Above all, Price is a master of dialogue. He can play all the angles: wit, sarcasm, realism, good cop, bad cop, you name it. Here, for example, is a conversation between a frantic youth and the cops who have just picked him up on trivial charges.
“'Why you got to take my car?'“'Criminalistically speaking, that forged plate automatically makes this a RICO charge. Twenty years mandatory.'
“'As in years.’
“'Do not tell me that.' The kid whipping his head so fast his hair was a blur.
“'That baby due in five months?' Lugo yawned.
“'Gonna be calling some other guy Daddy,' Daley finished.
“You’ll be Uncle Plexiglass.”
"The room settled into a bruised silence.
“'Thoughts?' Daley finally said. 'Comments? Suggestions?'
“'I don’t understand why you got to take my car?'
“'Bro . . . Did you hear anything of what we just said?'”
You get the idea. This is the world of Lush Life: fast-moving, hard-edged, and never played by fair rules. I have a few complaints, from the modest (why did this author feel compelled to invent new rules for the use of questions marks?) to the more profound (why couldn’t he find a stronger close for a book that is so brilliantly handled for most of its duration).
But at least with a novel like this, I have some consolation: Price can fix everything when he writes the screenplay.
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