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A review by billymac1962
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
4.0
So far in his relatively early career, Dennis Lehane has given us a stellar crime series and a few other great novels (Shutter Island, which I loved, and Mystic River, which I haven't read because I saw and loved the movie).
Unless he outdoes himself on this one, The Given Day will go down as his Great American Novel.
The Given Day is set in 1919 Boston, and you would think that with the end of the Great War, times would be roaring and booming. Not so. America is in a state of civil unrest, with workers striking across the country, and the continent (Montreal) for that matter, as well. In Boston, policemen make less than janitors and are called upon to put their lives on the line for upwards of 70 hours a week. Unions are the day's four-letter word, their members looked upon as Bolsheviks, communists.
The story jumps between two families, the white Coughlins, whose father is a BPD captain, and his son a respected copper, and Luther Laurence, a black man trying to make a life for himself and his girlfriend.
Interspersed through these chapters we follow the career of Babe Ruth. Awesome. In fact, the novel starts of with him barfing off the caboose of a train. How great is that?
For a 700 page novel, it sure didn't feel that way. The great thing about a story with separate storylines is that each time you get back to the people you left behind a couple of chapters ago, it sets you off with renewed interest in their story.
This was a fine novel, and I learned a lot about the history of Boston during this time (I had no idea this stuff had happened).
Dennis Lehane continues to be a can't-miss writer. He has had three of his novels put to the big screen to high acclaim, and I have a very strong feeling this one will make it there too. It will make a magnificent movie.
Unless he outdoes himself on this one, The Given Day will go down as his Great American Novel.
The Given Day is set in 1919 Boston, and you would think that with the end of the Great War, times would be roaring and booming. Not so. America is in a state of civil unrest, with workers striking across the country, and the continent (Montreal) for that matter, as well. In Boston, policemen make less than janitors and are called upon to put their lives on the line for upwards of 70 hours a week. Unions are the day's four-letter word, their members looked upon as Bolsheviks, communists.
The story jumps between two families, the white Coughlins, whose father is a BPD captain, and his son a respected copper, and Luther Laurence, a black man trying to make a life for himself and his girlfriend.
Interspersed through these chapters we follow the career of Babe Ruth. Awesome. In fact, the novel starts of with him barfing off the caboose of a train. How great is that?
For a 700 page novel, it sure didn't feel that way. The great thing about a story with separate storylines is that each time you get back to the people you left behind a couple of chapters ago, it sets you off with renewed interest in their story.
This was a fine novel, and I learned a lot about the history of Boston during this time (I had no idea this stuff had happened).
Dennis Lehane continues to be a can't-miss writer. He has had three of his novels put to the big screen to high acclaim, and I have a very strong feeling this one will make it there too. It will make a magnificent movie.