Lazarus Man by Richard Price is an electrifying exploration of East Harlem, set against the backdrop of a catastrophic building collapse in 2008. Known for his razor-sharp depictions of urban life, Price crafts a riveting narrative that delves into the lives of those affected by the disaster, creating a vivid portrait of a community on the brink of disintegration. The novel centers on Anthony Carter dubbed the “Lazarus Man,” who miraculously survives being buried beneath the rubble for days. His survival turns him into an unlikely beacon of hope, inspiring those around him with his newfound sense of mission.

Price’s genius lies in his ability to breathe life into his characters with just a few deft phrases, making them leap off the page as fully realized individuals. Alongside Carter, we meet Felix Pearl, a young photographer whose experiences that day awaken a sharp sense of destiny, and Royal Davis, a struggling funeral home owner whose opportunistic scavenging at the disaster site sparks a personal quest for redemption. Detective Mary Roe, haunted by her own family’s brutal past, becomes obsessed with finding one of the building’s missing tenants, adding a layer of suspense to the narrative. While Lazarus Man may not be driven by plot in the traditional sense, it is rich with small, intimate moments that slowly reveal the complexities of its characters.

Despite its gentle and soulful approach, Lazarus Man is a powerful exploration of human connection, forgiveness, and the indomitable spirit of a community facing unimaginable challenges. Though the constantly shifting viewpoints may disorient some readers, the novel’s profound empathy and beautifully drawn characters make it a deeply rewarding read.

Lazarus Man grabbed my attention with its wonderful characters and stunning writing. The story begins with the explosion of an apartment building, starting a domino effect of interactions between characters in crisis, and it ends with transformation, understanding, and hope and astonishment.

Anthony is pulled from the wreckage of the building, a miraculous survivor. He is given a second chance, like Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus. What will he do with his newfound fame and power?

The cop Mary searches for a missing person whose wife died in the collapse. Felix uses his camera to document every day life. Royal is trying to keep his family funeral parlor afloat. All find transformation.

The message reminded me of Rilke who advises to face the scary parts of life and wait to grow into understanding and realize that “life is right, in any case.” “It’s not about the misfortune,” Anthony learns, “it’s about how you handle the misfortune.”

And what more can we ask from a novel about a disaster, what better lesson can we embrace about life?

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Love Price and his latest is truly a welcome return. Cannot wait to buy this in hardcover. Will likely make best of lists at the end of year.

In an unsettled community in Harlem, an apartment building suddenly collapses and throws lives into disarray. Out of chaos comes creation. Anthony Walker, a man found late in the rubble is regarded a hero and begins to see a new calling. Detective Roe searches for a man possibly missing on the page, and looks at her own life a little more thoroughly as well. Royal Lyons runs a failing funeral parlor, and at first thinks this will bring him business. The story follows the reality of their lives and hopes through surprising intersections and new relationships. And the community around them is backdrop and crucible, refining actions in search of meanings. Fascinating characters and smooth plotting that comes together beautifully in the end. Highly recommended.

Unlike Richard Price’s previous books, this one is not on my recommended list.
I gave it the following SCORE:
Setting: East Harlem, 2008
Characters: A wide variety of disparate characters including a female detective, a photographer, a funeral director, the “Lazarus Man,” and other people in the surrounding area with complex lives and family situations.
Overview: This book is more of an ensemble cast with viewpoints switching quickly and frequently between the lead characters. The title man has seemingly and miraculously survived a catastrophic collapse of a large apartment building and most of the action takes place around and in reaction that event.
Recommendation: I rate this book 3 stars
Extras: The writing was excellent and the characters well-defined but the short paragraphs with constantly shifting viewpoints resulted in totally missing, or uninteresting, plot lines. A story with a conclusion for the lead actors was needed and would have produced a higher rating.
Thanx to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the opportunity to provide this candid review.

As a big fan of author Richard Price's TV work, such as "The Night Of" and obviously on "The Wire," I was primed to click with "Lazarus Man" in it's similar exploration of how various people interconnected to one another deal with a shared aftermath.

