The Given Day

By: Dennis Lehane

Narrated by: Michael Boatman

Length: 23 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times best-selling author Dennis Lehane's long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future.

Filled with a cast of unforgettable characters more richly drawn than any Lehane has ever created, The Given Day tells the story of two families: one black, one white, swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power.

Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.

Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era: Babe Ruth; Eugene O'Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson's ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover.

Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time, including the Spanish Influenza pandemic and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.

©2008 Dennis Lehane (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"[An] engrossing epic....A vision of redemption and a triumph of the human spirit." ( Publishers Weekly)

Good story, produced with loud music at chapter beginnings.

Prefectly servicable writing a bit predictable but interesting made into an annoying experience due to loud out of context music between chapters. As if a TV was interrupting a book. Weird

A splendid, memorable novel

Would you listen to The Given Day again? Why?

Yes, it is very well written and rich in characters and events. I might mention that this is the first of three novels centered around the Coughlins, the second being Live the Night and the third, World Gone By; this is not apparent from the introductions to these works. I had already listened to two later works because I was not aware of The Given Day; I ended up listening to these again when I finished The Given Day.

What did you like best about this story?

It is richly evocative of the period around and after World War I. In particular, it renders vividly race relations of the time.

What about Michael Boatman’s performance did you like?

Michael Boatman, whom I discovered here, is just about the finest reader I know. A great performance.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, more than one. The one that comes to mind is Babe Ruth unexpectedly seeing Luther in the audience and being so conscience stricken than he cannot play well for the rest of the season.

Any additional comments?

The opening chapter is an anthology piece that is worth the price of the book.

I recommend this audiobook with enthusiasm.

I like pretty much anything Lehane

This book is an epic. Deep and rich, long and slow burning. I highly recommend it, but more if you have read his other work and want a trilogy. I will be reading and listening to Live by Night next!

Great historical fiction

Wow, what a book. Racism against so many different cultures, I am amazed by how far we have come, yet saddened by how bad things were.

one of his best

while within the crime milieu were used to seeing Dennis Lehane work within, this is a completely different kind of novel compared with the ones that take place in contemporary Boston. I can't imagine the amount of research he must have done for this book. he situates it so well within historical events it seems like historical fiction, and I guess it is. the characters are as richly developed as usual, and even tertiary characters are three-dimensional and have their moments. it's a sprawling story, and in the beginning it's hard to imagine how Lehane is going to weave each character's separate story into one, but of course he does it in splendid fashion. it's a satisfying, self-contained novel, though part of a series. narration is also superb.

my only complaint about the audiobook presentation is that the producer decided Lehane's writing just wasn't quite good enough and that it needed interstitial, cheap and overly loud segue music between random sections. the hubris behind this kind of decision is sort of jaw-dropping when you consider the writer we're dealing with here. the awful music is disruptive for 60 or 75 seconds seven or eight times throughout the audiobook.

Amazing

The plot, the narration, the history, the characters--this is one one of my favorite books ever.

great listen!

Micheal Boatman was amazing, his character voices we're right on. He did a wonderful job of illustrating the author's words. I highly recommend.

Best American novel I've read in 20 years

Gripping drama from start to finish and relevancy to today's tumultuous world in remarkable ways.

Good story, Great narrator

I'd love a follow up to see what happens to the characters. A different Dennis Lehane book but very entertaining. Also, the narrator was excellent. Sometimes, with audio books, the narrators are so annoying I can't finish listening to the book.

lots of Boston History

what an incredible story of an Irish family in Boston. it touches on so many different historic events all in one book: the boston Police Strike, Babe Ruth getting traded to the Yankees, athe Great Molasses flood, Prohibition, etc...