![]() ![]() Although the audio book runs roughly 15 hours, every detail is important to understanding the eventual finale. ![]() The drama of the book occurs as characters rush to judgments based on community standards and spurious information. MR is always moving toward the conclusion, where the reader feels a tension similar to watching a car speeding obliviously in the wrong direction of a busy one way street and waiting for the eventual crash. Lahane expertly takes the reader into an insular community where most of us would rarely venture. The culture of machismo results in a basic breakdown in social communication, isolation, rejection, and pointless death. The three main characters carry a deep sense of misery and psychological trauma that cannot be conventionally expressed due the machismo cultural standards of South Boston. MR is a dark serious drama devoid of humor. The value of MR comes in the author’s, Dennis Lahane, skills at making the reader feel the anguish of the characters and intensity of the storyline. Any reader who watched more than three episodes of “Law & Order” will figure out the mystery of MR by the end of the fourth chapter. It would be misleading to characterize Mystic River (MR) as a murder mystery or detective story. Since I had not seen the movie, I gave it a listen. Mystic River shows up on every book critic’s top 25 lists of great American modern novels. As a result, I started searching for notable American novels I missed during the height of their popularity. ![]() I hit a dry spell in finding new novels that would engage my interest. ![]()
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