Acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Richard Price, known for his work on HBO’s The Wire, offers a sprawling portrait of a Harlem community rocked by tragedy in his powerful new book Lazarus Man. When a century-old tenement building collapses, the neighborhood mobilizes—some seeking to profit, others desperate to help—as Price charts the ripple effects with his signature gritty realism and deft ear for dialogue.
A Neighborhood Shaken
The novel opens with a bang as the East Harlem building crumbles, sending up clouds of acrid dust. In the chaos that follows, Price jumps between an ensemble cast of residents, first responders, and opportunists:
- Royal Davis, a funeral home director who sees a grim chance for more business
- Mary Roe, a veteran detective searching for the missing in the rubble
- Felix Pearl, an aspiring filmmaker eager to document the disaster
- Anthony, a recovering addict improbably rescued from the debris who becomes a local celebrity preaching redemption
Through dozens of short, punchy scenes, Price builds a Lazarus Man‘s panoramic view of a shaken but resilient neighborhood. “A young boy is like soft clay,” the born-again Anthony tells an anti-violence gathering, “and the street can be a brutal sculptor.”
Margins Over Murder
While the building collapse raises the specter of terrorism or neglect, Price isn’t as interested in unraveling a mystery as he is scouring the community in its wake. A cop’s terse text sums up the cause:
100+ yr old crap tenement v underground subway extension excavations vibrations / for months / boom
Rather than a propulsive central plot, Lazarus Man offers dozens of indelible snapshots and encounters from the margins. We visit a wild evangelical service, scour check-cashing laundromats and dive bars, and meet a kaleidoscope of local characters:
- A former cop turned Citibank employee who recites chakras
- A woman claiming to be Prince’s mom and Obama’s sister
- A husband who returns from a tryst to find his wife crushed in the rubble
Price renders these slices of Harlem life with granular detail and hard-bitten wisdom. While the novel can feel a bit aimless without a central mystery to solve, its generous heart and pitch-perfect ear make it a vivid evocation of a neighborhood in turmoil.
Wire-Worthy
Fans of Price’s work on prestige TV will find his literary gifts undimmed in Lazarus Man. Like The Wire‘s Baltimore or the Jersey City of The Night Of, his Harlem comes alive in all its grit, bustle and bruised humanity.
Though it lacks a propulsive central plot, the novel’s depiction of a disaster’s lingering aftermath in an already struggling community showcases Price’s gifts for dialogue, detail, and weaving a rich urban tapestry from dozens of points of view. Lazarus Man is an immersive portrait of a Harlem neighborhood determined to rise from the rubble.
