of the century, someone over at Houghton Mifflin with a some marketing savvy added all manner of categories to the Best American brand which currently includes—Travel Writing, Science and Nature Writing, American Comics, American Infographics and Non-Required Reading.

Not to draw to fine a point but I am still troubled by the insistence on literary journalists and other wise thoughtful folks can not shed themselves of mania for superlatives. The Best American Stories don’t have to carry that name for me to be interested reading them.