Though Luther has abandoned his family, fallen into illicit activity and killed to save his own life, he develops a moral code stronger than that of anyone else in the novel. He’s in love with an Irish immigrant whose past violates the morality he has inherited from his family, and he must decide if he’s strong enough to follow his heart.ĭanny might be a tragic hero, but his heroism pales against the courage of Luther Laurence, a black man suspected of being a criminal on the run but one who forges a bond with the Boston cop. Danny Coughlin, a police officer from a powerfully connected family, finds himself at various times a strike breaker, a strike leader and an undercover infiltrator. All are profoundly, humanly flawed.Īt the book’s heart is the intertwining story of two men. It’s a novel about, as Lehane writes, “the terrible smallness of men.” It’s a novel about “the fist beneath the velvet glove of democracy.” The poor aren’t necessarily noble the rich aren’t inherently evil. But it’s really about the American dream, the resistance to change, the subversion of a country’s brightest ideals through its darkest impulses. Its focus is the Boston police strike of 1919 and the bloody riots that resulted. As big an advance beyond Mystic River as Mystic River was from his earlier books, The Given Day aspires to be nothing less than the Great American Novel, an ambition that critics began questioning just as baseball lost its position as America’s National Pastime. Then he recast himself by leaving the detective format, making his popular breakthrough with the powerful Mystic River (2001). Lehane launched his career with a series of detective novels that showed he could write better than most. Though the Boston novelist isn’t equating his achievement with Ruth’s, there are some striking parallels between the two.

Ruth opens, closes and makes occasional appearances throughout The Given Day, a historical epic that is easily the most ambitious work of Dennis Lehane’s career. Then he recast himself, dominating the game as a slugger, hitting homers at a previously unimaginable clip, setting records that would stand for decades.

He began as a very good pitcher who could hit better than most. No baseball player has ever enjoyed a paradigm-shifting career like Babe Ruth’s.

Lehane the given day