The Wanderers (novel)

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The Wanderers (German: Scharfe Zeiten ) is a novel by the American author Richard Price , which was published in 1974. The action takes place in the Bronx , New York City from 1962 to 1963.

Creation and publication

Richard Price was 24 years old when his first novel, The Wanderers , was published as a book. He grew up in a public housing estate in the Bronx, New York City, which is where the plot of his novel is set.

The book consists of 12 chapters that are rather loosely connected, mainly through the reappearance of the main characters. In this respect it is more like a collection of short stories - each chapter is self-contained and can be understood without knowing the other chapters. The common thread is growing up, which the main characters are forced towards towards the end of the book - each in their own way.

Parts of the book were published as early as 1972 in Antaeus, New York City, under the title "Big Playground".

The book covers a period of several months. Explicit dates in Chapter 1 are September 12, 1962, Chapter 5 Thanksgiving 1962, November 27, 1962 and Chapter 11 June 1, 1962. It can be assumed that June 1, 1963 is meant. The chapters are arranged chronologically. So it is either a carelessness of the author or a typographical error.

The Wanderers was first published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 1974. Reprints and publications with other publishers followed. First editions from other publishers are for example:

action

Richie Gennaro is the 17-year-old leader of the Wanderers , an Italo-American gang in the Bronx in 1962. He walks with Denise Rizzo. Richie's best friends at the Wanderers are Joey Capra, Buddy Borsalino, Eugene Caputo and Perry LaGuardia.

At the beginning of the book, the events and characters are very extensive to describe the zeitgeist. In addition to the protagonists, numerous other characters appear, many of them only once. In the beginning, the focus is on the Wanderers' "business", what they spend their time doing: fighting out rivalries with other gangs in the neighborhood with different cultural or ethnic backgrounds. These rivalries are strongly influenced by prejudice and macho. But it's also about competing against others in football or bowling. And most of all, the protagonists want to be cool and finally have sex for the first time. But the way there is difficult.

Towards the end of the book, the events focus more and more on the protagonists and their problems and challenges as they grow up - each in their own way. Eugene finally volunteers to join the Marines after watching while his girlfriend, Nina, was raped and he can no longer bear himself. After Perry's father died years ago, his mother is now dying too and he is suddenly left to his own devices. Since he can no longer stand it with his aunt in Trenton, New Jersey, he decides to hire a seaman in Boston and sail out into the world. Joey eventually flees from his abusive father as the situation escalates and joins Perry. And Buddy impregnates his girlfriend, Despie, on a first date and is now faced with the challenge of having to survive as a husband and father at the age of 17.

The seriousness of life begins, the gang falls apart and Richie is left alone.

Characters

main characters

  • Richie Gennaro is the 17 year old leader of the Wanderers . His 41-year-old parents, Louis and Millie, run a more conservative household. The copious meals with steak and other things suggest a good income. Louis accuses his son of not really appreciating what he does for him. Apart from that, Richie's parents' home is stable and 'normal'. Richie has a brother, Randy, 12 years old, and a girlfriend, Denise. He can't wait for the 'first time'.
  • Denise Rizzo, called C, 15 years old, is Richie's girlfriend. Their parents often quarrel in front of the children. Both accuse each other of a lack of respect for each other's achievements. Your parents' home is anything but harmonious and appreciative. C stands for comb, because Denise always has a comb on hand. She has a little brother, Dougie, and is not yet ready for the 'first time', which repeatedly leads to conflict with Richie.
  • Joey Capra is small, smokes and is a bundle of nerves, always on the lookout for his brutal father, who misses every opportunity to humiliate him. Joey's childhood home is hell.
  • Mario Borsalino, called Buddy
  • Despie Carabella
  • Eugene Caputo is the best looking guy in the neighborhood who keeps a record of his conquests. However, he is plagued by an imagined impotence that forces him to insult his conquests 'in time' and thereby drive them away before they discover his flaw. Eugene lives with his parents in a single-family house with a party room. His father calls him Ace and is also a philanderer.
  • Perry LaGuardia

Minor characters

  • Turkey is ugly and lonely, but highly intelligent. He has freaky parents and a cheap sister. Although he is Jewish, he collects Nazi paraphernalia. He can draw, sing and speaks German. Turkey sometimes spends time with the Wanderers .
  • Dougie Rizzo
  • Scotty Hite
  • Randy Gennaro
  • Antone is the leader of the Pharaohs.
  • Lenny Arkadian
  • Joey DiMassi is the leader of the Fordham Baldies, valued for his fairness and decency.
  • terror
  • Clinton Stitch is the leader of the Pips.
  • Emilio Capra is Joey's father, an egomaniac, bodybuilder, and former Mister New York. He bullies and humiliates his family at every opportunity and does not shy away from physical violence. He's a firefighter.
  • Chubby Galasso
  • Mr. Sharp

Reviews

The Wanderers received largely positive reviews. Conor Tannam wrote the following about the book:

"[...] The language is direct and steers clear of grandiose statements. Price writes about these adolescents like he knows where they've been, like he's just stepped out of the places and potholes of their childhood. And although his primary focus is on 'The Wanderers', the eponymous youth gang, his peripheral vision is so sharp it allows him to cast a critical eye over the greater American urban landscape.

There is immediate violence. We are drawn into the fierce territorial disputes that govern gang life, even as the tone borders on a parody of that infamous musical West Side Story. Again and again, Price is quick to remind us that the stuff this novel is made of is violence, not irritating sing-alongs. A local football match soon descends into anarchy when the protagonists rise to the challenge of the Ducky Boys, an Irish gang whose members wouldn't reach five feet if they stood on their razors. But long before these boys have reached manhood, physical confrontation is the means by which masculinity is measured. Price is as unafraid as his cast when it comes to making this point: to be a man is to fight for the glory of the tribalistic gangs. Hence, even though the novel avoids the current trend towards the visceral, it leaves no room for ambiguity about life in the projects.

Yet Price anchors his novel in a ground so common we've all been to it. As the Wanderers' awkward sexual encounters capture the insecurity and self-consciousness of adolescence, Price's writing is reminiscent of Ed McBain, not least his blend of humorous levity and human drama. Price weaves the burgeoning sexuality of youth into the city's amorphous community of apartment blocks, and so the panicked bravado of these fumbling encounters not only throws the brutal violence of their childish inexperience into sharp relief. It also shows how precariously we all straddle that gap between Innocence and Fall.

The Wanderers is yet another example of crime writing that refuses to exhaust its potential and our patience with stereotypes. The main protagonists may be unashamedly violent, but they are also full of shame and fear. Written in 1974, the novel paints an image of a city that is not quite sure how to negotiate the various ethnic groups along the self-destructive path that often leads through contemporary America. [...] "

Film adaptations

The Wanderers was made into a film by Philip Kaufman in 1979. Already in the first AVON edition of the book from February 1975 reference is made to the soon to be released film ("SOON A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE"). The lettering on the book title may have served as the inspiration for the Wanderers logo in the film.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Price: The Wanderers, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1st edition 1974, ISBN 0-395-18477-0
  2. ↑ Antaeus, Autumn 1972
  3. ↑ ibid. P. 9
  4. ↑ ibid. P. 81
  5. ↑ ibid. P. 95
  6. ↑ ibid. P. 198
  7. ^ New York Times, April 21, 1974
  8. ↑ The Crime of it All - At the critical edge of crime and fiction ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / thecrimeofitall.com
  9. ↑ Richard Price: The Wanderers, AVON 1975, back cover