The Given Day: A Novel
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Product Description
Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, bestselling leader Dennis Lehane’s extraordinary eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads where past meets future. Filled with a cast of richly drawn, unforgettable characters, The Agreed Day tells the tale 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. Coursing through the pivotal events of a turbulent period, it explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself.
Amazon.com Review
Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times bestselling leader 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 made, The Agreed Day tells the tale 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 tree and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.
Here, too, are some of the most influential facts of the era–Babe Ruth; Eugene O’Neill; leftist liberal Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson’s ruthless Red-chasing attorney all-purpose; cunning Massachusetts administrator 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 endemic–and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Agreed Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and persons around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family tree in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.
“[An] engrossing epic. . . . A vision of redemption and a triumph of the human spirit.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
About the Leader
Dennis Lehane is the leader of seven novels. These include the New York Times bestsellers Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; and Shutter Island, as well as Coronado, a collection of fleeting tales and a play. He and his wife, Angie, apportion their time between Boston and the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Images from The Agreed Day
The Boston Molasses Disaster
The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Fantastic Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph, killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and residents aver that on hot summer days the areas still smells of molasses. (From Wikipedia).
Headline from the Boston Post, September 9, 1919
Rioters clash with National Guardsmen called in by Massachusetts Administrator Calvin Coolidge during a strike by Boston police officers.
Emma Goldman
“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.”
Influenza
City officials in Boston were caught off guard when three civilians dropped dead of influenza in early September 1918. As September 1918 drew to a close, Boston had lost more than 1,000 citizens to the silent, relentless killer. The deadly influenza now posed a threat to the entire nation, and the world at large.
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge (1872 – 1933) was a Republican lawyer from Vermont who worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually apt administrator. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight; he became the 30th President of the United States (1923 – 1929).
 The Boston Molasses Disaster |
 The headline from the Boston Post, September 9, 1919 |
 Emma Goldman |
 Influenza Mask |
 Calvin Coolidge |
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I agreed up for lost my order because your site did not tell me that I would not recieve the book I ordered for over 3 weeks That information should be o your site before I ordered it Very frustrating
I would not order again unless the information tells before placing the order the day that it woudl be delivered
Barbara Babin
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Weak plot and characters. The leader is obsessed with using the “f-word” which adds nothing to the novel. The history of the rise of the labor movement in America is far richer than it’s described in this book.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Recently a member of the committee which awards the Nobel Prize for literature had some unkind and unfair comments about the state of American literature. Indeed if he were reading, say Cormac McCarthy, he may have not come to that conclusion. On the additional hand if he’d happened upon Dennis Lehane’s atrocity Any Agreed Day, he’d be spot on.
Perhaps the most offensive aspect of this overblown, over written, unreadable behemoth of a novel is that Lehane seems to reflect he is writing literature, when he is not even writing a decent potboiler. When one thinks of all the critical abuse that has been heaped on The Da Vinci Code, at least, once can say for all its literary faults and frequent terrible writing, it a fantastic potboiler and page turner.
In The Agreed Day, Lehane takes an exciting time, 1919; a changing and politically charged city, Boston; the struggles of second generation ethnic groups, Irish, African, American, and Italian; an era of political turmoil when bolshevism seemed like a fantastic thought to many people; all the conflict that goes with these things, and even a dose of Babe Ruth; and manages to mangle it so terribly that the most riveting thing about the book is the thud when one has finally finished it and throws it to the floor in utter disgust.
If for no additional reason than the desire to lower the carbon trace of this massive waste of paper, avoid this book. God help us if a name tries to make it a movie.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
There was indeed some excellent research and sections of this book. It got dull after a while though. Too many sections were repetative. Out of all the authors books I have read this is the bottom of the barrel.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
The leader is, in my opinion, one of the best wordsmiths of the past fifteen years. Sorry to say that talent seemed to escape him in this overblown novel. The characters lack the depth shown in additional work by Lehane and seem to be simply vehicles to allow the leader an opportunity to recount history – and some honestly dull history at that.
I read where this may be the first of a trilogy – I can only hope not as this was truly a lackadaisical effort.
It would be nice to see him go back to what he can do well and that is write brilliant books like Mystic River and the Kenzie/Gennaro series. If you’re interested in reading The Agreed Day wait a while and it will be on the discount rack. Otherwise grab some No-Doz and give it a try.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5