The novel, similar to the aforementioned shows, has a slice of life quality that makes it interesting to drop in and check on what these people are up to without it calling for a 'binge;' it's a read that can be spaced out for when you're in the headspace for specific, finespun stories of people feeling beat down in New York, or figuring out what's next when their known familial world shifts, or navigating a struggling business, or trying to build community in places that can feel like dead ends.

There are some great turns of phrases, too ("the whole experience turning into a hallucinating block party" or "not knowing how to soothe their outraged hearts other than through petty gestures of annihilation.")

I overall enjoyed digging my teeth into this book, at once digestible —thanks to its back and forth between different characters before one feels stale— and weighty in what it depicts.

The world’s movement is rarely felt by the life forms who live on its shoulders. Ancient prophecies speak of a shift that will lead humanity to falter & require the species to change direction; to make better choices & understand that their existence is insecure & easily eliminated. Supposing that the threat is not said in jest, one may ask what the purpose of such a reset would be. Will the forest dwellers feel relief? Will the concrete scurrying rats feel free? The world functions by default, without anything but the axis; life on Earth is a blessing, one which many human beings seek to shed.

When I requested this book, I had no concept of what I would find inside. This might be a silly thing to admit but, I did not regard the title as profound insight into the plot, nor did I seek to decipher the colour scheme of the cover art to mean more than what they were—a reflection of choice.

Inadvertently, I found myself reading this novel perturbed by its approach. While a more studied reader will have further criticism of the stylistic approach that the author has taken when presenting the narrative with characters whose lives are both specific & ambiguous; my review will focus primarily on the time count, the hours it took me to realize that this book wasn’t as long as I felt like it was.

In essence, this is a story about despair. The author introduces the reader to Anthony, a man whose past is riddled with drudgery. This first chapter promised a great saga with lore to confound the reader & I anticipated the story to play a rhythmic fiddle when enunciating the malaise that accompanied Anthony. However, this was not to be.

Price’s novel incorporates the perspectives & realities of a slew of different characters & though, at first, Anthony appears to be an ideal narrator—a character worthy of following, ever so despondent as he is—the story’s shift tumbles over the heads of those whose chapters were less riveting, one from the other.

It is not easy to incorporate so many perspectives into a single story. While the main driver of circumstance is the destruction of the apartment complex, each character reflects deeply about their feelings regarding events & people whom the reader never knows. These instances are beneficial in building the realism that Price offers the reader but, while perusing the chapters, it was difficult to engage fully with characters whose value to the story remained hidden.

Anthony reappears in the later portion of the book as the titular Lazarus man, having been found beneath the rubble of the building, it appears that he was there for days. Yet, in truth, the shock that Anthony experiences led him to wander back into the building in the hopes of finding purpose, a calling, or the door that would lead him to the end. There is a great deal of time that can be spent reflecting on the build-up of this revelation however, I feel great frustration now as I did then.

Though the story is well-written in the traditional sense, the story itself is of no interest to me. Rather, the plot was filled with individuals whose lives were riddled with anger & grief but, while reading about the slow progressing days of their lives, I was acutely aware that my days were passing me by.

More often than not, I found myself wanting to toss away the book & be done with it. I could not understand how such a story could feel like such a drag. Herein lies my main issue; this is not a story to be told in the traditional sense. The modern era of visual aids, such as documentaries films & series, remind readers that the slow progression of the redundant events in this plot, would have felt far mor engaging & interesting had they been coloured by film.

This is not a stance I am averse to adopting. Arguably, all stories need to be told a certain way for them to be appreciated as they should. In the case of these characters, one may find the hours slowly ticking by without any sensation of thrill that often results from reading a good book.

The telling—the transmission of this tale—felt stilted & dull. Not all stories need to feature speeding cars & lightning bolts but, at some point one must ask what the purpose is in rehashing the same sentient patter of the life that is lead by each character.

