Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane's previous work of historical fiction, The Given Day, was as close as the man has come to writing an epic. With dozens of characters - including Babe Ruth - nearly 700 pages, and lots of historical depth, Lehane's well-researched novel was as much about people caught up in historical tides as it was those characters. For his follow up, Live By Night, Lehane writes something closer to his usual books, telling the story of a young gangster (the younger brother of The Given Day's main character) and his rise from a lowly henchman to a feared and respected figure that ran a city. Like The Given Day, Live By Night deals in history - here, the bootlegging world of Prohibition - but rather than letting the history dictate the characters' world, Live By Night is more character-driven and feels more like an ambitious piece of noir in the tradition of The Godfather or the film A Prophet. Anyone who's read Lehane knows how great the man is at plotting noir, and Live By Night is no exception; the plotting is rich, complex, surprising, and thematically rich, as well as always feeling like it's drawing off of its characters instead of pushing them along for the plot's sake. More than that, Live By Night is a chance for Lehane to move beyond his usual Boston-based stories in favor of varied locales that include everywhere from Florida to Cuba and more, not to mention diving into life among Cuban exiles and the ever-growing Hispanic community in Tampa. Live By Night does all of those things, does it all well, and still manages to be beautifully written, surprisingly moving at points, and absolutely addictive to rip through, causing me no end of sleepless nights as I read just a few more pages, and then a few more...well, you know how it goes. Live By Night is among Lehane's best works, and given the usual caliber of what the man writes, that's no small feat. Miss this one at your own peril. - Josh Mauthe
