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Larry Bassett's Reviews > The Given Day
The Given Day (Coughlin, #1)
by
by
This book is filled with hatred and violence. It mostly takes place around 1918 in Boston. World war one is in the background and the flu epidemic and riots when the cops go on strike. We are at the beginning of the unionization era as well as bomb throwers and communism.
We find ourselves in the family of five with a high-ranking crooked cop as the dad and three sons. Plenty of drinking and Catholicism. The family has two servants a young Irish housemaid and a black chauffeur and handyman who found himself in Boston after fleeing Tulsa as a murderer. Definitely no run-of-the-mill people in this book!
One son of the crooked cop is totally politically correct and becomes a union organizer. He falls in love with the Irish maidservant and suffers as his brother wins her away from him. Our black murderer servant also turns out to be a really good guy in disguise and hooks up with the NAACP as that organization is just beginning its existence. As a sideline in his prior life he was a baseball player Who along with eight other black players played a pick up game with a group of white professional ballplayers including Babe Ruth. Not to spoil the story but the black amateurs beat the white professionals. Babe makes a cameo appearance in several occasions in the book. Again, not to swell the story but babe is traded from Boston to the Yankees at the end of the book! I wonder if he will reappear in the following books of the trilogy. Guessing probably not!
So we have race relations attempted unionization of public employees (cops) The red scare and terrorists and love winning out but families with all sorts of problems getting along. Definitely some complicated characters. I am interested to see what will happen in books 2 and three. As usual for me these days I am experiencing this trilogy in the audible format. It is done quite well I think in this first book.
We find ourselves in the family of five with a high-ranking crooked cop as the dad and three sons. Plenty of drinking and Catholicism. The family has two servants a young Irish housemaid and a black chauffeur and handyman who found himself in Boston after fleeing Tulsa as a murderer. Definitely no run-of-the-mill people in this book!
One son of the crooked cop is totally politically correct and becomes a union organizer. He falls in love with the Irish maidservant and suffers as his brother wins her away from him. Our black murderer servant also turns out to be a really good guy in disguise and hooks up with the NAACP as that organization is just beginning its existence. As a sideline in his prior life he was a baseball player Who along with eight other black players played a pick up game with a group of white professional ballplayers including Babe Ruth. Not to spoil the story but the black amateurs beat the white professionals. Babe makes a cameo appearance in several occasions in the book. Again, not to swell the story but babe is traded from Boston to the Yankees at the end of the book! I wonder if he will reappear in the following books of the trilogy. Guessing probably not!
So we have race relations attempted unionization of public employees (cops) The red scare and terrorists and love winning out but families with all sorts of problems getting along. Definitely some complicated characters. I am interested to see what will happen in books 2 and three. As usual for me these days I am experiencing this trilogy in the audible format. It is done quite well I think in this first book.
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Reading Progress
January 13, 2017
–
Started Reading
January 13, 2017
– Shelved
January 15, 2017
–
42.0%
"“—the idea is, Father? The idea is that we’re supposed to play nice and go away when they’re done with us. Accept what they give us and drink it and eat it and clap for it and say, ‘Mmmm, more, please. Thanks.’ And, Father, I gotta tell you, I’ve about had my fucking fill.”"
January 15, 2017
–
44.0%
"“Change hurts.” “That’s your answer?” Danny stood. “Change hurts, Eddie, but believe me, it’s coming.” “It isn’t.” “It’s got to.” Eddie shook his head. “There are fights, m’ boy, and there is folly. And I fear you’ll soon learn the difference.”"
January 15, 2017
–
61.0%
"Today, Boston. Tomorrow, someplace else. The poor fighting the poor. As they’d always done. As they were encouraged to. And it would never change. He finally realized that. It would never change."
January 16, 2017
–
Finished Reading
