Wednesday, October 22, 2008

So Do They Think The Sox Will Win The Series?

Though The Given Day has received rave notices since being released in late September in the US, many reviews contain a line alluding to Lehane breaking out beyond his genre writing. This is a back-handed compliment, dismissive of his thrillers. Lehane seems mildly exasperated at the implied criticism, yet shrugs it off. "There is a limited vocabulary to reviews and a constraint of the form. Early in my career people compared me to Chandler, because I was 'gritty' and that is just easy for reviewers to write without actually thinking. But, if anything, my books are not like Chandler's, but more the bastard children of Dashiell Hammett."
Click here to read more of The Bookseller's fascinating conservation with Dennis Lehane.