The Whites

This is like reading The Shield. There's a great crime plot--two, actually--but that's almost beside the point. Price is great at recreating the stuff of everyday life: the groans, the frustrations, the sarcasm, the rolling of eyes--all of which make the cops believable and the reader's relationship with them as tight as it is. (At least it was for me.) The audiobook, read by Ari Fliakos, is one of the best I've heard. Recommended.

While I admired Price's [b:Lush Life|1862313|Lush Life|Richard Price|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316137153s/1862313.jpg|2886449], [b:The Whites|22895696|The Whites|Harry Brandt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422904834s/22895696.jpg|42462248] did not grip me as thoroughly although my traveling companion liked it a lot. It was fine for sleepy vacation reading and the author (otherwise known as Richard Price) is a stellar writer, tossing out admirable metaphors and description like "In the middle of the cramped living room, Horace Woody, deep into his sixties but DNA-blessed with the physique of a lanky teenager, stood hands on hips in his boxers, the taut skin across his flat chest the color of a good camel hair coat. But his eyes were show more maraschinos, and his liquored breath was sweet enough to curl Billy's teeth." And:
She'd been a golden girl once and she took her tumble hard.
"Hey how's it going?" Billy said as he took a seat.
"The meat's so tough that it got up off the plate and beat the shit out of the coffee, which was too weak to defend itself." p.80
The plot, relationships, grudges and murders befuddled me but the writing and character sketches kept me going, a reversal from the usual thriller. show less

Sure, The Whites is a crime novel, but written by Richard Price (writing as Harry Brandt) it transcends the genre as they say and becomes a literary crime novel. It is entertaining, and highly so, but with meaning. Price is one of the best at creating characters that come alive, that are about as real as it gets in fiction. And the main characters are developed and filled out by the others that surround them, family, colleagues, friends, enemies. That interaction makes his novels so good.

His dialogue and description of cop life in New York City is priceless as always. A dumpy Bronx apartment lobby has “a gappy mosaic tile floor like a pissbum’s smile.”

In The Whites Billy Graves is a Sergeant on the NYPD Night Watch Team; a triage show more unit for felonies that are turned over to the day shift detectives. He’s good at what is basically a dead-end job. He was in a high-speed anti-crime unit in the 1990s, the Wild Geese. When nemeses of his old squad mates, and himself, start being murdered Billy looks into it. At the same time, someone from the past is stalking his family. Price weaves the two plots together with skill and it makes for an intensely readable story. show less

Not sure who Harry Brandt is (or why) but Richard Price is one of my top 3 writers. And "The Whites" is only the second book I reread the minute I finished it (first was Lonesome Dove - so it's in fine company). For those of you who hate stories with no redeeming characters - this has ONLY likeable ones, even the most of the "actors" (criminals) are at least a bit sympathetic. Except for the "whites" - the ones who got away guilty. Four of the five detectives of the Manhattan and Bronx WG (Wild Geese) are retired. Billy Graves soldiers on, living with his second wife and two sons (who mostly whale on each other) and his retired cop father, who's in and out of dementia, in Yonkers. Billy is on Night Watch, the overnight shift.

As the show more story opens on St. Patrick's Day, one of the "whites" is found exsanguinated on a subway platform in Penn Station, possibly the worst crime scene ever to keep uncontaminated. Billy's wife Carmen, who has a vast secret, is getting more distracted. Enter detective Milton Ramos, whose brother's murder lead to a chain of family losses.

If you can put this down without reading it all the way through, for the dialogue (Price was a writer on The Wire, as well as the author eight great novels, including Lush Life ) as much as for the outstanding plot, you are making a gigantic mistake.

Richard Price writes sentences like this: "Billy wondered whether maybe Bannion's murder had him deeply crashing, like a post partum Ahab if the author had allowed him to kill the whale and go home to his family."

Take the day off. It's worth it. show less

This book is superb! The writing is excellent--spare but evocative, with surprising bursts of humor interspersed with all the heaviness--and the characters are complex and believable. The story is a difficult one; every character is touched by violence, and there are no easy answers (or even difficult but satisfying answers). Retribution and justice are major themes of this novel, which leaves the reader questioning not just how to right a wrong, but also who determines what is "right" in the first place.