Each character is dealing with an infidelity; their faith has faltered, they are engaged in a sexual relationship with a less than desirable person, they are experiencing financial insecurity, & they have found themselves in the environment of the apartment collapse.

At face value, their experiences are altogether human & though perhaps less than intriguing, they are lives led by individuals & they contribute to the whole of existence. Rather, perhaps a reader who has more patience than I do will find the dreadfully slow-moving chapters that are the middle portion of this book, easier to consume.

My main qualm with this book was that it wasn’t for me. I have met readers in my life, happy to consume a book because it was a book & they needed nothing further than a story & so, they read it. Readers who may connect with this approach will appreciate this story.

In reality, nothing much happens throughout the entire book. The police officer is searching for a man whose wife died in the collapse—she finds him & he’s just a man grieving the loss of his loved one. Anthony lies & acts holier than thou, & is able to continue doing so because he’s not the first, nor will he be the last.

Yet, with each character one is left wondering what the point is. What is the story trying to say about life in New York City? What is the author’s goal when presenting readers with a slice of life rather uninspiring to those who may not be living life in the same way?

Is the reader meant to feel pity for the characters who miss their loved ones or for whom family is the collection of stray pebbles? Which part of the plot highlights the earnest truth about a life sheltered by grief? Is the narrator Anthony or Mary? Does it matter if Anthony is lying to gain praise or should a person be honest to a fault if they wish to speak on salvation?

What is perhaps most odd of all is that by the end of the story, the conclusion sets nothing to right. In some ways, the reader plays the omniscient being who watches the gastric incision take place from the amp theatre, safe from splatter. In this way, the reader is able to watch poverty, praise, sorrow, love, loss, disenfranchisement, gentrification, justice, & cheating, scramble through the lives of others without adopting any value to these experiences.

I wonder whether a deeply sensitive reader might not appreciate this stance more than a reader who, like me have walked the roadway of these realities & have little care for the clinical view they may offer a privileged reader who cares naught for the consequences of these experiences.

I have spoken ad nauseum about how tired I felt while reading this book. The cold approach it took to present a cast of characters who lived within the confines of the same community was unnecessary. There is a possibility that I am wrong & that Price saw something in this approach that I have not, having spent more time with the faces that remained in shadow than I have reading about them.

Regardless, the final product left much to be desired & though the writing was enticing & the stylistic choice of vernacular well-placed, the plot itself felt dense, while vapid of any gooey elixir.

Ultimately, the plot wraps up the storylines with enough detail to highlight that life goes on. The photographs, sexual encounters, the rambling & raving, the family business & youthful hope, the changing neighbourhood & tumultuous flow of life, weave a tapestry that is daunting & humble, leaving readers with no fond feelings of gladness for the continuation of life but rather, joy accompanied by the end of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, & Richard Price for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Maybe this is like Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey with less religion. Or perhaps Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent or Graham Greene's It's a Battlefield with less politics. In any case, it's the sort of novel I like, that is, a novel where the consequences of an unexpected violent event ripple outward, causing unexpected drama and surprising changes in the lives of characters who find themselves tangled up in the wreckage, both metaphorical and literal.

The novel also does something that I feel, in this day and age, is very daring, which is (SPOILER) every sympathetic character in the book ends up happier than they were before.

Price is one of those writers who have one foot in the crime genre and the other in something more serious. He has come out every few years with an interesting-sounding novel that gets good reviews (like Clockers), but life is too full of books. I never got around to reading him until now, because I am still, today, so enthusiastic about the long-gone TV series “The Wire” (to which Price contributed) that, if I saw that the third key grip on episode five of season two had written a novel, I would add it to my endless “to-read” shelf.

I had this novel on my Kindle while living through one very long and aggravating day of air travel. My endorsement adds the following context: I also had a Pulitzer-Prize winning novel that I was supposed to read for the book club, and a very serious non-fiction book about why the place I live now is a miserable hellscape. I neglected those worthy books to read this one, simply because this book does what a good novel should: it held me with compelling characters, good writing, and believable plotting all the way through to a satisfying conclusion. I welcomed all of these because they held my attention through too-crowded airports, too-small economy class seats, overpriced airport food, and finally lost luggage.

