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There are currently 36 member reviews
for Live by Night
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Margaret (Petoskey, MI)
Interesting Storyteller
Live by Night is an interesting and colorful book about a gangster's life during the prohibition era. The changing activities of the strong characters helped to hold my attention from beginning to end. Dennis Lehane is a good storyteller and I will be interested in reading more books by this author. I would recommend this book to adults who are interested in stories with some historical background.
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Maggie P. (Mount Airy, MD)
A step back in time
This book was a real page turner. It grabbed my interest on the first page and did not let it go. Lehane's language painted a picture of the times, gritty when it needed to be and a splash of color and hope when it was important. I would recommend this book to those that like a bit of history thrown into their fiction and to those who love action. Clear your calendars because this is a book you won't want to put down.
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William Y. (Lynchburg, VA)
Live by Night, Dennis Lehane
Coming four years after the success of his 2008 novel Unto This Day, Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night continues his saga of Boston’s Coughlin family. Set in the late 1920s and on into the Great Depression, the book follows the up-and-down career of Joe Coughlin, the youngest son in this star-crossed dynasty.
Although he built his initial fame on mysteries (Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island; others), Lehane has proved himself a fine recorder of social history and has been compared to John Dos Passos and E.L. Doctorow in this genre. He exposes the grimy underside of Boston during the early years of the 20th century, an era that witnessed the rise of lawlessness between Italian and Irish gangs during Prohibition.
Not so much a mystery as a detailed chronicle of Joe’s life, from small-time Boston bootlegger to king of the illicit rum trade in Tampa, Florida, Live by Night is a genuine page-turner, a compulsive read that presents Lehane’s colorful style in all its richness. Filled with period details and a cast of gangster characters hard to forget, the novel should appeal to a large and varied audience.
William H. Young, August 2012
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Sandy P. (Gainesville, FL)
Much more than 5 stars for this one
Living in FL I found this particularly fascinating, Prohibition and the effect it had on the Cuban enclave of Tampa, Ybor City. It had the right amount of pecking order/ power struggles going on from Boston to Tampa. This, of course, led to buying off police, unions and judges. Who paid the highest price for which officials loyalty? Joe Coughlin finds love (Emma Gould), thinks she's dead, marries Graciela, has a son. Realizing he won't ever move to the top of the Mafia management ("Irish need not apply" and he's deemed 'soft') he takes his family to Cuba to establish casinos. The alternative would be getting killed in Tampa for running his own business outside of the Mafia fold. Suspense builds when he discovers in a month old photo that Emma Gould lives in Havana. Will he leave Graciela and Tomas? Towards the end it's verging on, but not too, moralistic ....."good deeds can come from bad money".
I find Mr. Lehane's writing to be superb. I like the fact that he ties up all the loose ends. I haven't read any of his books that I didn't enjoy. Would love to see this made into a movie.
I enjoy books that don't stray too far from the 'point', and this succeeded in holding my attention. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Sandra H. (St. Cloud, Minnesota)
Live By Night by Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane’s This Given Day, set at the end of WWI during the turbulence of political and social unrest, introduced young Danny Coughlin and his family. Live by Night follows that novel but is not so much a sequel as an exploration of Danny’s younger brother Joe.
Early in Live by Night, Joe Coughlin’s father tells him,”…violence breeds violence…what you put out into the world will always come back for you…but it never comes back in a way you can predict.” And Joe’s story proves his father right.
Lehane picks up the story of the Coughlins in 1925. Joe’s older brothers have left Boston, his mother is dead and his father, the Deputy Police Superintendent is on the way to becoming commissioner. Joseph senior has risen to his station by compromising his values, yet he has no illusions of who he is nor what his youngest son is becoming. He and young Joe are, like many fathers and sons, at loggerheads: young Joe rebelling and his father coming down on him hard. But finally, this is young Joe Coughlin’s story--the story of a conflicted young man who believes in morals, in helping those who struggle to maintain a decent living. He flinches at being called a gangster, preferring the term outlaw, which allows him to believe that he is a respectable citizen who must make violent choices. He is definitely not Michael Corleone, yet during his short life—the story spans just nine years—Joe will struggle with the two images and realities of his life.
The title sums up his story; Joe chooses to live by night when he can’t clearly see the world—his world—as it is. He could be the main character in a 1940’s John Garfield film or perhaps an early Cagney or Bogart film where the hero takes a wrong turn and cannot go back.
I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully written book and loved its flawed hero.
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Norman G. (Diamond Bar, CA)
Best novel reviewed to date
I have reviewed about eight books thus far and Dennis Lehane's Live by Night stands out as my most enjoyable read. The accuracy of the time period, the originality of the characters, and the evolving plot made for a quick and suspenseful read. The New England, Florida, Cuba connection along with the somewhat atypical hero gave an excellent perspective on the prohibition years. I cannot think of how Lehane could have made it better.
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Annie P. (Murrells Inlet, SC)
LeHane - Wow!
Live by Night gets you right in the gut. Joe is attractive in a night-prowling animal kind of way. He is the guy girls want but most listen to Mom and stay the hell away from him. You know all along he is going to have the worst end but you still want to tag along and be a vicarious part of the life. If this was life in the 1920’s, I’m amazed we haven’t come very far along the path. Now I want to read The Given Day and get the story from the beginning to end. Another movie is coming from LeHane’s pen, and it’s going to be a doozy! I can hardly wait to see if the screen is as active as my imagination while reading the book!
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