Lazarus Man by Richard Price

 As Christopher Hitchens famously argued, "religion poisons everything." This may or may not be true (I'm going with "true"), but in the case of Richard Price's Lazarus Man, it's hard not to believe that religion or something like it has made him a worse writer than he was when he was composing novels like Clockers and writing screenplays for The Wire.  Clockers was entirely successful because of its gritty realism, a realism that left no place for sentimentality, let alone quasi-religious self-help messages. The Wire, inspired in part by Clockers, and among the best narrative art of our time, was likewise clear-eyed and hard-hitting.

The "Lazarus" of the title, Anthony, whose life is a mess, is apparently buried for three days in a Harlem building collapse. The unlikelihood of his resurrection makes him a minor celebrity, and, on the basis of his experience, he become a popular speaker. He tells an audience, at one point, 

I never been a deeply religious individual, and I still don't consider myself one. But I feel guided now. And my purpose in being here today is to deliver to you a message that just might make it possible to accept your aching hearts and continue to live the life that He has given you.

Price was raised Jewish and, like Anthony, has apparently "never been a deeply religious individual," but it's hard not to guess that Price shares the not-quite-religion of his protagonist, and believes the self-help message that goes over so well with his audiences. (It wasn't Anthony who capitalized "he." It was Price.)

Even those who resonate with this sort of message, though, will regret that, as it comes to the fore in Price's writing, the razor-sharp view of city life—a version of Jersey City in Clockers, New York City in Lazarus Man—is not entirely expunged, but does recede. I haven't followed Price's career, but he appears not to have published a novel since Lazarus Man in 2024. Undoubtedly he's busy with screenplays, but I do hope that he returns to fiction, fiction like Clockers rather than this more turgid offering.