Category — In the Spotlight

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/03/04/arts/pricespan.jpg

As I walked down Allen Street on my way back to the Ludlow dorms, I couldn’t help but look up.  I’d never really thought to do so before, until Richard Price, dressed in a yellow and black gingham button down, jeans, and comfy loafers, said that was the place to look and where one could see the history of the Lower East Side.  Having watched a Lush Life promotional video beforehand in which Price describes how it used to be the red light district where “truck drivers would come by and see some, you know, Jewish lady in a bathrobe and they’d go inside the tenements” and the street developed in order to “shed light” on the area, made it so much more interesting just to stop and look.

In the rooms of the dorms, there are floor to ceiling windows in which one could see up and down Delancey Street from the Williamsburg Bridge to the left and a few streets to the right; and with Price’s descriptions I try and imagine what the crime filled streets, the dirtinesss, the poor.  I imagine the ghosts he describes that suffered and his description: “the Lower East Side is vast and shallow; you could scoop up [history] with a teaspoon.”   His knowledge and observations of the LES were related to us in such a fascinating way; I think it was in part because he didn’t talk down to us and he was at ease with what he decided about the neighborhood.  He was just so laidback and engaging that made his presentation so much more exciting.  In contrast to his laidback character, it was amusing to hear his process in deciding to write about the LES: “And I’m an OCD writer, you know, so I had to find out how people in 1912 wiped their butts and if they used napkins and if they used napkins what kind they used…”

He was such a quotable yet unpretentious character and made the whole room laugh when he wanted to.  But this comedic quality didn’t show in his demeanor; he delivered his statements so matter-of-factly.  From his explanations that “the smell of cappuccino…kills a neighborhood” and that he pretends he’s James Joyce at times to his cultural descriptions about the stereotypes associated with different parts of America, one can tell that he is just genuine and so attuned to the world around him.  After spending so much time describing the LES and his history there, this is my favorite quote of the evening:  “And now I want to write a book about Harlem…because I’m black obviously.  Just like I’m an Orthodox Jewish Dominican.”

The Turkey with an attitude has been a recurring joke every fall. Once the leaves begin to change colors this Turkey comes out from the closet and graces my family with beady eyes and bad attitude. As you can see this particular Turkey chooses to wear it’s wattle over it’s beak instead of letting it hang out like a good Turkey. He refuses to be part of the mainstream poultry culture, therefore he is labeled a threat. His antisocial behavior must be reformed, but, oh boy, is this Turkey stubborn.

As I was going up in the elevator of the library building, a man stepped in who looked vaguely familiar. I realized that he was Richard Price from the videos we had watched earlier in class and I whispered this excitedly to my friend. I stole a glance at him and was not too impressed. He looked very serious and aloof as he leaned against the back wall of the elevator with his arms crossed. He did not look excited to be at Baruch and I feared a boring and dispassionate lecture ahead. However, when Richard Price got up on stage my impression almost immediately changed as he cracked the first of many hilarious jokes to come. Richard Price did not laugh, or even smile, at his own jokes, which made them so much more effective. He was funny without particularly trying to be. When he started to read from Lush Life, I was surprised at how engaged he was in the reading. He delivered the lines of the characters perfectly and the way he read them helped me catch on to humor that I had not noticed when reading Lush Life on my own. Price was just as passionate and engaging in his second reading about a prophetess preaching to God, revealing his talent for role-playing. During the talkback session, Richard Price answered the questions in a very straightforward manner. He did not try to “spice up” his method of capturing the voices of the characters in Lush Life but rather answered the questions about how he researched for the book by simply saying, “I just hung out with the cops.” Though this answer did not seem to please some people who kept bringing up the topic of his research, I think this was yet another impressive aspect of Richard Price, as someone who can capture the essence of a certain group of people in his writing just by “hanging out” with them.

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.

Relaxed. Straight forward. Poised. Hilarious.  Richard Price is an individual who really knows how to keep the crowd engaged. At his reading at Baruch on Tuesday, he didn’t fail to entertain.  Every comment and response by Richard Price was sparked with humor.  “How did you get the cops to help you out?” asked a member of the audience.  “I had compromising pictures of their girlfriends,” replied Richard Price igniting laughter throughout the room.  Although at a certain point Richard Price seemed to be getting annoyed by some of the questions he was receiving, he continued to answer, and continued to make us laugh.  Usually, an individual of his stature might carry some sort of hubris, but not Richard Price; he was down to earth and was better able to connect with the audience because of this.

The excerpt he read from his novel, Lush Life was extremely entertaining.  His straight forward, and descriptive style, really helped us envision the Lower East Side.  To me, his work seemed musical in a way; the short descriptions and simple sentences felt like sharp, staccato notes.  Character dialogue was colloquial and genuine, and really illustrated the typical New York dialogue.  The excerpt that Mr. Price read from his new book about Harlem was unlike something I’ve never heard before.  He used repetition (of the word God) to establish a preachy atmosphere.  I am looking forward to reading Lush Life in full, and also this new book that he is working on.  Both, Richard Price’s personality and work were captivating. (photo taken by Karnveer Bal)

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Quality of Life. 5:45PM

The Quality of Life Task Force: a bunch of college kids in their washed jeans and heavy black coats sat on the sturdy, cold metal chairs while nervously staring at the clock until they could see Richard Price, the author of Lush Life, on the 7^th floor of the Newman library building at Baruch college. Their mantra: focus, do not fall asleep, and get out of here early; their motto: Everyone’s got something to gain.

“Is dead tonight,” when Richard Price started to read this line, I instantly realize that all those expectations that I had before were useless. Focusing and not falling asleep were no longer my mantra. I was immediately drawn to Richard Price’s Lush Life.

