Mystic River (2001) by Dennis Lehane

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Mystic River (2001)

by Dennis Lehane

East Buckingham, Boston Massachussets 

Massachussets: 24/30

  It took me forever to make it through Mystic River because I decided to make it my court/jail book- i.e. the book I read when I'm sitting around waiting for a jail visit or a court hearing.  Not a great look for the book since it basically guarantees that I will be in a bad mood each time I read said book.   Once I took the book out of my briefcase it took me about an hour to read the last three quarters after months trying to get through the first 100 pages.

  Mystic River is a hit two times over- the book is still in print and considered a minor classic of the genre (police procedural adjacent) and the movie (2003), has an 89 on Rotten Tomatoes- from both fans and critics.   Finishing the book had me wanting to actually watch the film- which is almost unheard of in my experience.   The crime: the murder of the daughter of a reformed local gangster in west Boston slum neighborhood takes a back seat to the neighborhood itself and the shared history of the cops and criminals, perpetrators and victims, who animate the action.

  Lehane shows himself a savvy writer of fiction in terms of the way he manipulates the reader with his use of multiple unreliable narrators- it's one thing to identify the unreliable narrator, quite another to figure out where everything is headed.  Considering the continuing popularity of the book and film I won't spoil the ending, but I did think the ultimate revelation was a little cheap.  Guess I'm in the minority there judging from the twenty plus years of rave reviews from critical and popular audiences.