A review by hokielin
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

4.0

WOW. Great book that made 700 pages fly by. Set in Boston during and post WWI, its about race relations, public policy, corruption, and Hoover's FBI tactics and policies, with the personal and emotional stories to make the characters very real. The goodreads synopsis is very good. Lehane somehow manages to keep the narrative to only what's necessary, rarely an extraneous word. Thank goodness, given the length. But it makes every word interesting and relevant, and the pages keep turning. The story surrounds the Coughlin family, a wealthy Irish immigrant family with power and connections in the Boston police department, and Luther Laurence, a black man arriving in Boston after trouble in Oklahoma. The secondary characters in the story are just as exciting as the primary ones, however, and you always want to know how everyone is connected. The historical background seems based in fact (although I can't confirm), making this all the more interesting. You get a feel for what it must have been like to live during that time, whether you were more privileged or just the opposite. I highly recommend this book!