Review by Booklist Review
Anthony Carter was trapped, pinned beneath an unfathomable weight. The air rippled with chaos and confusion, along with clouds of dust and debris and the screams of sirens and of people. The Harlem apartment building in which Anthony resided had collapsed, but he miraculously survived and was finally rescued days later. Acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Price is our peerless dramatizer of the contemporary urban underbelly, reminding us that the beating heart of a city lies within the collective hearts of the denizens shuffling through their demanding lives. Like Mary, a community relations officer tasked with finding a missing resident of the collapsed building while losing herself in her work. Royal is the proprietor of a failing funeral home. The building collapse could mean opportunity as mass casualties are good for business. The good-natured and adrift Felix discovers a passion for photography and instinctively sets out to document the aftermath of the tragedy. A memorable scene in which a woman spins an unnecessarily elaborate tale while begging for money brilliantly illustrates that we are natural storytellers, none better than Richard Price.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Price (The Whites, as Harry Brandt) delivers a remarkable excavation of urban angst in this story of a five-story East Harlem tenement building that collapses, killing six of its tenants. The ruin becomes a spectacle, drawing myriad characters including Felix Pearl, a young filmmaker who lives near the building and was roused that morning by the "abrupt harsh clatter and buckshot pop of shattered glass suddenly raining down on the street" followed by a more alarming "absolute silence." Royal Davis, a mortician with a failing business, capitalizes on the accident as a way to solicit new clients, while Mary Roe, an NYPD detective with a complicated home life, puts all her energy into finding out what happened to Christopher Diaz, a tenant who is mysteriously unaccounted for. Price also focuses on survivor Anthony Carter, an unemployed teacher and recovering cocaine addict who was rescued after being buried in the rubble for 36 hours, and who becomes a symbol of hope for a community ravaged by blight and gentrification. As these vivid characters cross paths following the tragedy, they compose a searing snapshot of contemporary Harlem annotated with the author's precise observations ("One of the reasons why the Daily News and the Post were the commuter's choice was that they were easier to manage on a crowded train. Reading the Times on the subway was like trying to spread your arms in a phone booth"). Price once again proves he's the bard of New York City street life. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and novelist Price's (I Wanderers) newest novel recounts a story of attempted redemption, distorted truth, and mythmaking. He excels at bringing New York City to life. Readers first meet Anthony Carter, a 42-year-old unemployed teacher, when he's in a New York bar, chatting with a young woman. Separated from his wife and stepdaughter, he's trying to recover from a substance-use disorder. When a building collapses, and he's rescued 36 hours later from the rubble, he's anointed a hero and a sage. Detective Mary Roe tries to locate the building's missing residents while dealing with her failing marriage. Funeral director Royal Davis attempts to hold onto his funeral home in spite of a family dispute and 2008's economic downturn. Meanwhile, Felix, a young photographer and videographer, documents life on the street and the aftermath of the explosion. All these characters--plus many more--intersect in a sociological analysis of an urban community. The novel's one weakness lies in its attempt to tie up all the loose ends in a bow, which sometimes seems strained. VERDICT Price paints a tableau full of activity, compassion, and complexity that expertly demonstrates how messy and difficult life can be.--Jacqueline Snider
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A group portrait of Harlem residents in the aftermath of a five-story tenement collapse in 2008 that mysteriously changes the life of a survivor. Thirty-six hours after the event, workers pull from the rubble 42-year-old Anthony Carter, an unemployed biracial schoolteacher and recovering coke addict. In the days--and daze--that follows, he doesn't find religion as much as it finds him in the form of a female prophet. Targeting him with her "raging aviary of disembodied howls and shouts," she helps transform him into an unlikely motivational speaker and media star. But close observers, including young freelance photographer Felix Pearl, find something a bit off about Carter's inspirational words, like he was "trying and failing to hold on to a rapidly dissolving fragment of a dream." Police detective Mary Roe, who barely survived a calamitous elevator accident and is now obsessed with finding a missing survivor of the tenement collapse, doesn't know what to make of Carter. And postal worker Anne Collins, who is instantly drawn to him after they lock gazes across an outdoor event, flees the relationship just as quickly. Price's first novel sinceThe Whites (2015)--a work of crime fiction written under the pen name Harry Brandt--shows off his usual mastery of urban life, including what a community activist calls "ourDeath-style," embodied in the unforgettable image of a kid who "was eating Chinese right before he was shot and the pellets blew the white rice right out through his back." But the author is mostly in a kinder and gentler mode, affectingly capturing the complicated domestic lives that help people cope in difficult times. For all the darkness in the novel with its 9/11 overtones, there's a sense of transcendence in the Harlem community's shared experience and survivors' spirit. An affecting novel by a literary urbanologist in top form. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
