The Fractal Hall Journal

Sorry about the abrupt loss of inspiration last week, folks. But don’t worry, we’re back in the room.

A while ago, back when I worked at the bookshop, I read Lehane’s Mystic River. I don’t recall why I chose that particular one. I don’t think it was because I knew it was being made into a film, but not long after I finished it I heard about Clint Eastwood having a crack at directing it.

It’s a brilliant book, but I thought the film was shite. It seemed like everything I’d taken from the book was de-emphasised in the film, and I don’t know if that’s further evidence of how people can have completely different takes on something, or if I got completely the wrong end of the stick when I read it. I do know that my mates weren’t keen on the film either.

Sean Penn was really good, don’t get me wrong (and by good, I mean overacted in just the right melodramatic way to be considered Good Acting), but the film was so completely grounded in his all-encompasing grief at the murder of his daughter that everything else was secondary. The other two key characters (Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins) were hardly in it, Bacon’s role in particular not much more than a cameo. That really struck me as a mistake, because my understanding of the book was about how these three characters lives were intertwined since they were children, and changed completely after Robbins was kidnapped and abused while the other two escaped. It was broadly about a copper versus a criminal, but at the same time a whole lot more: why people end up being who they are, the inevitability of character, about all the uncontrollable things that can drag us down, and lead us to our fates.

In short, the book was structured around Penn and Bacon’s characters being two sides of the same coin, almost like two forces in inevitable opposition. The film is nothing like that, Bacon’s character coming across as a wet bit-part rather than the main protagonist. This, of course, has nothing to do with the book I’m actually meant to be reviewing here.

A Drink, Before The War was Lehane’s debut novel and the first appearance of Kenzie and Genarro, his reoccuring PI characters. I started reading it after Mystic River, but didn’t finish it. It’s not as good a book, which isn’t really a surprise. It treads a lot of the same ground as a lot of other gritty detective stories, and there’s not much subtlety to be found.

Even so, where it differs from other books is the uncompromising way Lehane deals with working class life in Boston, and the racism and violence ingrained in all the organisations of the City, from criminal gangs to state politicians. It’s strikingly similar to the themes found in The Wire, a programme that Lehane himself ended up writing for. It’s this undercurrent that’s most interesting in the book, and that raises it about the usual grim crime story.

Anyway, the reason I brought up the Eastwood film is that it’s Ben Affleck’s turn to adapt one of Lehane’s books. Gone, Baby, Gone was out in the US last year, but is only landing this side of the Pond next month. It’s got a couple of good write-ups, but if I’d seen Mystic River the film first, I wouldn’t have bothered with the book. So I need to read the book first, but it’s the fourth in the series, and thanks to nerd obsessiveness I need to get through the other ones first. They’re on order from the library, and Darkness, Take My Hand is up next.