 2009-01-06 - LeHane is a great writer.
This book was an XMas gift to my mom. She is really enjoying it and loves Dennis LeHane. He is a talented writer and this book is highly recommended.
 2009-01-06 - One CD missing
Product arrived in good time and in selophane sealed box. However one of the three Cds was missing. I contacted Amazon immediatly and I have been advised that a replacement has already been shipped. I have to return the faulty product within a month or be charged for it also. Service and response - excellent!
2009-01-05 - cant go wrong with this one
best book i read in 2008 lehane of course always is great. one hates his books to end
2009-01-05 - a sweeping saga of love and loss
I had never read the mystery novels by Dennis Lehane since it is not a genre I'm interested in. But I love historical fiction and have admired Lehane from afar so became intrigued by The Given Day. It is a very long book but it is an extraordinary piece of work. I love rich, descriptive writing and with Lehane there was an embarassment of riches. On practically every page there is an image or turn of phrase that I found so immediate and compelling that I found myself amazed at Lehane's prodigous talent. And this is not flowery writing or an author showing off. It is something that clearly comes to him quite easily. Whether it is the urban Boston landscape in 1918, the horrow of the flu epidemic, the smells of the shipyards--Lehane has created a world you won't soon forget. As for the story itself, the plot takes a little while to develop but it is totally worth the investment. The characters are so well developed and shaped that all Lehane needs to do is let them walk through their lives on his pages for this to come to a slow boil, and then explode with drama as plot and subplot mix, intertwine and finally become one. Danny Coughlin is a hero of the first order--strong, introspective, angry, compassionate, and more than anything a visionary who sees that the order of things in 1918 Boston are wrong and he must
 2009-01-02 - Lehane seemed to be trying too hard
Having recently enjoyed historical fiction set in the early 20th century (_The Somnambulist_, _The Alienist_, _Vienna Blood_), Lehane's latest book was recommended to me. While I enjoyed Lehane's writing tremendously (more on that in a bit), the interaction of fictional characters with real people seemed a bit forced. Certainly there was much going on in 1918 - 1919 (the Influenza Pandemic, the Red Scare, the Great Migration, revolution in Russia and labor unrest in the United States, the Black Sox controversey, the Boston Police strike) Lehane apparently felt the need to include all of this in a sweeping epic, his characters wrestling with these monumental changes as their lives intersect with the well-known and soon-to-be-famous.
The story revolves around an African-American, Luther, who left his family in Tulsa for Boston after he was involved in a crime. There, his path crosses Danny Coughlin, a Irish Boston police officer and son of a prominent police captain. As the turbulent events of the early 20th century swirl around them, Lehane includes these characters into the great events of the day. That these characters come into contact with so many prominent figures: Babe Ruth, J. Edgar Hoover, John Reed, Eugene O'Neil, the Black Sox, Calvin Coolidge, James Storrow - was a bit contrived for my tastes. As a previous reviewer noted, it felt as if Lehane had a check list and was simply ticking off personalities and events as he wrote.
Still, Lehane writes beautifully: "And then the rain came, a fat pouring of it, clattering and hissing, streaming off bare heads." (p621); "It was hard work ... Kind of work made your shoulders tighten hard against your neck, the cartlidge under your kneecaps feel like rock salt, dug hot stones into the small of your back and the edges of your spine." (290). His way with words were a real joy to read. Lehane also captures the frustration of the working class as they struggled to organize unions, the bitter enmity between American-born citizens and immigrants, between whites and blacks, the fear of terrorists and agents provocateur. Frequently I caught myself smiling at the similarities between the issues Lehane shows at the beginning of the 20th century and those at the beginning of the 21st. This could have been a "great American novel."
In the end, however, I came away thinking he bit off more than he could chew - the Influenza Pandemic, for example, was a major event of the time, but Lehane gives it a scant 40 pages as a plot device. Similarly he includes the Great Migration as merely a back-drop to the personal conflict his characters wrestle with. Lehane should have either gone all-out (ala _War and Peace_) with the scope and scale of events and made the novel truly an epic, telling the reader something about the common man and great events, or narrowed it down considerably. As it is, the historical events and characters serve as almost one-dimensional backdrops for his fictional characters to walk in front of, and the theme "the little guy gets stepped on by big money" was flat.
I did enjoy the book, in spite of my three-star review. Were I able to give half stars, I would do so, as there is much to like and enjoy about the story and Lehane's writing in particular. I wish Lehane had tried to do more with his characters and events and less with those who became famous.
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