A Literary Trifecta—A Compelling Crime Drama, Coming-Of-Age Story And Family Saga!

Having recently finished two earlier books by Fusilli that I enjoyed much ((Narrows Gate and The Mayor Of Polk Street), I moved The Price You Pay to the top of my TBR list and was very glad I did. With these three books, Fusilli has become one of my go-to authors and I’ll soon be reading some more of his early works.

Lifting from its book description, The Price You Pay takes place in Jersey City, NJ during the mid-1970s in which young Mickey Wright is coerced to take a job for a trucking company controlled by a powerful Teamster local associated with the Genovese crime family. The man pressuring Jimmy to enter this world is his father, a policeman well known to Jersey City’s politicians and drug dealers. When a Black trucker is murdered, Mickey is forced to choose between loyalty to his father and the Teamsters or to values instilled by his dead mother and he shares with his loving girlfriend, the daughter of a solidly middle-class family. The outcome of whether Mickey can break free and live a worthy life of his choosing is what drives the plot and isn’t determined until the final confrontation. This outcome, while satisfying, is pretty predictable; and is the reason for which I deducted one star from my overall rating.

As was true for me about the two other books I read by Fusilli, my principal reasons for enjoying (and recommending) The Price You Pay are as follows — (1) Fusilli does a masterful job in creating such well-developed, three-dimensional characters that the reader feels “right there” with these characters and knows them well; and (2) Fusilli excels in creating what life was like during the mid-1970s in urban Jersey City that was heavily influenced by the Teamsters, organized crime and dishonest politicians. (As I write this, I realize that life then in Jersey City isn’t very different than in today’s world.)

#The Price You Pay #Net Galley

I loved this book. I went into it not knowing at all about how it would evolve.

Mickey's dad, a cop, gets him at job at a shipping company. He was working at a bakery and going to school and loved his job but he didn't feel he could say no. Teamsters, corruption, shady councilpeople. Mickey sees things that he didn't want to see,hears things he doesn't want to hear and does things that he doesn't want to do.

Mickey meets a girl at college who he falls in love with. Her family takes him into their hearts and he sees that family life that he never had.

When there is a death of one of the drivers at his shipping company, things change. The FBI comes calling and Mickey is between a rock and a hard place. Does Mickey do the right thing? Does he get the girl? What happens with his father?

Everything gets tied up at the end with a vary satisfying ending. Highly recommended.

I was excited to read this book, since I had long ago read the author's first and loved it. As I recall, a vivid New York City setting and a lot of moody music in the writing. This one felt a little ... old fashioned?

Set in the 1970s, it's about a young man who goes to work for the Teamsters in New Jersey when it was mob-connected. He lives in two worlds: that of his corrupt cop father and his college student girlfriend whose parents are wealthy and WASPy. He struggles to hold onto his moral compass while working in a place where he has to participate in activities that are dodgy at best, hoping for a better future with his girl.

It certainly painted a particular time and place, at least in the Teamsters' part of the book (which seems very different from the current labor movement, which is not mobbed up and violent). I had more trouble believing in the romantic entanglement, which felt relatively underdeveloped. And maybe I just liked hanging out in New York more than in Jersey. Still, good to see the author back.