Welcome to Litsy!

I bought Clockers on a whim when I was 15, not long after it was published, and fell in love with it immediately - the sprawling cast of characters, the street-level view of NY/NJ, the realistic dialogue - all of it was great. When I saw that Richard Price had a new book out, I was excited to dive back into that world. Why then did this one not hold my interest? All the ingredients are there, yet it sounds to me almost like self-parody at times.

4⭐️/5⭐️

Yes, I did love Richard Price‘s new novel!

This is a low pick for me, which is on me not the book. The book is excellent. I appreciate how the language and tone shift from pov to pov inside of the stories, and each tenant is a full person. I think I just needed more depth at the moment. Some of these stories are only 10-15 pages and while you get a feel for each person you also feel like a lot of their story is missing.
Overall though this is excellently constructed.

It took me a while to get into this, from the #ToBlonglist. I hadn‘t read the blurb and assumed that the book was about the titular Lazarus Man, pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed NYC building after several days.

It turns out it‘s also about 3 other characters indirectly involved in the incident as well and, once I realised this, the narrative became less disjointed and I started to enjoy it.

It wouldn‘t make my shortlist though.

The end of an era 🥹 My daughter and I have loved all of the time we spent with the Vanderbeekers this year. We‘re sad to say goodbye. Highly recommend this series.

Price has a gift in his ability to capture the spectrum of humanity, flawed as we are and still worthy of our own stories.

I wish I had this book in Elementary school! I didn't know some of the places talked about in this book!

“E is for Edgebombe Avenue...

...Can you imagine the interesting and important things people talked about in this building on Edgecombe Avenue“

The ABCs with important Black figures and places in American culture!