Because this book involves cops ("good" and "bad") taking the law into their own hands, I thought a lot about Eric Garner while I was reading it. The book was published in February 2015, and I am not sure when it was written, so I can show more understand why that story was not addressed here. I would love to read Richard Price's take on current events.

Highly recommended for all libraries, and basically required for New York City public libraries. show less

“The Whites” is Price’s homage to Herman Melville. The title recalls the whale; most of the minor characters suffer from Ahab-like obsessions; and even the name of the protagonist evokes Billy Budd. Melville used the color white to represent innocence, especially in the natural world. Price turns that on its head by using it to represent people who have escaped punishment for their crimes. In an interview he observed that the cops’ single-minded pursuit of their failed criminal conquests reminded him of “Moby-Dick.” Also naming his protagonist Billy (Graves) brings to mind Melville’s Billy Budd, who was punished for a crime where his guilt was clear, but his motives were indeed suspect. He was dutiful but naïve and, show more interestingly, wore white clothing. Billy Graves also is clearly good and quite competent, persevering especially as multiple adversities accumulate. His Budd-like quality of willingness to sacrifice for his friends and family are evident as well. Not unlike the Melville character, he becomes trapped by the circumstances that surround him and is forced to make moral choices.

Melville’s principal themes also are evident in “The Whites”: revenge, obsession, and justice versus forgiveness. Milton Ramos evokes the revenge theme that was so prominent in “Moby Dick”. He recognizes Billy’s wife at the hospital where she works and proceeds to stalk her family in a quest for vengeance for something she innocently did to his family as a child. Many of the main characters are ex-cops who are obsessed by their own failures to bring certain criminals to justice. They pursue these people much like Ahab followed the whale. The theme of justice versus forgiveness can be seen in the cops who have an ambiguous relationship with lay people and especially in the moral dilemma that Billy faces when he learns the truth about several related crimes he is investigating.

There are many characters in this book (probably too many) and keeping track of them can be a challenge. His ex-colleagues, known as the “wild geese” are interesting and diverse, but all essentially represent the same themes—obsession and justice. Some were realized better than others. Redman Brown who runs his father’s funeral parlor in Harlem is an interesting creation as is John Pavlicek who made a fortune fixing up former crack houses. However, Yasmeen Assaf-Doyle and Jimmy Whelan were lesser creations. It seems that Mr. Price might have been more successful by focusing on fewer obsessed ex-cops.

The writing is Price at his best. His hallmark is dialogue that exquisitely evokes big city cop-talk and the slang of the street. Also he perfectly captures the detective’s life both on the job and how it impacts his personal life. Not unlike his other novels, the mood of this novel is of necessity quite dark. Price is a master at evoking the darkness that is routine in police work and how cops battle to maintain their humanity in the face of it.

Despite its obvious strengths, this is not a perfect novel. It features so many characters and names that keeping track is a challenge. Also, the plot is quite complex weaving through multiple storylines, making it a slower read than the usual novel in the detective genre. show less

I suspect that The Whites will be on the majority of awards lists this year. It is a powerful story of a group of NYPD detectives, criminals, trust, friendship and the lengths that a person will go to for those who deserve his loyalty.

Billy Graves is commander of the Night Watch squad; the officers that cover Manhattan's felony crimes between 1am and 8am. Twenty years before Billy was one of seven young cops assigned to anti-crime. Known as The Wild Geese (WG), they became like family to each other and now, twenty years later five of them remain. Billy is the only one still at work.

Each of them is burdened with their own case where a criminal had managed to get away with a particularly horrendous crime. These criminals were known as show more 'The Whites'. Now the Whites are turning up dead. At the same time someone has targeted Billy's family.

You can't read this book quickly or lightly. There are multiple, complex characters and you need to pay attention. But the effort is well-rewarded with a read that has completely drawn characters; you get to know them with all their flaws and all their demons, and you want them to come out all right in the end.

Price (Brandt) gives you the story of the WG, the Whites, the nightly cases of the Night Watch squad, the consuming rage of the stalker of Billy's family and the moral challenge that Billy must face all in one tightly woven story. You couldn't ask for a better read. show less