The Constant Reader

The Given Day is Dennis Lehane’s eighth novel. A lengthy ambitious work that portrays Boston at a critical moment in its history—right after WWI--it’s a good read that sometimes bogs down in the details. The narrative centers on two families, the Coughlins, Boston Irish who have chosen the police force as a means of advancement in a closed society, and Luther Laurence, an African American from Tulsa who flees to Boston to escape his unintentional involvement in a gang murder, leaving behind his pregnant wife. In Boston, Luther comes in contact with Danny Coughlin, the rebellious member of his family, who although a policeman himself, is unhappy with the status quo. Meanwhile, the Spanish Influenza is decimating the population, workers are threatening to strike and “Bolshevik radicals” are making their presence known. The novel opens with a segment about Babe Ruth, who resurfaces throughout the story, as do other historical figures such as Calvin Coolidge, then governor of Massachusetts. The climax of the novel, when everything comes together, is the 1919 Boston Police Strike, a devastating event that left parts of the city in ruins and many victims on both sides. Lehane is at his best when depicting the Coughlin household and the politics of the police force, less comfortable with Luther Laurence and the educated African American couple who take him in. Still, the pace is swift and the ending believable. It turns out that although they survive, perhaps to establish a better future, there is no place in Boston for either Luther or Danny and so they head west, the archetypal solution for so many Americans.