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Fresh Air

How Screenwriting Saved Novelist Richard Price

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.434.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Richard Price's new novel, Lazarus Man, a five-story building collapses, upending the lives of the building's residents. It's about second chances and finding the faith to carry on. Price has written for HBO's The Wire and The Deuce, and co-created HBO's The Night Of and The Outsider. Several of his novels, including Clockers, were adapted into films. He spoke with Terry Gross.

Also, Maureen Corrigan shares two books that offer humor and beauty: Billy Collins' collection of poetry Water, Water, and The Dog Who Followed The Moon by James Norbury.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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One way or another, there's a change coming.

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I'm terrified.

0:19.8

Listen to Code Switch, the podcast about race and identity from NPR.

0:24.1

This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross.

0:26.5

I always look forward to a new Richard Price novel,

0:29.2

and after nearly 10 years of waiting, he has a new one called Lazarus Man.

0:34.0

During those 10 years, he co-created and wrote for the HBO series The Night of and The

0:38.5

outsider and wrote for the HBO series The Deuce. Before that, he wrote for The Wire,

0:43.8

one of the best TV series ever. Several of his earlier novels were adapted into films, including

0:49.2

Clockers, Freedom Land, and The Wanderers. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Al Pacino considers his

0:55.4

comeback film, Sea of Love. Price is considered one of the best writers of urban fiction and one of the

1:01.2

best writers of dialogue, and I think that's true of his new novel, which is set in Harlem, where

1:06.2

Price has lived since 2008, the same year that the novel is set. The story revolves around the collapse of a

1:12.8

five-story building whose impact is like a very small scale 9-11. It's devastating for the people

1:19.2

in the neighborhood, including the survivors and the people grieving for loved ones who've died.

1:24.6

The collapse changes the lives of each of the main characters, including a young

1:28.9

street photographer, a police community affairs officer, a funeral director who can't keep up with the

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