Samaritan

Ray Mitchell grew up in public housing in Richard Price’s fictional city of Dempsy, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. After a stint as an English teacher, then as a cocaine-addled cab driver he worked for a former student as a television writer in L.A. When that’s over he returns to New Jersey, teaches a class at his old school, and tries to help a few of the people that now live where he used to.

Ray’s story is one of guilt and unintended consequences. He truly wants to help the downtrodden, but his motives are questioned. Ray’s teenage daughter lives with his ex-wife in New York but guilt overwhelms his relationship with her too.

Ray really is a good guy and tries to do right, but with Samaritan Price seems show more to be saying that you can’t always help those that need help, and sometimes it’s best not to try. But I think he’s thankful there are people like Ray Mitchell that don’t realize it. show less

I was expecting this to be a detective novel, and it was, sort of. A man who had escaped the poverty of a poor urban neighborhood in New Jersey and made good as a screenwriter in Hollywood returns to his old high school to teach a creative writing class, pro bono. Someone beats him up, putting him in the hospital; it is touch and go whether he will survive. A woman that he had helped in a somewhat similar situation, when they were both children, takes it on herself to unravel the mystery of who beat him up, so as to pay back her old debt to him. She happens to be a police detective, within a few months of retirement. For some reason, even when he is lucid enough to speak, he refuses to give her any information about who the attacker show more was.

Despite the detective-story framework, the book is really a character study, or rather, a study of a variety of characters, and especially why they do the seemingly inexplicable things they do. It is also about the need to be needed, and the paradox of selfish altruism. The absence of "Good" in the title is significant. show less

Really excellent. I was worried after I didn't enjoy the last Price novel I read, but this is really great - keeps you guessing and, by the end, on the edge of your seat.

This is a very good read.
Clever and original
Keeps you reading.
Ray who is a writes for TV moves back to New Jersey to give something back. He helps children write.
He gets attacked in his house, his old school friend Nerese a retiring Police woman investigates. Ray is very reluctant to talk but after a while Nerese works it out. Lots of interesting characters in this book.

Enjoyed this one very much...great read. Made me think of 'The Wire'...

Excellent; a fantastic story line combined with realistic and intriguing characters. It is unusual to get both in a book. I look forward to reading more by this perceptive author.

Innner city story of the clash between black street culture and a middle classs white guy. Convincing.