Richard Price's Lush Life

[Richard Price] originally thought of writing a historical novel, one that would dramatize the experience of the immigrant Jews who thronged the Lower East Side a hundred years ago. “But then I realized that’s probably the most well-documented immigrant movement in history,” he said. “A guy comes over here, and his first job is working in a sweatshop. His second job is writing a novel about a guy working in a sweatshop. How am I going to do this better than Henry Roth did?”

New York Times: Sleepy-Eyed Writer, Wandering Byzantium

I mean, we all hate hipsters, right? Even hipsters hate hipsters. But Jesus, man—Richard Price? Guy straight-out, fucking, detests, hipsters. Can work up a decent lather of sympathy for any subculture in the underworld: Junkies, drunks, liars, cops, murderers, thieves, real-estate kingpins—all human, complicated, explainable, damaged, worthy of respect. But hipsters? No. Makes for the only dishonest writing in the book: twenty intolerable pages of a bullshit hipster memorial service that comes off as pure cartoon satire—allegory of the infestation of the once-noble LES. I mean, I know hipsters aren’t exactly an oppressed class or anything, but still. Feels unfair.

New York Mag: Stalking the Gramno

"The novel gained further attention when it was revealed that US President Barack Obama would be reading it during his 2009 summer vacation."

I just finished this.

UPDATE: Adriana demands a further review (she "challenged the post.") This book was fun to read, without making me feel like I was slipping intellectually (i.e. Thomas Pynchon) or making me feel like I was making myself dumber (i.e. Michael Connelly). I cannot explain the title. I do think Adriana would enjoy this book.

Comments

[Michael Sippey]

I can't explain the title either. And yeah - there was clearly an agenda that Price had w/r/t the hipsters. But I enjoyed the book, and have been recommending it to friends, though I'm not sure it's on my list of things to read again someday.