The Great New York Novelist Is Finally Back

Richard Price is widely considered one of the best writers of dialogue around.

Lazarus Man is a portrait of a Harlem neighborhood and its residents in the aftermath of the collapse of an apartment building.

The Lazarus of the title is Anthony Carter , a 42-year-old mixed-race man pulled out of the rubble by rescue workers 36 hours after the building came down.

The pleasures of this novel come not from suspense but from the preternatural precision and authenticity of Price 's eye and prose.

Lazarus Man bears a closer resemblance to James McBride’s Deacon King Kong , also an ode to a New York neighborhood.

Even its abrasive and self-deluded characters remain lovable in their own way.