I also think it evoked its setting (2008 Harlem) very well, was fun to read, and kept the pages turning all the way to the end. What more can you ask of a writer?

I received a free advance electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

I love Richard Price. He gets right into the ways people truly think and behave. This one is more along the lines of 'Samaritan' than 'Clockers'. It also has that TV episode feel to it. Each chapter jumps between various characters. It's not difficult to keep up and truly adds to the experience of being a part of all that is happening.
I won't recall the plot or story line, but can say that this is a title, like all of Price's work, I am certain to re-read eventually.

An East Harlem 5-story tenement collapses without warning, sending the neighborhood into chaos. The search for the residents of the building ensues amongst the rubble, yet many remain missing.

Told from the perspective of a detective, a funeral home owner, one of the missing, and a photographer, we get differing viewpoints of the scene.

Overwhelming is the only word that sums this book up. From the collapse drama to the multiple characters from different backgrounds, all my senses were on high alert from the beginning. At times, the plot became confusing as I tried to keep the story and the characters in line, but that just added to the chaotic theme of the book.

Overall, a good read. Revolving around tragedy and destruction, this novel didn’t feel as heavy as I expected, but the after-burn is definitely felt more so upon reflection.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Richard Price was a precocious 24-year-old when his first novel, "The Wanderers," was published in 1974. The book landed just after the petroleum and beef shortages that ensued during the Ford presidency and was part of a trend of romanticizing the less complicated and arguably more innocent preceding era of the 1950s.

Most of the retro fixations of the '70s have long been forgotten. (Sha-Na-Na and Happy Days reruns, anyone?) So, it's astonishing that Price, a wunderkind depicting nostalgic themes back then, has been creating fiction based on the evolving New York City street scene for exactly half a century.

Even more surprising is the discovery that his forthcoming novel, his tenth, is by far his best. "Lazurus Man" is due for publication later this year. It continues several of the themes of his earlier work, offering nuanced portraits of everyday working people whose lives intersect in a manner that could be either entirely random or perhaps preordained, should you choose to think that way.

Set in 2008, when Manhattan has not fully recovered from the World Trade Center trauma, Price introduces his protagonist with one of those exhilarating run-on sentences that fill a page and test a reader's resolve.

The about-to-be born-again Anthony Carter ("forty-two, two years unemployed, two years separated from his wife and stepdaughter, six months into cocaine sobriety...") is a schlub who is unexpectedly transformed into a hero, only to repeat the cycle in his thoughts. He emerges miraculously from being trapped in a collapsed tenement building and goes on to find purpose in inspiring others. That premise could be treacle if provided by another writer, but that's not part of Price's recipe.

His current narrative style is mature and masterful. Whereas his earlier work occasionally suggested a faint Bruce Springsteen ethos, Price has matured confidently into Charles Dickens and Tom Wolfe territory. His characters are all fully realized and richly revealed, from the homeless man who shares profound observations to the South Asian bodega keepers, African American funeral home operators, storefront preachers, sex workers, and NYPD officers who make their way through a confined space and mostly learn to co-exist -- while pausing to reflect on what it might all be about.

"Lazurus Man" will be published to considerable acclaim in November 2024. I predict it will be regarded as one of the finest novels of this year. Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for making an advanced review copy available.

Though 'Lazarus Man' shares many of the preoccupations of earlier Price novels (specifically the close cultural anthropology of New York neighborhoods, the creaky machinery of politics and law enforcement, and the glue of human relationships which hold it all together), it has a looser and jazzier feel. This may be because there is relatively little at stake in the freewheeling plot, with much more attention paid to the ups and downs of its characters' lives, and Price's continued honing of a voice that is both world-weary and refreshingly hopeful.

