Scan barcode
ohlittleowl's review against another edition
5.0
I'm a sucker for epics, especially family-dramas that come with "cast of characters" or "family tree" sections, so I was bound to love this 700-page tome.
The Given Day completely immerses you in a pivotal moment in history, giving you the sights, sounds, and tensions of early-1900's Boston, a city struggling to recover from World War I and all of its residual effects. The characters are richly drawn out and their struggles are very human. The historical details were well researched, and the time period well-represented.
The book is essentially about two families (one black, one white) intersecting in Boston amidst all the social unrest of the times. It's about a whole lot more than that really, (influenza, anarchists, socialism, Bolsheviks, Prohibition, racism, the strikes, baseball, Babe Ruth) but that's the simple driving force behind it. And it brings you from start to finish wondering from one moment to the next how the bonds of family, blood and created, will evolve.
Highly, highly recommended.
The Given Day completely immerses you in a pivotal moment in history, giving you the sights, sounds, and tensions of early-1900's Boston, a city struggling to recover from World War I and all of its residual effects. The characters are richly drawn out and their struggles are very human. The historical details were well researched, and the time period well-represented.
The book is essentially about two families (one black, one white) intersecting in Boston amidst all the social unrest of the times. It's about a whole lot more than that really, (influenza, anarchists, socialism, Bolsheviks, Prohibition, racism, the strikes, baseball, Babe Ruth) but that's the simple driving force behind it. And it brings you from start to finish wondering from one moment to the next how the bonds of family, blood and created, will evolve.
Highly, highly recommended.
tonythep's review
3.0
while I enjoyed the story and Lehane's writing, it got a bit heavy-handed at times. it disturbs me that one of the characters that I sympathized with the most was the child molesting mayor...
danchrist's review against another edition
3.0
A decent yarn regaling the events of the influenza epidemic at the close of WWI and the ensuing Boston police strike as seen through the eyes of three well drawn characters. No high literature, but an enjoyable enough read.
e_len's review against another edition
I'm so confused about this overly long baseball prologue. Then, there is a boxing event ahead. Also, mild sexism in the depiction of women so far. Plus, I don't want to read about racism right now.
Another factor: this edition has over 750 pages. I'm terrified and it doesn't seem worth it, if I'm already bored and scimming.
Another factor: this edition has over 750 pages. I'm terrified and it doesn't seem worth it, if I'm already bored and scimming.
erinmully's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this book up off a bargain table, and really didn't know anything about it, other than being familiar with Dennis Lehane, from reading Mystic River over the summer. I was immediately drawn into it the night I started reading. Maybe it is because a few of his novels have become movies, but it seems like Lehane writes for the screen. The Given Day is sweeping, grand, and unfolds almost like you are watching the movie. The setting is a perfect storm for such an engaging and dramatic story to unfold - Boston at the end of World War 1, racial and immigrant tensions overflowing, and labor struggles starting to become a serious issue in the United States. This is the kind of book I'm sad over when I finish reading.
megmcardle's review against another edition
4.0
Dennis Lehane has never hesitated to show the seedy side of Boston, but his affection for his city and his vivid portrayals of its bright halls and dark alleys always makes the city a real character in his books. The Given Day is Lehane's stab at historical fiction, set in his beloved Boston in 1918. The events of that momentous era (the end of WWI, the flu pandemic, the race riots and most centrally the nascent labor movement) would be fascinating enough, but he has also given us characters that are real enough to break your heart. This is not a light book. Lehane seems to revel in showing the absolute darkest parts of human nature, and he shows us plenty of examples of men and women acting as vile and low as you would hope the species could get. But there are enough characters that you can pull for that you keep reading, hoping they make it out of the darkness.
paulataua's review against another edition
3.0
The Given Day is a fairly admirable attempt to capture the mood and events in Boston (and to some extent the rest of America) around 1918-1919. The story follows the lives and separate fortunes of two characters, Danny and Luther, through a series of real live events, the Spanish flu, the Boston Molasses Disaster, the police officers’ strike, and the development of the labor movement. The story also includes a long list of cameo appearances including Babe Ruth, J Edgar Hoover early on in his career. revolutionary John Reed, and even Calvin Coolidge, the then governor of Massachusetts. Although interesting from a historical viewpoint, the story never really grabbed a hold of me. I always felt that Lehane wrote damn good stories where the characters were at the center and driving the story, but here I felt he set out a list of events, and a group of points to make, and then tried to weave a story about the characters around them. It seemed just a little contrived, like Danny didn’t decide to go to a certain bar but was directed there so that Ruth and Reed could be brought into the story again, and that Luther didn’t ‘choose’ to get off the boxcar at East St Louis, but was taken there to allow the East St Louis Riots to be discussed. It seems as if Lehane did an immense amount of research for the book, and that maybe doesn’t always lead to the best results. Still and all, I am probably being overcritical. It was an OK read.
dibot's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
eileen_critchley's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent historical novel taking place toward the end of WWI. I love books like this, as they force me to look up parts of history that I would not have otherwise known about. I had never heard of the "molasses flood" of 1919, but yes, it did occur. [I don't feel too bad about not knowing about it, my husband had never heard of it either:]. This book tackles racism, terrorism, and the start of unions in this country. Really hard to imagine how people lived the way they did back then. It's lengthy and took me a while to get through it, but I enjoyed it pretty much from start to finish.