I always loved reading, but I hated when the author himself read off his book to people. I subconsciously felt some sort of pressure in the author’s tone at the latest reading I went: “This is my book. Since I wrote this , you must understand this in my way.” Especially, I disliked the question and answer that followed the reading. The author was giving away all the sources of his inspiration and conveying the deeper meaning. The author interpreted the book for me. There was no place for my imagination. However, Richard Price was not the author but a storyteller who made extraordinary out of the ordinary. His reading changed my initial preconception on the unappealing nature of author readings.

Richard Price was a writer like a projector at the theater, which enlarges the tiny still-cuts of the movie into the lively scenes on the huge screen. The reading started with a night fishing on Delaney street, where used to be known as the center of Heroine and other illegal drug smuggling. However, if you are making hasty presumption, “Yah Yah Yah, that is how it is for all NYC based novels: Cops, Pots, and Gun,” you got it very wrong. The vivid description and speedy progress of the story itself would prove that every point of your generalization is wrong. Richard Price was an author who only writes about what he knows. Thus, he is not afraid to question back to the readers “how do I possibly know everything?” Furthermore, his story flowed with the dialogue between the characters that further empowered the realistic tone.

For about two hours, he guided us through the sneaky backstreets in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With slightly shaky voice and humor, he made us imagine the incident of that night. We were welcomed to make gasps and laughs at every little thing that was projected in image of the street from his book without feeling any pressure. Price’s philosophy toward diversity provided an entirely different scope of our city lives. He started questioning how everyone -Jews, Catholics, Asians, Blacks, Republicans and Democrats- all can mingle and ignore each other at the same time in New York City.  Eventually he ended up figuring out nothing about the cause of such collision. Maybe he simply regarded such a job is for some super smart physician, but not a cool writer like him. Truly, his free and easy-going personality made myself to acknowledge newly found pleasure of listening and imagining.

On October 19^th, I fulfilled all my required task forces. I could never allow myself dare to fall asleep or lose focus. However, my mantra had to change five seconds after Richard Price started his reading. “Tell me more!” became my new mantra for the next one-hour and half. My mind is still chanting that mantra while I am trying to read the hard copy of Lush Life in my dorm room. I’ll be gladly chanting this mantra more than a thousand times until his new book comes out. “Tell me just a little bit more, Mr. Price!”

The image was taken from <http://frazeurphotography.com/portfolio/source/lower_east_side_nyc.htm>

I’m in the New York State of Mind.

(http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200804/20080428_price.html)

Richard Price is not afraid to say that he has talent, and to be quite honest, he certainly does deserve the credit he gives himself. Through his talk with the audience members and answers to their questions, it became clear that he was well aware of his natural writing abilities. At the same time, he remained genuine and down to earth, never giving off the feeling that he was above anyone else in the room. In fact, he was rather funny, and while his blunt remarks often caused waves of laughter throughout the audience, his humor never appeared deliberate or forced.  When asked about his writing, he emphasized intuition, which seemed to play a large role not only in his work, but also in the way he carried himself and interacted with people. He was clearly not here to put on an act, and did not attempt to impress others with haughty responses to questions. Instead, his replies were candid and truthful, allowing the audience to feel comfortable with the esteemed and successful writer. For instance, he made a quick reference to some author, and then joked that he was quoting from a writer he had never even read before. Certainly, he could have left that detail out, but by mentioning it, one could see that he was truly a humble and comic man.

His humor was also evident in his writing, especially in the excerpt he read aloud from his latest work in progress. His repetition of the word “God” was just the touch that pushed the audience into hysteria. After his reading, I wondered how he learned to craft such an entertaining and clever style of writing. Later, when someone asked him that very question, I was not surprised that he did not accredit his sharp work to any of his former teachers. He claimed that they were only able to provide him with encouragement, which was enough for him to continue honing his writing skills. He also compared writing to running, describing it as something instinctive, rather than something that could be taught. While I always looked at writing as a skill developed through practice and learned techniques, I can tell that for Richard Price, it truly is an inborn gift.

I never heard of Richard Price before Professor Bernstein told us about him. I thought it would be boring listening to an author I never heard of talk about a book I would probably never read, but the reading and talk back session turned out to be a lot of fun. Richard Price turned out to be a really interesting guy.

I’m not much of a book person, instead of reading I mostly watch movies. While listening to Richard Price read from his novel, Lush Life, I couldn’t help comparing his book with movies like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Mystic River. His writing is gritty and straight to the point. He doesn’t waste time with too many adjectives, metaphors or poetic language. From what I could tell his books try to be realistic about crime and tensions in the city, which is similar to a lot of movies I’ve seen.

I also was interested in his opinion on the gentrification of NYC, since I have always been interested in demographics, especially when analyzing certain trends like the shifts occurring in the Lower East Side and Harlem. After asking him whether or not he would rather have NYC be the way it was in the 1970’s or keep it the way it is now, he said that the question was “a mess” and was unable to give me a yes or no answer. For one thing, he said he misses the diversity, the culture, and artsy way NY was back in the 70’s compared to the white, yuppie, hipster, bohemian bourgeoisie demographic that represents most of NYC today. On the other hand he said that the crime rate and drug problems today have greatly improved since the 1970’s and it would be hard too hard to choose between what boiled down to be the culture of the 70’s and the quality of life today. He ended my answer with a self referential anecdote: he said that back then no one ever talked about the kids who grew up in the projects, went to college and became relatively successful. The things that we hear on the news about the kids who got into the drug business and gunned down someone in the street are only a small minority of the population, even in the 1970’s.