Customer Reviews

Samaritan (GMA June Pick)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'll admit it: I was a sucker for detective stories for years. Bring me a Spenser novel, a cup of black coffee and a Barca-lounger, and I'd be happy as a clam. I'll also admit that, as I grew older, the spate of new mystery novels by Parker and Grafton and others began to seem dry, lacking in vitality. Sure, their protagonist heroes spat their share of wisecracks, but no amount of one-liners could hide the fact that most current mystery novels were devoid of substance and feeling. With Samaritan, Richard Price ups the ante fivefold on the detective story. He breathes life into it by giving the story and its characters a remarkable human touch, by going after our hearts as well as our nerves.

We meet Ray Mitchell upon his return to his birthplace of Dempsy, NJ, so he can start his life over. There, he begins teaching a creative-writing class at his former high school, reconnects with the residents at the Hopewell housing project where he was raised, and attempts to rekindle a relationship with his thirteen-year-old daughter whom he lost in the aftermath of a divorce. Ray is often generous, which is impressive considering he's had a less-than-perfect past, involving the loss of his daughter, a lowly cab-driving job, a perpetual addiction to cocaine, and finally, a letdown after an ever-so-brief stint as a TV-writer comes to an unexpected close.

Just as Ray begins to find his place again in Dempsy, he is found beaten almost to death in his apartment. Enter Nerese Ammons: a cop, a childhood friend of Ray, a former resident of Hopewell, and someone forever indebted to Ray for saving her life when they were just kids. Nerese feels morally obligated to take on Ray's case, but Ray obstinately refuses to identify his attacker and won't press charges. Nerese must now enter the abyss of Ray's past in order to solve the puzzle, while simultaneously working to keep her own life intact in the bleak and unforgiving Dempsy.

On the surface, Samaritan is made out to be a whodunit thriller, and it is, but to call it simply that would be doing the book and its author a great injustice. The strength of this book lies in the way it is written, and this is how Price brings his cast of characters to life. He records every nuance, every movement, every thought the characters possess behind their lines of dialogue, turning story characters into living, breathing people. They speak with mellifluous street-savvy, but don't be fooled. They may be hardened but their words simply glow with realistic emotion, at times expressing unrelenting urgency, at others, heartfelt compassion. Price gives all of his important characters vivid back-stories, important details of their lives and psyches, all of which may seem to some readers as unnecessary belaboring, but nonetheless clue us in to exactly what kind of people we are dealing with at certain points in the story. Simply put, Price makes us care about his characters and their various states because everything about them is real, filled with a kind of depth and humanity that can only be pulled off by an accomplished writer with an eye for the intricacies of human life.

Samaritan, all plot details aside, is about the powerful effect that adults have on children, and the similar effect children have on those adults. One of the many manifestations of this is shown in Ray's attempts to reconnect with his adolescent daughter, Ruby. Ruby has clearly distanced herself from her father following his return to Dempsy. Ray knows he's been guilty of poor fatherhood in the past and tries ceaselessly to mend the rifts, but Ruby is staunchly unyielding to her father's desperate attempts to reenter as an important part of her life. Without Ruby, Ray admits he feels as though he is nothing, hopelessly downtrodden. But Ruby is also powerfully affected by her father, shown by her stony revulsion towards him, the result of a debilitating sucker punch from her tainted past. The pain is felt by both: the child rejected by the adult and the adult rejected by the child, and the pain is felt heavily because the sacred relationship between father and daughter should be one of care, and not of heartache.

Price compels us to sink into the thriller he ravels for us, but in doing so, he never strays from the true meaning of the work. Each piece of the puzzle has a greater significance than its literal role in the mystery would suggest. We want to read on; we want to find out what happens not only for the sake of knowing Ray's attacker but also to learn a greater truth about life and people. It is as if we are a bit wiser by the end of the book, because we don't just know who dun it...we know what it is about the world that makes who dun it tick; the 'why' behind the mystery.

Richard Price thrusts us into a gritty, unfamiliar world with unfamiliar people, and by the end we couldn't feel more contrary. We know the town of Dempsy (love it or hate it we may), and we feel as though we grew up with these faces and their stories. We feel what they feel because we love them like people we intimately know. It's really for this reason that the story (and the mystery itself) has such depth: there are consequences for everyone involved in this web, not just the perpetrator. All of the characters must move their lives through the tumult of everything around them, some of them within inches of crumbling. In short, Richard Price has written a mystery novel where we feel something, where our thoughts and formulations coexist with our feelings and emotions quite harmoniously, and I believe that's precisely what a good reading experience should be.

