''Samaritan'' is a novel by Richard Price, first published in 2003. It tells the story of a wealthy screenwriter who returns to his impoverished neighborhood in Dempsey, New Jersey, where he begins to help others. His motivations and their ramifications are explored. Throughout the novel, various characters help others, with each good deed having different repercussions.

Setting

*Dempsey – A fictional city that is the setting for most of Richard Price's books. The residents are predominantly African-American and poor. Price based Dempsey on the real city of

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.

Characters

*Ray Mitchell - A 43-year-old Jewish man who grew up in the Dempsey housing projects. Following years as a cocaine addict taxi driver and high school English teacher, Ray hit it big in Hollywood as a TV writer. He abruptly left that life and moved back to New Jersey, where he lives off his earnings and tries to forge a relationship with his daughter while also playing at being a good samaritan. *Ruby Mitchell - Ray's young teen daughter who he is trying to forge a relationship with after being a bad father for a number of years *Nerese Ammons - Ray's childhood acquaintance who he once helped greatly, she is now a 41-year-old black Dempsey police officer soon to retire *Carla Powell - She grew up in the Dempsey housing projects and still lives there in her late 40s; Danielle is her only daughter *Danielle Powell Martin - the 31-year-old, beautiful daughter of Carla, she works hard to make something better of her life; she is married to Freddy Martin, a drug dealer *Frederick "Freddy" Martin - a college graduate, drug dealer, and police informant who is in and out of prison, Freddy is extremely intelligent, crafty, and dangerous. *Nelson Martin - Carla and Freddy's only child, a 12-year-old, bookish, sensitive boy who is neglected by his father and treated brusquely by his mother *Selim Alamein - A former student of Ray's *"White Tom" Potenza - A former drug addict who now helps others get clean.

Major themes

* The price of being a good samaritan * The subconscious motivations that underlie a desire to help others * The

unforeseen consequence In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...

s of acting

Awards and nominations

Adaptation

References

External links

{{Richard Price 2003 American novels American crime novels Novels by Richard Price (writer) Alfred A. Knopf books