The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

I was, without a doubt, sorely disappointed by Dennis Lehane’s last book, Shutter Island. It was a suspense novel without any tension, and Lehane has no one to blame but himself because it was the writing that let the story down. It was as if he were writing on automatic and figured the gimmicky ending would be enough to get people talking. Unfortunately, the ending was telegraphed far too early and should be easily guessed by anyone with a passing knowledge of the clichés inherent to the genre. This is a shame, since there is a good story buried in there somewhere, but it never materializes into something worth reading. With the talent involved in the movie, there’s a good chance it’ll be one of the rare cases of the film being better than the book.

So there was a large amount of trepidation when I picked up The Given Day almost immediately after finishing Shutter Island, but I was curious to see what Lehane could do given a change of subject matter.

Eschewing his past as a mystery writer, Lehane decided to shift gears and make The Given Day a sprawling 700 page historical epic set in 1919. Using events from the time period, mostly the attempts to unionize the Boston Police Department and the strike that followed, Lehane plays to his strengths and avoids many of the pratfalls from his previous work.

Where Shutter Island had the sense of predictability, The Given Day instead has the sense of inevitability, in regard to both the plot and the character arcs. Each tragedy and triumph that happens to the characters feels earned and organic, and this unto itself should be lauded considering the large cast he manages to flesh out.

I’ve never felt Lehane’s writing could ever be described as anything other than workmanlike, but The Given Day features some of his best writing yet. Many passages bring the era to life, and while no one would ever accuse the prose of being flowery, it provides the reader with a vivid look at a time long past, with all the grime and grittiness that remind the reader that the working conditions in the early 1900s were far from pristine, or even humane.

Perhaps the best compliment I could give to this novel is that reading it made me want to look into the actual events to see how they stack up against what happens in the book. Lehane has said in interviews The Given Day took him six years to research and write and the attention to detail bears that out.

I won’t be happy with it, but if it takes another six years for a book of this quality, I’m willing to wait.

Rating: Four Sean Penns overacting in Mystic River out of Five.