"What had begun as a nighttime ride into the unknown had turned cold and stale during the hard yellow lurch into morning" (34).“The man’s eyes are the clear and the bright of skyscraper panes” (58).“…a guy in a johnny leading his IV-stand across the carpet as if it’s a slow relative…” (63).“Though he still feels like apologizing. It’s natural, he supposes, to not want to be the cause of any sort of ado, any kind of mass consternation. It’s a judgment, no matter how nebulous, of your entire life” (64).“Daniel can hear the sucking of the straw, down at the bottom, trapped among the ice cubes” (65)."You put the brains of both Lewis brothers together and you stil come up with something dumber than a barrel of roofing tar, but those boys are also tear-ass fast and my-daddy's-a-mean-drunk crazy off the snap count, kinda boys can turn a starting left tackle into the town gimp, come back to the huddle not even breathing hard" (79).*The following are quotes from a play, so I won’t bother with dialogue quotation marks.“Well that was utterly fucking fruitless” (164).“…no one ever fought a war over truth or good intentions…” (176).“People rationalize, they turn their delusions into something romantic that they can disguise as ethics or principles or ideals. People are selfish, Doctor—odiously, monstrously, but in so small land paltry a monstrousness that we barely notice it” (178).“If we could have everything we wanted in an instant without fear of consequence? No worry of jail or societal reproof of any kind? No having to look our victims in the eyes because the victims have conveniently vanished? If we could have that? Stalin’s crimes would pale in comparison to what we’d do in the name of love. In the name of the heart wanting what the heart wants” (178).“Never been tested. Hell, everyone’s nice until some kind of hard choice is put in front of them” (193).“He told me once, swear to god, ‘Ever want to kill someone, Gina? Do it was water or a train. Fucks the evidence all to hell’” (197).“I always liked this place off-season, the tarps flapping in the wind, faint smell of elephant shit” (198).“The circus. I hate trapeze artists. Women all look like men and man all look like cock smokers. And don’t even get me started on fucking clowns” (198-199).“I seen your friendly before. You think you’re good because you grew up not wanting. Not wanting ain’t good. It’s just not poor. You ain’t rich, but poor? That’s evidentiary, son. That’s experience. You ain’t never had experience, so you only imagine you have a soul” (202).
As with most story collections, I found things to like and things to dislike here. I'm a big fan of Lehane and have been impressed time and time again by his ability to take well-worn genre fiction (i.e. crime drama conceits) and turn it into something meaningful about the human condition. There aren't any cliches in his writing and it is typically full of vibrant prose and deep revelations into the human spirit. "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island" affected me deeply when I read them many years ago."Until Gwen" was definitely my favorite of the collection. It's a pulse-pounding battle of wits between an evil conman and his son over a missing diamond. The ending alone is worth the read, but few short stories have as much tension packed into such a small space. This one alone is worth reading the whole collection.If there is a disappointing thing about "Until Gwen", it's that I wanted more background into the relationship between father and son and more about what got them going down the roads they went down. That's the cool thing about "Coronado", a two part play Lehane wrote for his brother. It takes the two antagonizing characters from "Until Gwen" and fleshes them out, adding a deep back story and a heartbreaking yet hopeful resolution...even though most of the action from "Until Gwen" appears intact in "Coronado". It's like seeing the same story from a different angle. I loved the comparison.Other than that, "Running out of Dog" and "Gone Down to Corpus" are great depictions of small-town America and the class/societal distinctions that divide us. These were great compliments to "Until Gwen"/"Coronado", but it's clear who the star of the collection is.There were a couple JV type stories too: "Mushrooms" and "I.C.U.". It's not that they were bad. I just thought they weren't as fleshed out as the other stories here, like Lehane was trying to finish the story before it was ready to be done. And there's a lot of ambiguity in "I.C.U." that I found annoying instead of stimulating. I wish Lehane had been a little more clear at least in that case.All in all, a good collection from one of America's most underrated writers.
What do You think about Coronado: Stories (2006)?
Dennis Lehane writes the hell out of Boston. In his Kenzie-Genarro series, six books beginning with "A Drink Before the War," he writes the characters, feelings, and overall aura of that city, and continues to do so in "The Given Day," probably his best novel yet. The sequel to that book, "Live By Night" takes the reader down to Tampa. And this collection of short stories has us in Texas, South Carolina, among other places in the great U.S. No surprise, they're mostly pretty grim tales, folks ruled by greed, down on their luck slightly nutty types--and Lehane nails them all, his vivid characterizations hallmarks of his novels, brought equally to life in this brief collection."Running Out of Dog" follows a man back from Vietnam keeping a watch on his buddy, who's taken an unofficial job from the mayor, shooting down stray dogs by the highway."ICU" has a man hiding out in different hospitals for weeks, avoiding mysterious agents who watch him from a distance and keep their motives to themselves."Gone Down to Corpus" is among the best; this one involves some just-graduated ex-football stars trashing the house of the kid who lost their big game for them. The baller in charge meets the little sister of the despised ex-footballer, and she shocks him at how much more violent and vindictive she can be, more so than the three of them combined."Mushrooms" is about a couple of young folks on the run with another who is unaware they mean to kill him at trip's end."Coronado: A Play in Two Acts" is a play version of the fifth story, "Until Gwen," both about a young man being picked up from jail by his greedy, maniacal father, who is after the location of a jewel the son hid years before.
—Mark R.
"Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen Dodge Neon with an 8 ball in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the back seat." Definitely one of the best opening lines of all time. Coronado's collection of short stories of course includes some which don't shine as brightly as the others, but even the ones I didn't fall in love with (ICU, Gone Down to Corpus) seduce you with their exquisite turn of phrase and tight storytelling. There are no faults with the writing in any of the stories; some are just not as teased out as they should be. But Until Gwen/Coronado - this is a masterpiece. A five star story which will stick with you long after you close this book. I would have loved to see it live.
—Amy Coleman
I'd say this is worth checking out if you are a fan of Lehane -- you get the same sort of language and characters as you would in one of his novels, but you get to enjoy a much more concentrated version where you get to focus on the people and the dialogue without the various twists and turns of the plot. The highlight of the book is the final story, "Until Gwen", and the play "Coronado", which is the final entry in the book. Both tell the same story, but "Coronado" fleshes out the story of "Until Gwen" in a not immediately obvious way. In the end, you get a few additional insights into the characters, but you also get the rare chance to see the same story told by the same author in two very different formats.
—Doug
