Richard Price returns with a story of urban disaster and hope

The novelist Richard Price has said that when he sits down to write, he begins with a precipitating event and that “the last thing” that comes to mind is the plot. In the case of his brave and compassionate latest novel, “Lazarus Man,” his first in almost 10 years, the central incident is the 2008 collapse of a five-story home in East Harlem. The disaster kills six people and leaves witnesses and survivors in a dense cloud of toxic dust, debris and PTSD.

The night before the collapse, Anthony Carter, 42, has been killing time by going from bar to bar, lamenting the turn his life has taken and possibly looking for company. Before kicking his cocaine habit six months earlier, his addiction had cost him his teaching career and his marriage, as well as his relationship with his stepdaughter. He licks his wounds in an apartment his parents left him, takes shots of vodka to replace his sleeping pills and greets late-night reruns of “Law & Order” as he would a long-lost friend: “Hello, old friend.”

Before returning home that night, Anthony wanders into a makeshift church where Prophetess Irene – “as wide as a bus in a blue-and-white checkered pantsuit and matching newsboy cap” – presides over her worshipers. flock, microphone in hand, “booming.” their visits.” In response, Anthony observes, congregants are “upright and trembling like clogged washing machines…roaring, wailing, howling, or rolling down the halls like tumbleweeds.” They are all believers, while Anthony is a slightly curious skeptic who needs redemption wherever he can find it. In the end he leaves the service even more anxious than when he entered.

Immediately after that scene, Price shifts focus from Anthony to a peripheral cast of characters, each affected differently by the building's implosion.

Félix, who is awakened by “a tremendous concussion,” glimpses through his bedroom window “a black cloud that moves from night to day.” When he realizes what happened, the rookie photographer grabs his Nikon and runs off to document the scene. However, once he is faced with the extent of the devastation, he is torn between the instinct to take photographs and a reluctance to appear insensitive to the tragedy.

Mary is a recently separated police officer who shares custody of her two children with her husband. On nights without them, she meets up with the married colleague she's been dating for years. Although she is a good cop, she has been relegated to the Community Affairs division, where she sees little action but gets a panoramic view of the city.

Royal is a funeral director whose business is going through difficult times. Seeing the families of disaster victims as potential clients, he sends his young son to put business cards in the hands of those observing the rescue efforts.

Price grew up in a Bronx housing project near his grandparents. His grandfather was a factory worker in Russia who wrote poetry and regaled the family with stories; his grandmother, Price has said, was “like the Walter Winchell of the windowsill.” Price clearly inherited his storytelling skills, then honed those skills by persuading the police to let him ride a shotgun as research.

He has an ear for street dialogue and an eye for description. You can evaluate people with one sentence; A goalkeeper is described as projecting “all the heat of a coal shovel.” The neighborhood police have an impossible job, “like pushing a broom without a dustpan.” A chorus of voices animates each page in a kind of urban opera.

After just over 100 pages, Anthony returns. Thirty-six hours after the building collapses, he is discovered under the rubble, semi-conscious and unsure of why he is there. His miraculous rise from the ashes is celebrated in the media and suddenly he is transformed by gratitude.

When a do-gooder ex-con invites him to speak at an anti-violence rally, he discovers that inspirational words come easily to him: “Everything that begins in you as a burden, as a test, in the end, if you persevere, will turn out to be the best.” What can happen to you,” he intones, marveling at his new ability to communicate. At the same time, he is suspicious of his own motives and wonders if he could be a fraud. Some of those around him are wondering the same thing.

Price's beloved work dates back decades and includes classics like “Clockers” and “Lush Life.” His writing for film and television is equally revered: He collaborated with Martin Scorsese on films such as “The Color of Money” (Price's script was nominated for an Oscar) and was a writer on the acclaimed series “The Wire.” So it's no surprise that “Lazarus Man” contains many cinematic moments, even if the plot sometimes twists and turns. Towards the end of the story, it regains momentum and cohesion; One way or another, each of the main characters finds what they are looking for.

(Farrar, Strauss and Giroux)

On the mean streets of Price, parents fear their children will be corrupted by gangs or drugs, or hit by a gunshot aimed at someone else. Racism and poverty are facts of life. Everyone is a scammer.

And yet, this is not a cynical novel. As Anthony tells his growing audience of people simply looking for a small reason to hope: “If you have the will to stand strong long enough against the crushing blow, one day you will find that your tables have turned and your heart has healed.” .

Leigh Haber is a writer, editor, and editorial strategist. She was the director of Oprah's Book Club and the book editor of O, The Oprah Magazine.