Thursday, March 25, 2010
Lush Life - Price's writing style
I thought the dialogue was brilliant. Having finished the previous book, I really noticed the contrast in the two writer's styles. So much of McCann's story takes place inside people's heads. Price's style is to use dialogue to tell the story, more than analyzing the character's thoughts. Did you like or dislike his style?
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I really, really enjoyed his style. It took a few chapters to get really used to it, but after a while I could really *hear* the characters with their specific dialects and vernaculars. His, what I felt was an overuse, of "cop-lingo" was annoying. I didn't always know what his abbreviations meant (maybe I need to watch more Law&Order?), but maybe more often than not, it didn't matter what it meant. The use of everyday-speak for those detectives made the story and dialogue more believable.
ReplyDeleteWhat particularly impressed me was his ability to totally let me hear the "ghetto speak" of his inner city projects kids. He understands the meter and rhythm of the speech without overdoing it and making it seems stupidly MTv. I was just impressed at the way he was able to accurately depict a conversation between Matty and his wife -- that terse back and forth of a divorced couple, and then have Tristan's rap lyrics in the next paragraph.