Rough stuff about a working class family in coop city in the seventies. The focus is on the teenage boy who has to decide whether or not to follow in his brutish father's footsteps and join the electrician's union. ( )

Not for the faint hearted. If you love the movie,you'll like the book. Surprised by the amount of spelling errors. ( )

It's hardly controversial to say that many Americans hold idealized views of the nineteen fifties, but Richard Price's "The Wanderers" still feels, at times, like a desperate attempt to correct parts of the historical record before they descend completely into pompadoured schmaltz. It's gritty and foul-mouthed enough to be accused of being mere exploitation, but it's also a welcome reprieve from representations of the era that don't get too far past tailfinned Caddys and doo-wop hits. Its dominant emotions, both in the domestic sphere and in the gang-patrolled streets, are fear and anger, and Price's writing, while hardly polished, often achieves a shocking immediacy that serves the material very well. While his transcription of his characters' lively, filthy talk is often very funny, the book itself is almost unrelentingly grim, particularly its heartbreaker of a an epilogue. The author seems to want to remind the reader at every turn how few resources -- both emotional and financial -- most of these kids have at their disposal. "The Wanderers" can hardly be called a psychological novel: full of hormones and violent emotion, it's characters don't seem to weigh consequences or to question the hugely imperfect lessons handed down to them by their parents. Quite frankly, it's difficult to tell many of its central characters apart, and while this was Price's first novel, that might not be entirely unintentional. The book's focus is on gang and neighborhood, not on the internal struggles of any individual. There may be some reportage going on here, too: much of the book reads like an overheard anecdote, and a lot of the (rather unbelievable) gang lore that Price includes here could be used as a visitor's guide to the rough part of town.

Even so, for all its rough language and heavy subject matter, the book can't help but feel a bit nostalgic. The music -- and Price mentions dozens of songs and pop artists -- and the styles described pinpoint the book's temporal setting. It's also a novel that is, in some ways, about impermanence. The connection that the Wanderers feel with each other is real, but as events unfold, it becomes clear, even to them, that their dissolution is inevitable. Taking this a bit further, it could also be mentioned that this book's characters are also drawn largely from a population -- working class, urban-dwelling white ethnics -- who would be largely gone from New York in a decade or less, as anyone who could fled the city for the suburbs and their respective ethnic identities became mostly assimilated into monolithic American whiteness. Written a little less than fifteen years after these fictional events would have played out, I kind of wonder if the setting in which "The Wanderers" takes place already seemed impossibly distant on the day that it was published.

Hardly a masterpiece, but at times brutally funny, sad, and effective. Recommended to readers seeking out literary thrills, tales of doomed youth, and antidotes to "Grease," "West Side Story" and Sha Na Na. ( )

This episodic novel focuses on the antics of Italian-American Bronx-based gang in late 1950s-early 1960s. It's about a moment in time, and in that sense, it's a little dated but the gritty, dialogue driven style for which Price is known has its clear beginnings here. It's no Clockers, but the talent which produced that novel is certainly evident. ( )

The Wanderers no son la única banda del mundo. Los más temidos son los Ducky Boys, cientos de locos de origen irlandés que de repente salen de los callejones como ratas espumajeantes con navajas pasadas de moda y bates de béisbol. Sin embargo, la novela no trata acerca de bandas adolescentes, sino sobre la supervivencia y la búsqueda de respuestas a preguntas no formuladas. También sobre la desintegración de The Wanderers a medida que sus miembros se van, arremeten contra la realidad o avanzan a trompicones en el mundo real lejos de la seguridad de la banda. Gracias a la maestría de Price reconocemos la pose de los adultos, los miedos, el miedo al miedo, los mitos sexuales y las torpezas. Reconocemos la furia que produce un mundo que te dice que eres o demasiado viejo o demasiado joven; vemos el dramático romanticismo de los chicos que intentan interpretar un papel que no entienden.