In this masterful novel, former TV writer, cab driver, and drug addict Ray Mitchell moves home to Dempsey, New Jersey , after leaving a successful writing job in LA. Ray was raised in the projects, and now he wants to give back by teaching at his old high school. He also wants to be closer to his daughter, Ruby, who lives in nearby Manhattan. But before much of any of this can happen, Ray is assaulted in his apartment and in the hospital with a crushed skull. What he is not is giving out details to Nerese Ammons, the detective who's on the case. Richard Price takes the story from both Ray and Nerese's point of view and employs a flexible time line. Level after level of past and present are revealed to add depth, power, and real suspense to a completely engrossing and satisfying read. Price has a remarkable ear for dialogue, and knows places like Hopewell Houses in Dempsey inside and out. He is unsentimental about life in the projects. The characters are etched in such sharp relief that you know you`ve seen them somewhere.

It is a kind of liberation for readers to be in such capable hands that you know that whatever happens, you will not be disappointed. There are no false steps in "Samaritan," no easy choices, and no plays for sympathy for Ray or anyone else. It's tough, good, and a learning experience about not only about what it means to be a samaritan, but about how a really good novel should be written. Don't miss it.

The NY Times wrongly disses this book, calling it "hollow" and saying Price gives away the theme in the Epigraph, a Bible quote.

I'll spare you the King James; here's a modern English translation of the epigraph:

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. "

Safe to say, our hero, Ray, doesn't heed those words and, thus, a fine novel ensues. Price shows us what can go wrong when neediness occurs on both sides of the charitable transaction. For Ray, a simple "thank you" from God in heaven is not enough. He wants it here and now.

Despite the Times complaint cited above, I don't think Price spoon-feeds us here. He thrusts us into the middle of what seems an unfair situation (paraphrasing one of the characters here, we may find ourselves wondering, "what'd he do??") and slowly allows us to see the flaws at Ray's core -- flaws in an otherwise good man.

I have to give Richard Price credit for creating realistic characters with dialogue that crackles and feels painfully real coming from this group of broken people. However by the time I finished I was left wanting more. The mystery surrounding who beat one time television writer and now teacher Ray Mitchell to death left me a bit cold. And when the person is revealed I can't even say I was surprised, but worse I didn't really care. I loved the book at the start and was expecting to tap into something I'd be telling eveyone to go out and buy. Again I thought the writing was great, I just didn't completely connect with this group of people, and so ultimately didn't connect with the book.

Price's "Samaritan" has exceeded his previous novels in several respects, not the least of which is his outstanding command of dialogue and "street language." I doubt there are many other contemporary novelists - or playwrights or screenwriters, for that matter -- who have such a feel for producing natural-sounding conversations about urban life, particularly New Jersey urban life. Since the publication of "Mystic River" and the ensuing film, much has been written about Dennis Lehane and his emergence as a "literary mystery writer," which many readers and critics apparently feel is in short supply. While this may be true, and Lehane's powers probably shouldn't be called into question, his ability does not match Price's. Lehane writes crime fiction with literary qualities, while Price writes crime- and mystery-related literary fiction. Perhaps Lehane will eventually evolve, but he is not at Price's level just yet.
Michiko Kakutani wrote in the New York Times that "Samaritan" is not a successful novel because it is never revealed why main character Ray Mitchell has overwhelming feelings of guilt and feels the need to help people who live in the same Dempsy (Newark?) housing project in which he grew up, albeit in awkward and arguably pretentious ways. She also questions why no reason is given as to why Ray feels stronger connections with other children that aren't his own. Kakutani speculates that Ray's drug history may have something to do with the lack of revelations, and her frustration is understandable. Nevertheless, I'm not quite sure I agree with her when she writes that the ability for the reader to empathize with Ray is diminished as a result of this non-revelation. Ray's pain, his inability to connect with his daughter, and his discomfort with wealth are never less than palpable, especially when Price describes Ray's grotesque appearance while lying in a hospital bed, his poignant conversations with childhood friend and now police detective Nerese "Tweety" Emmons, or his vacillations when deciding if he should offer money. I personally felt that Price purposely didn't give a reason for Ray's quilt because he preferred the reader to deconstruct his or her own reasons. It could be that Price wanted white liberals to ask themselves if they saw themselves in Ray, and in effect gaining a better understanding of why they have felt a similar backlash after a possibly ham-handed, self-serving attempt to ameliorate their own anxiety. When read in this manner, "Samaritan" could very well be a kind of existential treatise for white urban liberals everywhere; or, possibly, a "faux-liberal" that Price finds particularly annoying and hypocritical.

As always, Richard Price creates a thoroughly plausible world, grounded in a thousand little details, creates characters you believe in your bones, and suckerpunches you with raw emotion. I cried -- in public -- more than once reading "Samaritan". It's amazing.

Richard Price is a street-lyrical craftsman at depicting urban atmosphere. But he's also very funny. Just about all these reviews of "Samaritan" leave out the comic angle. Salim's raps to Ray Mitchell as he tries to tag him for T-shirt making cash are a riot. The mixed emotions of the teenagers are at once touching and comic. Tom Potenza's nervous fury of hypertalk brought me to tears of laughter. Yes, the book's got a keen gritty atmosphere, but a lot of the electricity in the dialogue comes from the edgy humor.

