Most of you will be familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke, or will at least recall its underlying moral (i.e. "Love thy neighbor as you love thyself"), but let's recap. When asked "Who is my neighbor?" by a student of Biblical Law, Jesus (as was his wont) answered with a parable. On the barren road between Jerusalem and Jericho, robbers would pose as injured travelers. When a passer-by would stop to help, he or she could be easily assaulted while distracted by the criminal feigning injury.
One day, a Jew was assaulted on that very robber-infested road. Lying half-dead, he was denied help from a passing priest and a Levite, both Jewish religious leaders familiar with God's law. At last, a traveler from Samaria passed by and aided the wounded Jew, taking him to a hotel and paying for his care (and here, it's vital to note that the Jews considered the Samaritans to be unclean, racially inferior, and spiritually bankrupt, and of course the Samaritans disdained the Jews in turn - imagine a fundamentalist Muslim helping a Zionist for a modern equivalent).
One day, a Jew was assaulted on that very robber-infested road. Lying half-dead, he was denied help from a passing priest and a Levite, both Jewish religious leaders familiar with God's law. At last, a traveler from Samaria passed by and aided the wounded Jew, taking him to a hotel and paying for his care (and here, it's vital to note that the Jews considered the Samaritans to be unclean, racially inferior, and spiritually bankrupt, and of course the Samaritans disdained the Jews in turn - imagine a fundamentalist Muslim helping a Zionist for a modern equivalent).
Hence, the modern phrase "the good Samaritan": one who offers aid where it is needed, even when such aid is unexpected and not explicitly Good Sam's responsibility.
The titular Samaritan in Richard Price's latest urban drama is Ray Mitchell, and one immediately notices that Price cannily omitted "good" from the formulation, a modifier that might more aptly describe the intentions with which Mitchell paves his way to . . . well, you know. The Caucasian Mitchell grew up in the predominantly Black and Latino Hopewell projects of Dempsy, New Jersey, a ground zero of post-industrial decay, urban sprawl and generally inauspicious circumstances. Mitchell is portrayed as tough-talking yet sensitive, earnest and eager to engage with people on a genuine, human level: an all around nice guy whose niceness seems to stem from a barely restrained White guilt, an over-developed sense of personal responsibility that borders on a solipsistic martyr complex, and most importantly, a deep-seated need to be perceived as a nice guy, an everyman.
The titular Samaritan in Richard Price's latest urban drama is Ray Mitchell, and one immediately notices that Price cannily omitted "good" from the formulation, a modifier that might more aptly describe the intentions with which Mitchell paves his way to . . . well, you know. The Caucasian Mitchell grew up in the predominantly Black and Latino Hopewell projects of Dempsy, New Jersey, a ground zero of post-industrial decay, urban sprawl and generally inauspicious circumstances. Mitchell is portrayed as tough-talking yet sensitive, earnest and eager to engage with people on a genuine, human level: an all around nice guy whose niceness seems to stem from a barely restrained White guilt, an over-developed sense of personal responsibility that borders on a solipsistic martyr complex, and most importantly, a deep-seated need to be perceived as a nice guy, an everyman.
The novel begins as Mitchell, after a stint as a successful television writer in Los Angeles, returns to Dempsy with fire in his eyes and money in his pocket, hoping to reconnect with the teenaged daughter he alienated during the cocaine addiction that coincided with his time in LA, and to "give back" to the community that spawned him, with a series of increasingly grandiose and disastrous gestures. These range from volunteering to teach a creative writing class at his old high school, to paying for the funeral of a former neighbor's son (and initiating an ethically dubious sexual relationship with the neighbor's daughter), to funding the various get-rich-quick schemes of a former student. While Samaritan is much more than a suspense thriller, its incisive sociopolitical commentary is arrayed around a brutal assault that befalls Mitchell shortly after he begins spraying good will (usually in monetary form) around the projects like a stepped-on skunk, an assault that leaves him hospitalized and nearly dead.
The attack seems to stem from some permutation of Ray's shrouded past (there are mysteries to unravel here as well - for instance, why did he leave a successful television show to return to the blighted environs of his youth?) and his recent spate of good deeds in Dempsey.
It is with this assault that we meet the novel's other main character, Detective Nerese Ammons, a childhood acquaintance of Mitchell's who never left Hopewell, and who, despite her impending retirement, takes on his case in the hopes of going out with a bang, claiming some of the respect she was denied, as a woman, during her twenty years on the force. Ammons is immediately likeable and sharply drawn, sarcastic, hard-nosed, with a bit of existential philosophy bolstering her musings on the constellation of her life (an absent husband, an extended family of dependent ne'er-do-wells that she is required to anchor, a son she is desperate to save from the seemingly ineluctable terminus of life in the projects).
It is with this assault that we meet the novel's other main character, Detective Nerese Ammons, a childhood acquaintance of Mitchell's who never left Hopewell, and who, despite her impending retirement, takes on his case in the hopes of going out with a bang, claiming some of the respect she was denied, as a woman, during her twenty years on the force. Ammons is immediately likeable and sharply drawn, sarcastic, hard-nosed, with a bit of existential philosophy bolstering her musings on the constellation of her life (an absent husband, an extended family of dependent ne'er-do-wells that she is required to anchor, a son she is desperate to save from the seemingly ineluctable terminus of life in the projects).
