Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This was a disappoiting book, to say the least. The story wandered, the characters acted in ways that made no sense (and thus seemed totally unrealistic). The dialogue was supposed to sound "authentic" but to me it came across as an author filling white space. And all the characters had the exact same speach patterns - eg they all said "I hear you," and they all spoke statements as questions. The story line was fine in retrospect, but the length should have been cut at least in half and the writing tightened.
Rating: 
Summary: Sparkling dialog and characterization; so-so plot
Review: Clockers drove me ever forward, like an express train, until I finished it at 3 a.m.Freedomland is more like the local; start and stop, chugging along. Richard Price definitely has an uncanny knack for rendering dialog. But once the primary plot conflict was essentially resolved, I didn't care anymore. And it was made all the more disappointing by the fact that I was looking forward to reading Price's new novel since I finished Clockers 3 or 4 years ago. If Thomas Harris' sequel to The Silence of the Lambs is this disappointing, I may never look forward to a book again...
Rating:
Summary: No one wins
Review: Remember Susan Smith? Charles Stuart? "A black man did it"? In this true-to-life work, Richard Price tells us how a disturbed white woman's irresponsibility leads to her own child's death and topples her community into near race war. Verging from deadpan to comical, Price renders a 550-page opus about the irrational racial hows and whys of segregated New Jersey, a harrowing urban circus world that includes "actors" (crime suspects), "shooters" (TV cameramen), "jackers," and "players." For me, Price could trim back some of the police prose and go more interior to reach the complexity of his tale. What we get instead are predictable climaxes and fairly flat characters, with little moral judgement or character growth at the end of it all. It's a prosaic, riveting read, gritty and realistic, jumping straight from today's headlines, but providing no moral guidance whatsoever, even the "heroes" walking away worse for wear.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment after the astonishing "Clockers"
Review: Price still has the gift of dialogue, but this story limps badly, especially compared to Clockers. Not nearly so taut; frankly, not at all difficult to put down. After his earlier novel, I was really primed for an exciting ride. Regretably, I didn't get one.
Rating: 
Summary: Actors take note: Excellent monologues within!
Review: What is most successful in this novel - apparently a rehash of Clockers (a film I haven't seen, a book I haven't read)- is the extensive use of character monologues. I have suggested that all my actress friends buy the book when it is released in paperback. There are 3 speeches Brenda Martin has that are what actors call "Killer" audition pieces. I also liked the characterizations of the zealots of The Friends of Kent (a missing child support & search group) the entrie search on the grounds of the decaying mental institution and the women's nightmarish intimidation of Brenda Martin. When the film gets made the parts of Brenda Martin and Kathy Colluci will cause script wars in LA. My bet: Lili Taylor as Brenda, Kathy Bates as Kathy. I didn't find much interesting in Jesse the manipulative reporter with no soul or conscience and Lorenzo seemed fairly unimaginative as well. This is Brenda's story and she is an intensely complex, utterly original and sur! prisingly insightful character.
Rating: 
Summary: swiftly-moving, compelling drama
Review: Richard Price's Freedomland is a riveting tale of deceit and despair that takes the reader on a gripping journey through a minefield of smoldering racial tensions in contemporary America. Brenda Martin's "carjacking", and the waves of concern, and destruction, that occur in the wake of her dubious accusation resonate deeply, not only in the beleaguered community which bears the greatest brunt of her unsubstantiated claim to victimhood, but with the many individuals, both black and white, who truly care about the plight of her missing toddler son. The ambitions of both detective Lorenzo Council and local reporter Jesse Haus to quickly find the truth about Brenda are soon confounded, somewhat unwittingly, by a sense of personal concern for the mental and physical welfare of this very disturbed and lonely young woman-vestiges of which remain with them even following Brenda's mercurial transformation in the public's eye from aggrieved mother to hated monster. Freedomland intrigues so magnetically from Mr. Price's keen ability to reveal the darkest and cynical (as well the purest) of motives behind the most seemingly benign and innocent of actions and emotions, bringing depth and color to even the most minor players. Particularly fascinating is the chillingly perky professionalism of a media-savvy volunteer organization of housewives called the Friends of Kent, a group sincerely dedicated to the cause of locating missing children, who gently intimidate a reluctant and confused Brenda into enlisting their support in the hunt for her son. The abandoned desolation and urban grime of a sweltering New Jersey landscape serve the story well, as the backdrop against which the characters take one harrowing turn after another, in perplexing pursuit, to a sad, tragic, unsettling end.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome back to Dempsey
Review: Freedomland is a challenging and intricate read. A what might have been look at the Shannon Smith case and a brutal indictment of race relations in America at the end of the 20th Century. Lorenzon Council is one of the most intriguing characters I have read in a long type. I hope he will make a return in the future. This book has stayed with me long after I finished reading the last page.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable book!
Review: This is the type of book you hate to leave home for work because it means you have to stop reading for a few hours. Price writes with such clarity and truth you expect to run into the characters on the street. You kind of know the story since it's a fictionalization of the Susan Smith story -- the crazy woman who drowned her two kids because she was in love with some jerk and then claimed a black man hijacked her car and the kids -- but there is still plenty of suspense and intrigue. I have two nits to pick with the author: some of the characters become so articulate and wise when they have their epiphanies, especially the mom, that it's a little hard to swallow. And the last 100 pages feels like a bit of a burden after the climactic event and we see the community deal with what has happened. But this is a great book, a masterpiece I would say, of reality based fiction. You will not be able to put it town.
Rating:
Summary: Compassionate portraits and intricate plotting
Review: This book takes you inside inner city urban American and makes it real. Price writes with tremendous compassion. Brenda and Lorenzo are people you think about long after the last page has been turned. This book stays with you.
Rating:
Summary: A modern riff on the 19th century novel
Review: FREEDOMLAND is an intricate puzzle of a book. It can be looked on as a simple mystery or thriller but it is much more. Price is asking us to look into the souls of two different communities, two different sides of the tracks and discover how few the differences are. He makes us care about characters by showing us the details of their lives. He draws a picture of events and passions that while inevitable are also stunning and surprising because they are always human. By far his best book, and a wonderful snapshot of urban angst at the end of the 20th century.
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