The Given Day

Last updated
The Given Day
TheGivenDay.jpg
First edition
Author Dennis Lehane
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher William Morrow and Company
Publication date
September 23, 2008 [1]
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages704 p. [1]
ISBN 978-0-688-16318-1 [1]
Followed by Live by Night  

The Given Day is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane published in September 2008; it is about the early twentieth-century period and set in Boston, Massachusetts, where its actions include the 1919 police strike. It also features Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the thriving Greenwood District was known as the "Black Wall Street".

Contents

Plot summary

The Given Day is a historical novel set in Boston, Massachusetts and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The story has two main characters: Aiden "Danny" Coughlin, an ethnic Irish Boston Police patrolman, whose father is a prominent detective and captain in the department; and Luther Laurence, a talented black amateur baseball player from Columbus, Ohio.

The novel starts at the end of the First World War, when union organizing activities are high across the country. The year is 1918 and the BPD patrolmen have not been given a raise since 1905; they are working for below-poverty level wages. The Boston Social Club (BSC) is the fraternal organization of the BPD patrolmen and its members begin to discuss their grievances and possible actions. Due to his family's high status and reputation in the police department, Danny is reluctant to attend BSC meetings. His partner, Steve Coyle, is able to get him to attend some meetings where the BSC hopes to join the American Federation of Labor, a national union. BPD Captain Thomas Coughlin (Danny's father), FBI agent Rayme Finch, and a Department of Justice lawyer, the young J. Edgar Hoover, assign Danny to infiltrate the Roxbury Lettish Workingman's Society in promise of his detective's stripes. Danny is told that they may be collaborating with other radical cells to plan a national revolt on May Day. As Danny is undercover attending meetings with the Letts, he begins to identify with some of the principles they preach. He soon is elected as the vice-president of the BSC.

Luther Laurence and his pregnant wife, Lila, move from Columbus to Tulsa, Oklahoma to start a new life closer to some of her relatives in the Greenwood District. Laurence and his friend Jessie earn some extra money running numbers for a local bookie and gangster, Deacon Skinner Brocious. When Jessie gets caught skimming from Deacon, a deadly confrontation ensues. Laurence has to leave his wife in Tulsa and flees to Boston, where his uncle sets him up with the Giddreauxs, a black couple who lead the Boston chapter of the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In Boston Luther gets work as a handyman and servant in the home of police Captain Thomas Coughlin. While working for the Coughlins, Laurence becomes close friends with Nora O'Shea, an Irish immigrant and servant. She was taken in by the Coughlins five years earlier, when the captain found her shivering in the streets on Christmas Eve. Nora and Danny had a love affair, which ended when he discovered a dark secret from her past. She has become engaged to his younger brother, a rising attorney.

Luther is manipulated by Lieutenant Eddie McKenna, best friend to Captain Coughlin and godfather to Danny. Delving into Luther's past, McKenna has discovered that he is running from the deadly altercation in Tulsa. Laurence has been earning his board at the Giddreauxs' home by renovating an old building as the new NAACP headquarters in Boston. McKenna forces him to obtain NAACP membership information and to build a secret chamber in the new headquarters.

When the Coughlins discover Nora's secret, she is banned from their household. Luther is banned after being caught spending time with her and giving her food. Danny's involvement in the BSC takes him away from his family as well; his father is particularly opposed to Danny's new "radical and Bolshevik-like" views. Nora, Danny and Luther form a close friendship. Nora is on her own just as she was five years ago, the men of the BPD are counting on Danny to lead them to a fair wage and working conditions, and Laurence is trying to escape McKenna's clutches and make it back to his wife and child.

The story culminates in the historical Boston Police Strike, which is precipitated by the police commissioner's refusal to allow the nascent police union's right to affiliate with national labor organizations, or to exist. In the chaos of the strike, Luther saves Danny's life. By this time Danny had reunited with and married Nora. Luther reconciles the difficult situation he had run from in Tulsa, and succeeds in returning there to join his wife and recently born child in the Greenwood District. (This is before the area was destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.)

