#209 | Mystic River: Why This Dennis Lehane Classic Deserves a Spot on Your Reading List
episode SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti dives into the gritty, emotional world of “Mystic River” by Dennis Lehane, a Boston crime novel about friendship, loyalty, and trauma that seamlessly blends drama and mystery. Learn why the adaptation to film was so successful, and why Lehane's distinctive "crime with heart" style is a rarity in today's literary landscape. “Mystic River” is a masterclass in storytelling and a must-read for fans who enjoy thoughtful yet tragic crime fiction.
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Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do so. Like always. We are moving back to a work of fiction for this week's episode, and it is called “Mystic River” by Dennis Lehane. I'm sure you've heard of the title before. If not the book, then definitely the movie. That's something that I will get into in this episode. It is a crime, a mystery. It's around 416 pages. It came out in 2001. But before I share any more about the book or the author or some of my big takeaways, I want to remind you that the best way you could support this podcast is to click the subscribe button on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. The more subscribers, the more eyeballs this podcast will get in front of, and in return, it will inspire more men to read.
(01:01)
So if you have it in you, please click that subscribe button. Also, this podcast does have a companion newsletter, which rounds up all of the episodes from the month and comprises them in one monthly email that goes out at the end of the month. It has all of the episode summaries, all the best quotes, all the book information, as well as newsletter-only book recommendations. And if you're interested in signing up for that, you could do so at BooksforMen.org. Okay, so on that note, let's jump into the episode for the week. So Dennis Lehane, who is he? He's a crime novelist. He's written, I think about 15 novels or so many have been turned into films like this one. As I mentioned at the top of the episode, others include “Shutter Island”, Martin Scorsese's movie, “Gone Baby Gone”, which was done, I believe, by Ben Aflac. So Lehane started with the PIs, Kenzie and Gennaro, and “Gone Baby Gone” is a Kenzie and Gennaro story.
(02:03)
“The Drop” is another one that was turned into a movie, or I believe it might even have been a movie before. He wrote the novel, which is kind of interesting. Tom Hardy is in it. It's James Gandolfini's last movie. And other than the book and movie, “Mystic River” that I'm sharing with you today, the Drop is probably my favorite of the Lehane books to movie or TV show projects. He's also been a writer on many television shows like “The Wire”, “Mr. Mercedes”, and “The Outsider”, which was actually an adaptation of another acclaimed writer's work, Stephen King, by another acclaimed writer, Richard Price. So Richard Price adapted “The Outsider” for television, and Lehane worked as a staff writer on the show. But Lehane has also been the showrunner of his own series most recently, “Blackbird”, which came out in 2022. And I've heard him in interviews say that it's something that he wants to continue doing, writing for TV.
(03:06)
He likes the idea of working with a team because by its very nature, writing novels is a very lonely endeavor, even if you don't intend it to be. And he's actually on record saying, we'll find out if it's true, time will tell. He's still a pretty young guy and the novel he wrote or published last year, “Small Mercies”, which had a lot of critical acclaim will be his last novel. So like I said, I don't know, time will tell. That book is about the racial divide in Boston in the summer of ‘74. Of course, there's a crime story baked into it, but like all the Lehane novels, the crime is critical to the story, but they're really dramas at their core. It's what I like to call “crime with heart”, and you don't see as many of them as you used to. This is something that I will talk about in a moment, but I bring this up now to say that that's what “Mystic River” is.
(04:06)
So the book is really about three friends. It time hops, so it starts with them horsing around as young boys, and one gets abducted by child molesters and eventually escapes, but is damaged forever. And so you fast forward 25 years later and each has gone on to live their own lives. So one of them, Sean is a homicide detective. The other Jimmy is a hardened street guy who is an ex-convict. And then the last Dave, the one who got abducted is still damaged. The inciting incident of the story is when Jimmy's daughter is found dead, brutally murdered in the park, and the same night Dave comes back home to his wife covered in blood, and Sean is assigned to investigate the case. All in all, it's really a tragic story about love and family and camaraderie and loyalty, and it's just a really gripping story.