Richard Price writes of the City he knows. In Lush Life, it was the lower East Side, where he lived at the time. Far as I know, he now lives in Harlem. As with other authors, he sets his story pre-2016 which avoids the changes wrought in that year.

The Lazarus Man is Anthony Walker, who is extricated from the rubble of a building that leveled itself 36 hours previously. The miracle of his being found alive sets off a media frenzy, and he finds another version of himself "blessed" (it is complicated) with the ability to inspire hope in those who listen to him. I did not for one minute forget that his words were forged by Price. What makes Price such a compelling writer is his ability to create characters that jump off the page and stand in front of you. With a few phrases, he creates an entire history and the personality that has been molded by it. The entire community is here, even the victims of the building's collapse as their stories are encapsulated in a memorial, similar to the New York Times's feature on the 911 victims, "The Lives They Led."

Another area in which Prince's talent reigns is dialogue. Years ago I had the privilege of being present at a lunch with him when he recounted the first table read of his first screenplay, in which his dialogue was informed by his experience as a novelist. After reading for what seemed an eternity, Robert deNiro looked up and asked "Am I still talkin' here?" It changed how Price's approach, and his novels and screenplays reflect his snappy, cinematic repartee.

Need I say, highly highly recommended.

By far the gentlest and most soulful of Richard Price’s books, this is a quiet profile of four characters whose lives are upended by the collapse of an apartment building. It’s a book of small, intimate scenes, quiet conversations, good intentions, and full of forgiveness and grace. And the book is often so funny, but its humor is grounded in the sadness of everyday life. Not much happens in the book, yet it adds up to something so consequential. In many ways, this book has nothing to do with plot - it’s all about small revelatory moments that take their time revealing themselves.

Richard Price is so generous towards his characters, with such empathy, and this is such a sweet, beautiful novel.

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

A really great story with great dialog. I really felt what the characters were feeling!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Lazarus Man is Richard Price's tenth novel. Like his others, it is set in New York City. The novel follows the lives of several people impacted by the tragedy of a building collapse in East Harlem. Price's novels have a good sense of drama and scene (which makes sense as he also writes for television). In this novel, the scenes move so quickly it seems like the writing is better suited to television. And, like a good Seinfeld episode, most of the characters are utterly human and often unlikeable. And most are keeping secrets - some more than others. The reveal is a good, slow burn.
Thank you to NetGally and the publishers for the ARC.

Price captures the world of a Harlem neighborhood. He is one of the few writers who writes dialogue that feels real. I didn't love this quite as much as Lush Life or Clockers, but it is another great Price novel which is better than 98% of what's out there. The novel continually rotates amongst a series of characters, which gives the novel an enjoyable fast-paced style. It's always nice when Price takes a break from his TV/film demands to give us a new novel.

While some of the characters didn't fully grab me, the dialogue is enjoyable throughout.

I received a free e-copy of the book in return for an honest review.

The novel follows the lives of four diverse individuals in the aftermath of a building collapse in East Harlem in 2008. Anthony found alive in the rubble of the building. Felix a young man with a camera. Royal who runs a funeral parlour. Mary a veteran city detective.
This is a street-level story depicting the characters actions and reactions after a five-storey tenement collapses killing at least six people. With vibrant street scenes and fully fleshed out characters, Richard Price has once again taken us to a place where we needed to go, despite our apprehension and concern for our safety. In a sense, this is a story of community, personal growth and taking care of our own. I loved all of the characters, especially Anthony, Mary and Felix. I was rooting for them all the way! 5 out of 5 stars!

Richard Price has still got it! Perhaps his best since Clockers, this is gritty and immersive and features a cast of characters you will absolutely believe, I loved the fundamental idea and particularly felt Felix was deeply written and felt. Price’s prose never disappoints and he makes the reader look at less pleasant aspects of life without blinking.

Very strong characterization, fantastic dialogue, a nice plot twist toward the end. Richard Price should be treasured for his work on television (The Wire/The Night Off) and novels. This is one to savor as you explore the intersecting lives of several characters after the tragedy of a building collapse.