Pulp Fiction discussion

Richard Price was born in the Bronx, New York City in 1949. A self-described "lower middle class Jewish kid," he grew up in a housing project. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1967, and obtained a B.A. from Cornell University and an MFA from Columbia University.

Price's first novel, The Wanderers (1974), a coming-of-age story set in the Bronx in 1962, was written when Price was 24 years old. It was adapted into a film in 1979.

His novel Clockers published in 1992, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1995, it was adapted into a film directed by Spike Lee.

In addition to seven other novels, Price has written extensively for film and television. In 1999, he received an American Academy of Arts and Letters Arts Award in Literature. He was inducted into the Academy in 2009.



If you're interested in reading more, there's a great interview in The Paris Review - https://www.theparisreview.org/interv...

I’ve had this on my shelf at home for a while. We’re going to be traveling, so I’ll have a good chance to get it underway.

I am working on this one but probably won't finish until the end of the month. It's longer than I expected, and the amount of detail was a little intimidating at first, but I'm about a third of the way through now and enjoying it quite well.

Who else is in for this one?

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Who else is in for this one?"

I read it in 2008, and don't have time for a reread, so I'll be sitting this one out.

I read Clockers a long time ago and recommend it highly. I appreciated the Paris Review Interview with the author (although I couldn't read all of it as I'm now a subscriber). I may see if I can find this in Spanish as I've vowed to read nothing but Spanish for a few months.

I'm in, sounds very promising, but I'm not sure when I will be able to start on the book.

The month is almost over, and I only managed to read through about half of the novel.
It's very well written, so well that it actually feels too slick for its own good, like a lot of research shoehorned into a couple of relevant characters. It's also very much like a movie or TV series, filled with carefully coreographed set pieces, edgy dialogue and human interest angles.
I might eventually finish it, but I can't handle more than a chapter a day. Too bad, because Price can really write.

I'll probably finish later today, then I'll be back to dump out all my thoughts about the book.

I finished. I'm going to share some thoughts below.

Be advised there may be SPOILERS BELOW - proceed no further if you haven't finished the book.

The book does gritty realness like few others. Set in the housing projects of an apparently squalid part of New Jersey, the level of detail is amazing, capturing the sights, sounds, smells and feels of being a "Clocker" (merchant of illegal narcotics). The book follows both a clocker crew chief working the bench area in a housing projects yard as well as a homicide detective whose lives eventually collide. Both men's hopes and dreams and fears and desires are examined through their internal narratives, making each of them seem awkward and unfocused and even silly at times which ultimately adds a layer of realism until they both seem like just a couple of guys trying to do their best and just get by. Other characters also step from the page, although the female characters are mostly moms and wives.

The level of details comes at a cost. The book takes a while to get going and its slow at times. At 630 pages of fairly small print, it's not something that can or should be breezed through in an afternoon. And don't cross your fingers hoping for a pat, happy ending either; it reminded me more of the final episode of The Sopranos in which live continues to move on.

I rated the book 4 stars and really enjoyed it although I'm not sure I would ever re-read it. I do want to read other books by Price eventually though.

Even though the plot wasn't my favorite, I think Price's writing is magnificent - I put it on a level with James Ellroy. Complete realism - everything - action, dialogue, characters' thoughts - rings absolutely true. There are laugh-out-loud moments of sarcastic humor and smart-ass talk, especially from the cops.

I thought Chapter 4, in which the actor Touhey, working on ideas for a script, cruises with the police, is a masterpiece. The scenes in the holding pen and the restaurant completely dispel any ideas he may have had about glamorous or redeeming qualities of police work.

I felt a parallel to Crime and Punishment, the way Strike, like Raskolnikov, feels the world closing in on him.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My review is old, but I reread Clockers and enjoyed it the second time around.

I finally finished it and enjoyed it though it is a long read. I’ll have more comments over the weekend, but I couldn’t help but notice in the photo here of Price, a poster of The Wire. As I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking how similar the settings were in the book and HBO series.

Modern noir at it's best. Who in this entire book had any kind of good outcome? It's a very long book and it took me a while to get into it. Books that are cheerier, with the level of detail shown, I would call lush. Here, it's like warrens and caves that go on leading in every direction. Backstories are covered in subtle ways.

I agree with RJ here as well how the two leads are juxtaposed against one another. Both want something better, but will they get it? Bravo on whoever put this in the poll. I have Lush Life on my bookshelf here at home. I have a hunch it is not about the life and times of Billy Strayhorn.

Good points, Lawrence. In so many ways the book portrays the justice system as a machine that ultimately seeks an outcome, even if it's not the right outcome or even anything that resembles "justice." It reminds me a lot in that respect of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which of course gets to the point much faster.