Lush Life

by Richard Price

Discussion Questions
1. How sympathetic a character is Eric Cash? How would you describe him? Why does he dislike Ike?

2. Once exonerated, why does Cash refuse to help Matty Clark identify the killers? Given his treatment at the hands of the police, is his refusal justified, self-indulgent, cowardly, self-pitying... or what?

3. Talk about the community itself. The book opens with Cash feeling a sense of connectedness to the previous denizens, the Jewish immigrants who settled the neighborhood at the turn of the 20th century and then moved on. There are also under-ground cellars which contain relics of previous lives. Talk about the kind people who populate the neighborhood now— the Bohemer's, the project kids, the drug dealers, and the police. Is there even a "community" or simply disconnected people who walk the same sidewalks?

4. Cash says he feels like everyone he knows on the lower East side "went to the same...art camp or something." What does he mean?

5. What about the memorial service Steven Boulware puts on? Is it an appropriate mourning, a brilliant celebration of Ike's life...or self-dramatization of the part of the participants? How did it affect Ike's family?

6. Talk about Billy, Ike's father. Do you find him sympathetic or irritating or a brave survivor? And what's going on between Matty Clark and Billy's wife?

7. How do you feel about Matty Clark. Is he the book's hero? What about his two sons?

8. Do you find the ending satisfying? Is anything resolved? Should it be?

9. What were some of your favorite phrases, bits of dialogue?

10.Dennis Lehane said, “Richard Price is the greatest writer of dialogue, living or dead, this country has ever produced.” Do you agree with Lehane’s praise of Price? Why or why not?

11. Why is urban crime fiction not as well respected as other works?

12. What character(s) could you relate to?

13. Are people in general becoming more helpful or more devious?

14. Who did you care about the most at the end of Lush Life?

15. Would you recommend this book to anyone? Why or why not?

16.Rate Lush Life on a scale of 1 to 5.