Reading Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day made me realize I don’t know much about Boston history between the revolution and maybe the 1950s. I know bits and pieces, sure, but the full narrative is beyond me. Case in point, the Boston Police Strike of 1919. I just had no idea of any of the details or the breadth of the thing.
Now I do.
Beyond the historical bits, this is a Dennis Lehane book, set in Boston (even if it was a Boston of 91 years ago,) so I was basically destined to like it. It’s a sprawling book. Clearly ambitious. To my mind it was mostly successful. It’s maybe a little longer than it needed to be (it feels like nothing happens for the first 300 pages) but beyond that it’s a cracking read. Violent, peppered with historical figures and driven by Lehane’s relentless prose, The Given Day has a lot to offer. I was pleased to hear that Lehane plans two more books in this series. While it’s a satisfying book by itself, I felt like there was a lot more story to tell.
I’m looking forward to it.
RSS - Posts