Will Byrnes's Reviews > The Given Day

Lehane is a wonderful writer. Mystic River was his opus magnus, and his Boston hard-boileds are quite good. This novel is his attempt to break out into a larger literary world. Set in the period around World War I, Lehane offers us a sense of the times, and they are not pretty. The two primary characters are Danny Coughlin, a Boston cop in a long tradition, and Luther Laurence, a poor black. There is much in here about the condition of the working man, and it is startling, even to someone who has read quite a bit about the struggle of labor for decent treatment. Things were much worse than I’d imagined. This is a sweeping effort, as Lehane projects himself through a Dickensian lens, covering geography from Boston to Ohio to Tulsa, from Babe Ruth to the governor of Massachusetts to the lowliest criminal element. Lehane has done his homework and offers considerable information about the time. Two incidents stand out. One was the collapse of a vast molasses container that resulted in a flood of the stuff with waves 15 feet high. The other, his burning of Atlanta scene, is how the citizens of Boston react to the police strike. He offers us as well a sense of the political turmoil of the time, the Palmer raids, the fear of Bolshevists, anarchists and immigrants, and how those fears were stoked for political gain. Sound familiar? Lehane is particularly eager not to present his book as being political, and there are many readers who will not see what is right in front of them, but this novel keeps a sharp eye on contemporary events.

This is not Lehane’ best book. That would be Mystic River. But it is an ambitious one. Coming in at slightly over 700 fast-reading pages, it is by far his largest. And he writes about a much wider swath of humanity than he has before. I would say that overall he succeeds in the attempt. This is a very good book, engaging, with believable, well-drawn characters, insight into the complexities of familial relationships, sensitivity to the cultural environment of that age, and with a critical, politically aware eye.

There are several scenes in which Babe Ruth figures. While these scenes are fine, with one being outstanding (the contract negotiation), they could have been omitted without damaging the overall story.

Lehane is an excellent story teller and he plies his trade here quite well. Where the book falls short of the rare air occupied by books like Serena is in his hesitation to incorporate grander imagery into his work. He tells his story, with many intense scenes, many interesting and memorable events, but not the metaphorical, mythological ear of a Ron Rash or a Michael Ondaatje. This keeps the reins on his work. I expect that in future the reins will be loosened and he will produce work in this new Dickensian vein that might be remembered as long as the work of his hero.

This is a terrific book. Read it.

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Other books in the Coughlin series
-----Live By Night - #2
-----World Gone By - #3

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

November 26, 2016 - Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses’ of 1919, by Eric McCann, looks into the science behind the real-like Molasses tsunami that holds a significant place in The Given Day

For more reviews of books by Dennis Lehane, I have an entire shelf of them