okenwillow's review against another edition
5.0
Dennis Lehane avait déclaré lors du FIRN 2007 qu’il ne reprendrait pas la série des Kenzie & Gennaro, à moins d’avoir besoin de se faire construire une piscine. Apparemment, il a finalement eu besoin d’une piscine, puisque qu’il a ajouté un épisode à la saga, Moonlight Mile. Mais entre-temps, Lehane nous a pondu un roman hors norme, qui sort de ses intrigues policières habituelles. En quelques mots, on pourrait dire qu’Un pays à l’aube concentre tout ce que l’on peut trouver de mieux chez Lehane. Et plus encore. Au moins. Dennis Lehane est un grand, il n’y a qu’à lire Mystic River, Shutter Island ou n’importe quel épisode de Kenzie & Gennaro pour se prendre une belle baffe à chaque fois.
Cette fois-ci l’auteur abandonne le polar mais ne renie pas pour autant le milieu policier. Il plante son décor à Boston, à la fin de le Première Guerre mondiale, en pleine crise économique et sociale. Trois personnages distincts vont traverser cette période et se croiser. Un joueur de base-ball à la mode, brave gars mais un peu naïf, un jeune agent de police d’origine irlandaise, un jeune Noir en cavale, voici pour nos protagonistes. Luther est un jeune ouvrier contraint de rendre son emploi aux Blancs revenus de la guerre en Europe, avant de fuir son foyer suite à un malheureux concours de circonstances. Danny Coughlin est fils de capitaine de police et filleul de lieutenant, tout le monde s’attend à le voir devenir inspecteur en un temps record, mais c’est sans compter son esprit rebelle et sa solidarité pour ses collègues policiers, qui vivent en dessous du seuil de pauvreté et tentent péniblement de faire valoir leurs droits. Babe Ruth quant à lui, est une vedette du base-ball doublé d’un grand enfant, et il va croiser le chemin de Luther et de Danny à différents niveaux.
L’intrigue se situe durant une période difficile pour les États-Unis, les soldats reviennent de la guerre et voient leurs emplois occupés par les Noirs. Des émeutes et des massacres ont lieu entre les deux populations. Le climat est tendu et la prohibition n’est pas loin. La police de Boston tente de se syndicaliser pour mieux faire valoir ses droits, alors que la menace d’une grève des policiers engendrerait un cataclysme politique et social.
Lehane développe ses personnages avec son aisance habituelle, et enrichit son récit de faits historiques, pour mieux planter l’action dans la réalité. Nous suivons l’évolution des personnages à travers une époque, une société, un pays encore jeune. Chacun y cherche sa place, quitte à renoncer à sa famille et à son milieu social. Les personnages sont riches et étoffés, nous suivons leurs « petites » histoires dans la grande Histoire avec un intérêt grandissant. Le contexte donne lieu à un récit foisonnant, et on se prend à imaginer une adaptation ciné ou télé. Lehane nous offre une quasi-fresque sociale, historique, peuplée de personnages aussi consistants qu’attachants. Une suite est également disponible, Ils vivent la nuit, sortie en 2012, et que je lis dans la foulée, soyons fous !
Cette fois-ci l’auteur abandonne le polar mais ne renie pas pour autant le milieu policier. Il plante son décor à Boston, à la fin de le Première Guerre mondiale, en pleine crise économique et sociale. Trois personnages distincts vont traverser cette période et se croiser. Un joueur de base-ball à la mode, brave gars mais un peu naïf, un jeune agent de police d’origine irlandaise, un jeune Noir en cavale, voici pour nos protagonistes. Luther est un jeune ouvrier contraint de rendre son emploi aux Blancs revenus de la guerre en Europe, avant de fuir son foyer suite à un malheureux concours de circonstances. Danny Coughlin est fils de capitaine de police et filleul de lieutenant, tout le monde s’attend à le voir devenir inspecteur en un temps record, mais c’est sans compter son esprit rebelle et sa solidarité pour ses collègues policiers, qui vivent en dessous du seuil de pauvreté et tentent péniblement de faire valoir leurs droits. Babe Ruth quant à lui, est une vedette du base-ball doublé d’un grand enfant, et il va croiser le chemin de Luther et de Danny à différents niveaux.
L’intrigue se situe durant une période difficile pour les États-Unis, les soldats reviennent de la guerre et voient leurs emplois occupés par les Noirs. Des émeutes et des massacres ont lieu entre les deux populations. Le climat est tendu et la prohibition n’est pas loin. La police de Boston tente de se syndicaliser pour mieux faire valoir ses droits, alors que la menace d’une grève des policiers engendrerait un cataclysme politique et social.
Lehane développe ses personnages avec son aisance habituelle, et enrichit son récit de faits historiques, pour mieux planter l’action dans la réalité. Nous suivons l’évolution des personnages à travers une époque, une société, un pays encore jeune. Chacun y cherche sa place, quitte à renoncer à sa famille et à son milieu social. Les personnages sont riches et étoffés, nous suivons leurs « petites » histoires dans la grande Histoire avec un intérêt grandissant. Le contexte donne lieu à un récit foisonnant, et on se prend à imaginer une adaptation ciné ou télé. Lehane nous offre une quasi-fresque sociale, historique, peuplée de personnages aussi consistants qu’attachants. Une suite est également disponible, Ils vivent la nuit, sortie en 2012, et que je lis dans la foulée, soyons fous !