William Morrow, 2008
September 1918. World War I is winding down, and some people, blacks especially, are about to lose their jobs to the “more deserving” soldiers. The Great Influenza epidemic is expanding exponentially and killing indiscriminately. The Boston Red Sox, led by their great pitcher Babe Ruth, will defeat the Chicago Cubs 4 games to two. The Boston police are contemplating an historic strike, and everyone is looking for the “Red Menace” who, it is believed, will encourage unionization and blow up the city. The Volstead Act is about to change drinking patterns across the country. Set against this backdrop is The Given Day, a sweeping new historical novel by Dennis Lehane complete with a two-page dramatis personae.
That theatre term is used with precision. The novel is constructed much like a play. Each part advances the stories and inexorably begins to bring the various protagonists together in a variety of permutations. Dialogue is the primary means of advancing the plot, with descriptive passages serving to color the backdrop in much the same way a stage set and directions do. The combination makes for memorable characters and an engrossing story. In an early scene Babe Ruth and some of his cohorts chance upon some blacks playing baseball in a field. All is well until the locals start winning and tensions rise. When Luther Laurence, a ballplayer whose only weakness is being black, drops an easy out to ensure that the whites win, that act encapsulates the racial tension (black-white, Irish-Polish, e.g.) which is one of the driving forces of this novel.
September 1918. World War I is winding down, and some people, blacks especially, are about to lose their jobs to the “more deserving” soldiers. The Great Influenza epidemic is expanding exponentially and killing indiscriminately. The Boston Red Sox, led by their great pitcher Babe Ruth, will defeat the Chicago Cubs 4 games to two. The Boston police are contemplating an historic strike, and everyone is looking for the “Red Menace” who, it is believed, will encourage unionization and blow up the city. The Volstead Act is about to change drinking patterns across the country. Set against this backdrop is The Given Day, a sweeping new historical novel by Dennis Lehane complete with a two-page dramatis personae.
That theatre term is used with precision. The novel is constructed much like a play. Each part advances the stories and inexorably begins to bring the various protagonists together in a variety of permutations. Dialogue is the primary means of advancing the plot, with descriptive passages serving to color the backdrop in much the same way a stage set and directions do. The combination makes for memorable characters and an engrossing story. In an early scene Babe Ruth and some of his cohorts chance upon some blacks playing baseball in a field. All is well until the locals start winning and tensions rise. When Luther Laurence, a ballplayer whose only weakness is being black, drops an easy out to ensure that the whites win, that act encapsulates the racial tension (black-white, Irish-Polish, e.g.) which is one of the driving forces of this novel.
It is not a signature Lehane detective story. This is truly an historical epic whose characters will stick in the reader’s mind. The events in the story seem so normal, so commonplace, but the weight of tension between the races, and tension within families and within the police finally come to fruition. Building on the real world, Lehane has created a fictional world that seems all too real and frighteningly so. The new police commissioner, for example, was a multi-level failure until a death propelled him into this position. Lehane draws his portrait as a cruel, despotic ruler with a particular fury not found in his previous novels. That fury is made all the more chilling because Lehane carefully researched the events related here and skillfully weaves them into the narrative of his story.
There are a number of cameo appearances by later-to-be-famous historical figures. An early “portrait” of a young John Hoover of the Bureau of Investigation shows the genesis of the sniveling lawman who cared not a whit for one’s rights that J. Edgar Hoover became. John Reed and Emma Goldman pass through the pages, usually in reference rather than action, but their ghosts add weight to the historical perspective. None of the historical cameos who appear detract from the main characters and their stories.
There are a number of cameo appearances by later-to-be-famous historical figures. An early “portrait” of a young John Hoover of the Bureau of Investigation shows the genesis of the sniveling lawman who cared not a whit for one’s rights that J. Edgar Hoover became. John Reed and Emma Goldman pass through the pages, usually in reference rather than action, but their ghosts add weight to the historical perspective. None of the historical cameos who appear detract from the main characters and their stories.
Danny Coughlin and Luther Laurence, one white and one black, are the two key protagonists. In late autumn of 1918 Danny Coughlin, the son of a police captain, has grown a thick beard to infiltrate a “terror”/Bolshevik organization. This puts him into a particularly sensitive place because he was an early victim of a bombing of a police station. Luther arrives in Boston and finds a job in a police captain’s home – Thomas Coughlin, father of Danny. He has left Tulsa where he killed a couple of black gangsters with whom he had been involved. A pregnant wife whom he loves remains behind.
Counted among the best books of 2008 by some reviewers, The Given Day deserves attention by the serious reader. A short review, such as this, can only begin to hint at the literary treasure that awaits. It is well worth the time it takes to read.
Counted among the best books of 2008 by some reviewers, The Given Day deserves attention by the serious reader. A short review, such as this, can only begin to hint at the literary treasure that awaits. It is well worth the time it takes to read.
