The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. After being utterly captivated by the final book in this trilogy, I went back in time to immerse myself in the story of the Coughlin family (Boston police-centered) in the years following the end of the First World War. Not only was I in awe of the narrative, characters, and world-building, but I also received a profound history lesson on the events leading up to and culminating in the Boston Police strike of 1919!Dennis Lehane, in this historical fiction novel fi...

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS An ambitious project, a daring undertaking, which, from my perspective, wasn't entirely successful as a historical fiction novel.The United States, from Ohio to Tulsa, Oklahoma (which three years later would be the setting for the bloodiest racial massacre in American history), but especially Boston. World War I was winding down, with the USA having participated since 1917. After devastating Europe with the Spanish Flu, which caused more deaths than the Black Death...

The size of Dennis Lehane's **The Given Day** truly mirrors the scope of its story: mammoth, huge, epic. Lehane sweeps us into Boston at the close of World War I, a period defined by unrest, social uprising, anarchists, revolutionaries, immigrants, plagues, and violence. It's the compelling tale of two men: one white, an Irish cop; the other black, a house worker. Both struggle to define themselves during a turbulent historical era, leading up to a pivotal day when change becomes inevitable. Th...

October/2015 Buddy read with Stepheny- the kidnapper with the heart of...well...lots of people probably, Jeff- the whiny prisoner with a blue crayon, and Jess- the not so innocent bystander, and two new comers (who incidentally finished waaaaaay before me) Steve and CarmenExtra Extra read all about it!THE GIVEN DAY is a historical novel set in Boston- Massachusetts and Tulsa- Oklahoma.Aiden "Danny" Coughlin, an Irish Boston Police patrolman whose father -Thomas- is an influential detective and...

The Given Day is the tale of two men, Danny Coughlin and Luther Laurence, and their families, set against the backdrop of pre-prohibition Boston.Yeah, I know that didn't really say much but it's hard to write a teaser for a 700 page historical novel.As I understand it, this was Dennis Lehane's return to the novel world after five years of doing other things, mostly writing for The Wire. And he crammed every thought he may have had in about Boston in the early 20th Century in those five years int...

Imagine an America where the wealthy people in power rule a system in which they are free to reap enormous profits through unregulated businesses while every privilege that society can offer is given to them. These titans of capitalism underpay their employees for hard labor that lasts at least twelve hours a day in unsafe conditions with no overtime or benefits. If any of these workers dare complain, then the government will happily label them as dangerous socialist terrorists who threaten the ...

Dennis Lehane is a wonderful writer. *Mystic River* was his opus magnus, and his Boston hard-boiled novels are quite good. With *The Given Day*, Lehane attempts to break out into a larger literary world. Set in the period around World War I, this historical fiction novel offers us a visceral sense of the times, and they are not pretty. The two primary characters are Danny Coughlin, a Boston cop from a long tradition, and Luther Laurence, a poor Black man. *The Given Day* delves deep into the con...

Otra maravilla del señor Dennis Lehane. No hay libro que haya leído de él que baje de las 5⭐. Me atrevería a decir sin conocer toda su obra, que está es de las más ambiciosas.A diferencia de esas otras novelas leídas (Mystic River y Golpe de Gracia), el autor nos lleva al género de novela histórica, a los convulsos años 1918 y 1919 en la ciudad de Boston -como no-.Me ha encantado como te hace partícipe de todo lo que ocurrió esos días, que no es poco. Te sientes como un ciudadano más y te echas ...

Muy buena novela. Me esperaba una novela centrada en un tema concreto y me he encontrado con una obra que repasa la historia de tres personajes: Luther Laurence, Danny Coughlin y Babe Ruth. Son hombres, pero sus vidas se forman a partir de las mujeres que los rodean. Ellas los moldean y son el centro de sus pensamientos durante todas las páginas. La novela va desde la gripe que asoló EE.UU después de la I Guerra Mundial (sus consecuencias están presentes en todo momento) hasta la huelga de la po...

Esta primera entrega de la serie Danny Coughlin me ha parecido espectacular. El cambio de registro que introduce el gran escritor Dennis Lehane con respecto a su serie policiaca de Kenzie Y Gennaro (una serie que ha producido grandes novelas) es digno de reseña. Es, quizás, el mejor libro del autor que he leído hasta la actualidad.El Boston descrito en los años 18-19 del siglo pasado está tan bien elaborado, que me sentí inmerso en la época. Y los personajes son tremendamente creíbles, sin conta...