(05:09)
Like I said, it's a crime story, but it's a drama at its core. And I think that that's why it translated so well to the screen, which is the first thing that I want to talk about. It's sort of hard at this point to discuss this story and this novel without talking about the movie because it was an Academy Award-winning movie with some amazing performances in it. But it's the story that is so powerful, which of course is Lehane, even if it's more extraneous in the novel than it is in the movie. And honestly, it's just a great example of what a novel to movie could be. And at its best, at least in my eyes, great novel-to-movie adaptations are the sparsest, leanest, most potent versions of the novel. And that's what “Mystic River” is. You're never going to escape the fact that a novel is going to be reduced in its scope when it's turned into a movie or any cinematic representation, whether it's a mini-series or TV show, what have you.
(06:22)
But the worst versions water down the essence of a story and sometimes bastardize it, including elements that completely change the narrative altogether. And I believe that that doesn't happen with “Mystic River”. It really just does a marvelous job of emphasizing and illuminating the core elements of the story. A good example of this is the opening scene. So in the novel, it probably takes, I don't know, 40 pages, 40 50 pages to indicate the three friends horsing around. One gets abducted by these child molesters and all of that in the movie. It takes one scene and you learn everything you need to know about those friends and that essential starting point for the story in a very reduced way that is just as powerful as if you're reading 40 pages or 50 pages. Now, some might say that's an indictment on the novel, but as I just mentioned, it's inescapable when you take a novel and dramatize it for the screen or a play.
(07:43)
I'll also say that I just love the ending of this story. I know that for some that is a debatable thing, but in my eyes, if you follow the story and the characterization closely, it's the only inevitable ending for the story, or at least it feels like the only inevitable ending for the story. Any other one would not fit the puzzle as well as this one does. I am choosing carefully, of course, not to include the actual ending in this episode. I do that sometimes with the novels if I don't think it will matter for the reading of it. I know it's 24 years old, but if you want to read it or watch it after listening to this podcast episode, then I don't want to be the spoiler of that for you. So I'll close this episode with something that I touched on earlier in the episode, and that was how this type of crime has sort of been phased out of the genre.
(08:47)
Not totally, but definitely as style is concerned. There just aren't that many crime novels that are basically dramas that are also crime stories. For me, the big delineation is realism or truth that lies at the core of a drama that makes it super real and visceral as opposed to fantastical. And a lot of the genre both on the page and screen has leaned a lot more heavily toward the fantastical. And without extrapolating or ranting to end this episode, I do think that there are a lot of reasons for that. But no matter what the reason is, it doesn't alleviate the truth of the matter, which is that there are just not that many of these types of novels that come out anymore. The reason why I bring that up is just to say that if this sounds like something you're interested in, then I would take advantage of it and read it because you're not going to find a lot of new fiction that exemplifies this style of crime and this style of literature.
(10:03)
It's funny actually, to tie a bow on this and bring it full circle back to “Mystic River”. I heard Lehane say in the same interview that I had mentioned earlier, something that Sean Penn told him on the set of “Mystic River”, and it was in reference to the writing of something. And Sean Penn said, “I never trust a quotable line.” And without making that into something that it isn't. It just means if it's too fantastical, it's probably not true, and it's not going to resonate in the way that I'm hoping it will, or at least that was my interpretation of it. So on that note, I'm going to close this with a passage from the book just to give you an idea of what Lehane’s prose is like. To me, it's gritty, it's honest, it's fun, it's everything that I had mentioned throughout this episode, and here it is: “I will not dream anymore, you said. I will not set myself up for the pain. But then your team made the playoffs, or you saw a movie or a billboard glowing dusky orange in advertising Aruba, or a girl who bore more than a passing resemblance to a woman you dated in high school—a woman you loved and lost—danced above you with shimmering eyes, and you said, fuck it, let's dream just one more time.”
(11:22)
All right, so that's all I've got. Thank you so much for listening. As I reminded you at the beginning of this episode, if you have it in please hit the subscribe button, I would greatly appreciate it because that's how we inspire more men to read. Also, if you'd like to connect with me, there are two ways to do so. You can find me on Instagram @douglasvigliotti, or you can visit my website DouglasVigliotti.com. And lastly, if you'd like to read my 2021 poem collection, it's titled “mini heartbreaks (or, little poems about life)”. It's raw, it's unorthodox, and it's available to listen to on the podcast “Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well”, the link for that will be in the show notes. Thanks again for listening. If you want more information on this podcast or to sign up for the newsletter, all you have to do is visit BooksforMen.org.
