In The Given Day, Dennis Lehane attempts to do for Boston what E.L. Doctorow did for New York in Ragtime. The characters are numerous and diverse; their stories are sprinkled with imagined encounters with actual historical figures, and set against a background of historic events in Boston at the end of WWI. I don't read much fiction, but I enjoyed this book enough to read it straight through, rather than my usual practice of juggling 6-8 different books. And yet, I am left with a nagging sense of disappointment. This book could have been so much better.

Lehane ties in enough historical threads to create those "aha" moments where you realize that events you learned about in various history books actually occurred in the same time and place, but he lacks Doctorow's ability to make you take you there with all of your senses. Lehane isn't particularly interested in the architecture, geographic setting, or local culture that make one place stand out from another. He repeatedly emphasizes how much Danny enjoys living in Boston's Italian community, but aside from the ethnicity of the names, the reader doesn't really experience that environment.

The female characters are cardboard cutouts, encountered only through the observations of their male acquaintances. Aside from Luther, the black characters don't fare much better. And the flow of the story is constantly interrupted by typos, anachronisms (paramedics administering IVs in 1918?), and discontinuities. Within the span of a few pages, one character has never done something in a particular way, and then he has always done it that way. A few pages after Lieutenant Eddie McKenna plans his next encounter with Luther, addressing him by his full name, Luther is startled to be called by that name in the street. It is not surprising that these errors would creep in over the course of writing 700 pages, but I would expect an editor to find them and get them cleaned up. ( )

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

This book was received from LibraryThing under the Early Reviewers program. As Dennis Lehane went to college in my area, I was very interested in reading his book about the early 1900’s history in Boston, Massachusetts. This writer returns frequently to the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading that takes place every October.

There are not enough words to description this historical saga of two families with a side story line of Babe Ruth. This country was built on the backbone of immigrants and it is very sad that the discrimination that is outlined in this book continues until this day.

Why are we always so afraid of new people and why do we think we are better than the ones coming after us. So clearly does the writer lay before us the lesson that we can get more accomplished by working together and not trying to screw our neighbor? When will we ever learn that everyone can contribute?

How quickly we judge our fellow man by his color, his heritage, and his political beliefs. It was eye opening to read Lehane’s narrative about an Irish policeman Danny Coughlin just trying to make a living but ending up getting involved in the beginnings of a union. The story line of Luther Laurence, a great baseball player who is not allowed to use his talent in a sport much loved by Americans.

I liked this book so much, I recommended it to my East Lake Community Library Book Club and it is the book to read for this October. This is a book that makes history alive for the reader. ( )

I didn't finish this book quickly. It was rather hard to get in to, especially because of the sense of doom you get when you read the first page. You know a lot of things are going to go wrong. And they do.
But what a good story this is! Lehane is extremely talented, he juggles with all those different characters and story lines like a true artist. I greatly admire him. ( )

Danny Coughlin is the oldest son of Irish immigrant Boston Police Captain Tommy Coughlin. Danny is also a Boston police officer. Luther Laurence is a black man from Ohio whose mother died young and whose father gave him nothing. Luther learned to love tools and learned to work from his uncle. For some reason I cannot fathom, Babe Ruth is also part of this book. The bits about Ruth do not add anything; fortunately, those bits do not really detract from the tale of Danny and Luther, how their lives converge and intertwine in post WWI Boston, and how they develop a firm friendship.

Danny's and Luther's story is set in an America undergoing upheaval as the war ends. Blacks who had been working were fired to give jobs to the returning white soldiers. Big Business reigned. Workers' unions were only beginning to develop, and were viewed as the tools of Anarchists and Communists. The NAACP was in its infancy and had not yet become a true force.

Lehane has done a masterful job of portraying social, political and family life of the time, and developing characters who grow and whose personalities and actions ring true. As the narrative culminates in the failed Boston Police strike of September, 1919, Danny's involvement in the union organizing and the strike has repercussions that ripple through his family and affects the lives of his friends. Yet, the work ends on a note of hope, and this reader hopes that Lehane will see fit to write a sequel to his engaging historical novel. ( )

People back then were so violent -- the police, especially. ( )