Mystic River
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season493 pages, about 10 hours: the length of 1.5 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbThree boys appear as children in 1975 before the story jumps twenty-five years to a murder investigation.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 11 reviews from critics and book blogs, 8 credit the plot and 5 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA review compares its tragic arc to Oedipus Rex and Hamlet, both on the shelf.
The case for it
on the neighborhood
“an author who knows every block of the neighborhood”
Kirkus Reviews, 2001 on the prose
“His writing is simple, clean, spare and powerfully intense.”
a book blog on the opening paragraph
“Lehane is a commanding writer, and a paragraph like that commands your attention.”
a book blog on the characters
“The characters in Mystic River are flawed, full of grey areas”
a book blog
The case against
on the writing
“The writing is passable, just good enough not to distract you from the plot”
two stars · a book blog on Jimmy’s characterization
“Lehane chose to develop Sean and Dave so fully but left Jimmy a little one-note”
a book blog on the final chapters
“I found myself wishing that Lehane would just wrap it up.”
a book blog on the cast
“the characters, with all their flaws, are a little too dark, too depressed and distant”
a book blog