Richard Price's Samaritan is an excellent novel, one which explores the moral ambiguities of contemporary life, providing no pat answers, just thought-provoking prose. At the heart of the novel is Ray Mitchell, a man returning home to the fictional New Jersey town of Dempsey. He has had some successes and comes home for various reasons-some admirable, some not. He volunteers to teach a creative writing class at his old high school, and the next thing we know, he is in the hospital after being brutally beaten in his apartment. The novel moves back and forth in time (although all in the space of a few months), shifting perspective between Ray and Nerese Ammons the determined detective investigating the beating. She suspects he knows who beat him, and has various plausible theories. The resolution of the novel is unexpected, but certainly not unbelievable. The characters are terrific, as is the dialogue. Samaritan is an excellent novel-challenging, thought-provoking and completely readable. Enjoy.

Price's earlier strong work made the appearance of "Samaritan" the occasion of some anticipation, but for me the novel failed to deliver the expected punch.

The premise is sound: a product of the New Jersey projects with a checkered past unexpectedly achieves success as a writer in LA, but returns to his old haunts, mostly to try to reconnect with is daughter, from whom he has been physically separated since his divorce.

The novel, however, pivots on a vicious attack on the writer, Nick, who refuses to reveal the nature of the assault to a black female detective --nicknamed Tweetie -- who, remarkably, lived in the projects at the same time. In fact, Nick witnessed, and even participated in, a humiliation of a young Tweetie.

Well, Ok, quite a coincidence, but maybe we're still willing to go along, except that Price introduces yet another character from Nick's past in a chance meeting that ultimately leads to the attack that Tweetie winds up investigating.

Too much authorial meddling for me, but Price can write well, so I might be willing to go along. However, he compounds problems by insisting that his main character is an inveterate storyteller. And oh, how this character tells stories. In fact, that's about all he does, in endless forays into the past that seem merely to serve as an excuse for Price to wax eloquently through his characters. Well, other readers might have enjoyed the liberties Price takes, but for this reader, a series of speeches by the characters and long narrative expositions of what happened years ago is a prescription for a stagnant narrative, no matter now masterful the writer.

In fact, I give three stars only on the strength of the prose. Unlike novels I best admire, which gain strength as they progress, "Samaritan" tired as it reached the finish line, leaving me both exhausted and relieved that the ordeal was over.

I read The Wanderers, Richard Price's first novel, when I was a teenager and have read every one of his subsequent (seven including the present one) books. Although I've liked some better than others, they've all kept me thoroughly entertained and intrigued with the gritty street life Price so expertly evokes. Samaritan, like his last two novels, takes place in Dempsey, the fictional but believable small New Jersey city only a tunnel ride away from Manhattan. Samaritan is a combination mystery and psychological study. The title refers to Ray Mitchell, a man in his forties who abandons a writing career in Los Angeles to return to his hometown of Dempsey to teach. Ray is at loose ends. A recovering drug addict, he is estranged from his ex-wife and Ruby, his teenaged daughter and has no concrete plans for the future. He hopes that by returning to the home of his youth and helping some young people he will find direction. It is his need to help and be appreciated that is his downfall. For Ray is not the kind of "samaritan" who only gives help when it is truly needed; he is the kind who desperately needs to feel appreciated and will do practically anything to meet this need. The story is told partly in the present, after Ray has been assaulted and nearly killed, and partly in flashback as the events leading up to the assault are revealed. A childhood neighbor of Ray's, Nerese Ammons, is the policewoman who tries to figure out who attacked Ray and why. The problem is, Ray won't tell her and she (and the reader) cannot understand why. Nerese, a black woman who is about to retire from the police force, has problems of her own; she is a single mother with a family that includes criminals and drug abusers. In describing all this, I realize that a lot of it may sound familiar, even cliched (e.g. the cop about to retire), but Price has an unusual talent for transforming such material into a compelling story. His knack for dialogue, especially that of the city streets, is unsurpassed. Some popular writers write dialogue that sounds like writing; with Price, you can always *hear* the words and inflections. Samaritan is also helped by several interesting supporting characters, such as Salim, a troubled youth who Ray may be harming more than helping, and Tom Potenza, an ex-addict who counsels people around the projects. Race is a major factor throughout the novel, especially the question of what motivates a white man like Ray in his quest to "save" people who are mostly black. If Samaritan were presented as some kind of lesson in ethics or race relations, it would be simplistic and heavy-handed, but it isn't really that. Ray is a complex character whose motives are not entirely noble, but he is not a mere hypocrite. The novel explores the fine line that divides helping people for genuine as opposed to selfish reasons. Samaritan, like its main character, has its flaws and it's not my favorite Richard Price novel, but it is still an enjoyable and thought provoking tale.