Richard Price

A man walks in with a plain look on his face, plain pair of shoes, plain pair of pants, and a Hawaiian shirt walks to the front of the room. He puckers up, as he gets ready to read his story. Richard Price is a peculiar man who stands out from the crowd and he does so extremely well. He began the evening with a short read from his book Lush Life, but not before cracking several jokes that result in a riotous burst of laughter from the crowd-this would be one of many.

Richard Price spoke with such eloquence and dictation that many other people lack in their reading. He spoke with a rhythm that represented a drumbeat; every word and noise that he made had a certain flow to it. Richard Price rarely stopped to catch his breath, so as to not to detract from his rhythmic speech. He also is able to bring life to the characters because he knows who the characters are and he knows what kind of persona each one takes on.

The best part of the evening was after his reading. As the questions formed and bombarded Richard Price, he responded with witty remarks, interjecting humor whenever possible. During the question period of the night I noticed Price’s wit when he made several social commentaries as he answered a question. At one point he commented on New Jersey cops stating that all you needed to do was buy them a drink and they will probably shoot someone for you. Price used humor and even a little bit of sarcasm to answer the question in an entertaining way; however, most profound was the way he comments on the morality of New Jersey cops.

The night was a success and not as dull as I had imagined it to be. I had the idea that authors were people who revolved their lives around their novels, Price proved me wrong tonight. The way he engaged the audience in his reading and the level of depth he put in his research showed me another side of writing. Writing is much more than a skill; it is a trade that involves knowledge from various fields.