A Drink Before the War

Well, seeing as this is the first draft I've found, let's finish it up (I expected to finish the Batman one first, but it makes no real difference).

As you may be aware, I was loaned "Gone Baby Gone" to watch a few weeks back- the directorial debut of Ben Affleck yadda yadda yadda I wrote all that already. What I MAY have neglected to mention was that the story for this movie was based on the third (possibly fourth) novel in a series of detective books by Dennis Lehane (other famous movies based off of novels this guy has written include Mystic River and Shutter Island, though I have yet to see either of them, despite the presence of Leonardo Dicaprio in the latter). I decided to give the books a read, so I picked up what I believe is the first of the series: "A Drink Before the War".

The story is as well written as most any detective fiction. If Lehane is regarded as the second coming of Raymond Chandler or whomever like the critics say, well, I don't disagree- the pulpy style is oft immitated-as-well-as-duplicated. From a technical standpoint I'm usually not blown away by anything I read. My question is: how's the plot/plotting?

And it's in this arena that Lehane shines for me, never so predicatable that I'm bored, but never so out of left field that I feel cheated. For example (a spoiler-y example) when it's revealed that the documents that were stolen by Jenna Angeline, a poor cleaner that gets chased after by our protagonists, were photos of whichever government figure, well, there are only so many kinds of pictures taken that could get everyone excited about whether or not they find themselves in the public eye, but the actual content DID manage to justify everyone's excitement mostly because of the parties involved and how the information would effect more than just the governor/senator/whoever it was.

I recorded for my own reference the names of several of the characters that I thought I may need to remember for this post: Patrick Kenzie, protagonist, Angela Gennaro, partner, Maurice Socia and Roland, rival gang bangers who trade off with each other other the role of antagonist.

The book does do that stupid thing were a ton of stuff would have been solved earlier if any of a dozen people would just spill the details they knew. "Who's Maurice?" "Who's Roland?"

"Oh, naw man, you don't wanna know about them, those guys are animals. Best just stay out of their way and lay low!"

No, actually, what would've been best was if you'd just take two seconds to say they're father and son, and Jenna Angeline was the pairs wife and mother, respectively. I honestly have no idea why that suff took so long to come out in the book. If the book had been written now, instead of around 1994, then you really couldn't get away with that. A google search and there it is. But there you go, it's no wonder I'm in favour of period piece detective stories.

The 70's! Yeah, that's the time for "modern" detective stuff. With the occasional turn in the roaring 20's, the depression, and then back to the late 19th century for some good old Sherlock Holmes business.

Anyways, I wanted to share this quote from the book, found at the bottom of P. 73 when Patrick finally tracks down Jenna:

"I waited, my eyes fixed on Jenna Angeline, hers finally meeting mine. They were eyes that screamed resignation. Old, old eyes. Brown and numb and too beaten to show fear. Or joy. Or life. Something passed through them, briefly, and I knew that she recognized me. Not who I was. What I represented. I was just another form of cop or collection agent or landlord or boss. I was authority, and I was coming to decide something about her life whether she liked it or not. She recognized me all right."

I just wrote a paragraph about why I like this passage, but what I said was stupid. You can make up your own mind about the lines greatness or lack therof.