Ah, to be 24 and have written "The Wanderers." To have captured the essence of the urban-American dream. To have taken a theme as old as the novel itself—the loss of innocence—and fashioned it as few have before. Ah, to be 24-year-old Richard Price and have written one of the few powerful and worthwhile novels of the year….

The language of "The Wanderers" is tough, the gang's actions often crude and vulgar. But it is an important novel for just those reasons. It is real. It is a work that tells its tale in the best possible way—using real characters in a real world. There is no sermonizing, no agonizing wasted space.

Richard Price has gathered the pieces to the puzzle of his own youth and the puzzle of growing up in urban America. In "The Wanderers" he has put all the pieces together and they...