A review by megmcardle
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

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.