Babe Ruth storyline

The notable historic ball player Babe Ruth is featured as a recurring character in The Given Day, along with other historic figures. He appears in the prologue and various transitions within the novel. In the prologue, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs are traveling by train from Chicago to Boston during the 1918 World Series. The train breaks down in Ohio. Ruth happens upon a pick-up game among some African-American players, one of whom happens to be Luther Laurence. Ruth admires his skills, then is joined by other of the Cubs and Red Sox players, who want to take on the African Americans. Ruth's team ends up cheating and although he knows it is wrong, he sides with his teammates. He is ashamed of his action and reflects on it at different points when he re-appears in the book.

Reception

Critics were generally favorable, commenting that Lehane had written a big American novel. Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times , "He has written a majestic, fiery epic that moves him far beyond the confines of the crime genre." [2] She concludes by writing:

The Given Day is a huge, impassioned, intensively researched book that brings history alive by grounding the present in the lessons of the past. When Mr. Lehane writes of “a man who wore his power like a white suit on a coal black night,” he could be writing about a distant time — or writing about his own. [2]

Colette Bancroft of the St. Petersburg Times wrote "That time and place give Lehane scope to tell a uniquely American story, one grounded in our history yet ringing with issues that concern us still, almost a century later: race, immigration, terrorism, economic instability, political corruption and the corrosive gap between the haves and have-nots." [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulsa race massacre</span> 1921 mass violence in Oklahoma, U.S.

The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. The attackers burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood—at the time, one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States, colloquially known as "Black Wall Street."

<i>Skipping Christmas</i> Novel by John Grisham

Skipping Christmas is a comedic novel by John Grisham. It was published by Doubleday on November 6, 2001, and reached #1 on The New York Times Best-Seller List on December 9 that year. It was also released as a four-CD audiobook, narrated by actor Dennis Boutsikaris, by Random House Audio Publishing Group in October 2006. The book was adapted into the film Christmas with the Kranks (2004), directed by Joe Roth and written by Chris Columbus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Police Department</span> Municipal police department in Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Police Department (BPD), dating back to 1838, holds the primary responsibility for law enforcement and investigation within the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest municipal police department in the United States. The BPD is also the 20th largest law enforcement agency in the country.

Greenwood is a historic freedom colony in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As one of the most prominent concentrations of African-American businesses in the United States during the early 20th century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street". It was burned to the ground in the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, in which a local white mob gathered and attacked the area. Between 75 and 300 Americans were killed, hundreds more were injured, and the homes of 5000 were destroyed, leaving them homeless. The massacre was one of the largest in the history of U.S. race relations, destroying the once-thriving Greenwood community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Lehane</span> American novelist (born 1965)

Dennis Lehane is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War. Four of his novels have been adapted into films of the same names: Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), and Gone Baby Gone (2007) and Live by Night (2016), both directed by Ben Affleck. His short story "Animal Rescue" was also adapted into the film The Drop, noted for being the final film role for actor James Gandolfini.

<i>The Outsiders</i> (film) 1983 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Outsiders is a 1983 American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film is an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton and was released on March 25, 1983, in the United States. Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian at Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, and her students were responsible for inspiring Coppola to make the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher</span> Civil rights lawyer from Oklahoma

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement in Oklahoma. She applied for admission into the University of Oklahoma law school in order to challenge the state's segregation laws and to become a lawyer.

Dick Rowland or Roland was an African American teenage shoeshiner whose arrest for assault in May 1921 was the impetus for the Tulsa race massacre. Rowland was 19 years old at the time. The alleged victim of the assault was a white 17-year-old elevator operator Sarah Page. She later declined to advocate for and/or assist any prosecution after the race riots. According to conflicting reports, the arrest was prompted after Rowland tripped in Page's elevator on his way to a segregated bathroom, and a white store clerk reported the incident as an "assault" or a rape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham Police Department</span>

The Birmingham Police Department (BPD) is the police department of the city of Birmingham, Alabama, in the United States. The department operates in an area of 148.61 square miles across two counties (384.91 km2) and a population of 212,237 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln Ragsdale</span> African-American rights activist and Tuskegee Airman (1926–1995)

Lincoln Johnson Ragsdale Sr. was an influential leader in the Phoenix-area Civil Rights Movement. Known for his outspokenness, Ragsdale was instrumental in various reform efforts in the Valley, including voting rights and the desegregation of schools, neighborhoods, and public accommodations.

<i>Live by Night</i> 2012 Book by Dennis Lehane

Live by Night is a crime novel by American writer Dennis Lehane, published in 2012. It won a 2013 Edgar Award for novel of the year.

Joseph Michael Jordan was an American law enforcement officer who served as Commissioner of the Boston Police Department from 1976 to 1985. He was the first uniformed BPD officer to rise through the ranks to become commissioner.

<i>Live by Night</i> (film) 2016 film by Ben Affleck

Live by Night is a 2016 American crime drama film written, directed, produced by and starring Ben Affleck. Based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, the film follows an ambitious Ybor City bootlegger (Affleck) who becomes a notorious gangster. The film also stars Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Messina, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldaña, and Chris Cooper.

<i>Since We Fell</i> 2017 book by Dennis Lehane

Since We Fell is a psychological thriller novel by American author Dennis Lehane, published in May 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regina Goodwin</span> American politician

Regina Goodwin is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 73rd district since 2015.

"It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice" is the pilot episode of the HBO superhero drama miniseries Watchmen, based on the 1986 DC Comics series of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and directed by Nicole Kassell, and aired on October 20, 2019. The episode introduces the show's lead characters of Angela Abar/Sister Night, Judd Crawford, and Wade Tillman/Looking Glass.

The Oklahoma Eagle is a Tulsa-based Black-owned newspaper published by James O. Goodwin. Established in 1922, it has been called the voice of Black Tulsa and is a successor to the Tulsa Star newspaper, which burned in the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. The Oklahoma Eagle publishes news about the Black community and reported on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre at a time when many white-owned newspapers in Tulsa refused to acknowledge it. TheOklahoma Eagle is also Oklahoma's longest-running Black-owned newspaper. The Oklahoma Eagle serves a print subscriber base throughout six Northeastern Oklahoma counties, statewide, in 36 U.S. states and territories, and abroad. It claims that it is the tenth oldest Black-owned newspaper in the United States still publishing today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A.C. Jackson</span> African-American surgeon

A.C. Jackson was an African American surgeon who was murdered during the Tulsa race massacre in 1921 and is known as the most prominent victim of the massacre. Jackson was a leading member of the Oklahoma medical community and the African-American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma until his death.

Dennis A. White is a police officer who was Commissioner of the Boston Police Department. After being sworn in on February 1, 2021, White was placed on leave two days later, as the city conducted an investigation into a 1999 allegation of domestic violence against his wife and teenage daughter. On June 7, 2021, Acting Mayor Kim Janey fired White after legal challenges.

The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA) is the largest of the police unions representing police officers in the Boston Police Department. As of 2020, it represents approximately 1,500 officers. The BPPA also respresents Boston Emergency Medical Services personal.

References

  1. 1 2 3 . Barnes & Noble. Accessed July 30, 2008.
  2. 1 2 Janet Maslin, "A Vision of Old Boston in All Its Angry Power", The New York Times, 18 September 2008, accessed 26 September 2011
  3. Colette Bancroft, "Review: Dennis Lehane's novel 'The Given Day' makes the historical personal", St. Petersburg Times, at Tampa Bay.com, 21 September 2008, accessed 26 September 2011