A Drink Before the War

Rating:
Summary: A great first book
Review: The private eye field has become so crowded that it is getting increasingly difficult to develop fresh ideas and characters while remaining true to the more attractive conventions of the genre. With A Drink Before the War, Dennis Lehane has not only managed to accomplish this, but he has done so in Boston - a territory previously staked out by Robert B. Parker's venerable gumshoe, Spenser.

In this first novel, we meet the protagonists, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, partners in a private investigation outfit that operates out of the bell tower at St. Bartholomew's Church. As a PI should be, they are both smart and tough, having been raised hard on the streets of working-class Dorchester. When they are hired by group of powerful local politicians to find a cleaning lady who has stolen some sensitive "documents," Kenzie and Gennaro find her easily, and the case appears to be a slam dunk. It isn't, of course, and like most of our favorite private eyes, Kenzie and Gennaro possess a strong moral compass that prevents them from simply reporting their findings and cashing the check. This characteristic, while admirable, sometimes works to their detriment. Such is the case here, as the two PIs are dragged into a teeming morass of sexual deviancy, blackmail, and of course, murder.

Much of the classic PI stuff will be found here - vividly descriptive writing; witty, intelligent narration; snappy banter, and some unforgettable characters. Lehane has fallen into the increasingly common trap of a character we'll refer to as the "homicidal sidekick." You know who I'm talking about - the guy who loves our hero, hates the cops, and is deadly enough to scare even the toughest men on the street. Spenser has Hawk; Elvis Cole has Joe Pike; Burke has Max the Silent; and so on, and so forth. Kenzie and Gennaro have Bubba Rogowski. He can barely read or write, he's racist, and he hates nearly everyone but Kenzie and Gennaro. Somehow, though, Lehane manages to make Bubba likeable, so we'll forgive him for this transgression.

Lehane, author of Mystic River, is a fairly young author, but he quickly establishes himself as a force to be reckoned with in this impressive first novel. If you like your detective stories - especially if you like them dark - you'll love A Drink Before the War.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, gritty but great writing!
Review: This book is the first in one of the best detective series I have ever read. Angie Gennaro and Patrick Kenzie live and work in the dark and dangerous Irish ghetto of Boston. They have both experienced abuse at the hands of those they loved and it has shaped their lives and marked their tempestuous love affair. The gritty and somber atmosphere of Dennis Lehane's novel is brightened by the clever repartee between his two main characters and by the always hopeful denouement to his stories.

In this first installment Pat and Angie are hired by some politicians to find a maid who may have stolen something from them. She is killed and they discover that they have been duped. As they search for answers and for a way to avenge her brutal death they must also confront their past and present relationships and decide what it is they are really searching for.

Leave yourself plenty of time to read. Once you start you will want to read all five Kenzie/Gennaro books and you'll hope, as I do, that Lehane writes one more.

Rating:
Summary: Good first book
Review: A Drink Before the War was my first introduction to both the world of Patrick Kenzie and Dennis Lehane, and I am sure I will be back for more. Patrick Kenzie is a cynical, often funny, sometimes poignent Boston PI who works out of an old church belfrey (no bats!) with his partner, Angie Gennaro.

As in most PI books, in the first chapter Kenzie makes contact with someone who wants to hire him (a senator) and gets a case (find missing documents). But the missing documents aren't what they seem and neither is the senator. Neither, for that matter, is A Drink Before the War.

This book is more than just a PI story. It is a graphic, often painful description of two sides of Boston, the rich and the poor, the black and the white. Lehane grew up in the areas he describes in this book and it shows. I never once doubted that he knew what he was talking about. As the book progresses, Kenzie escapes death several times and is soon wanted by not one but two Boston gangs, gangs that have determined to kill each other.

Enter the war.

For a first book, this novel is tremendous. It is funny, sad, thoughtful, and honest. And it is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Great baptism to the genre
Review: Just to set the scene: I don't like the private eye genre yet I loved this book. Normally, if there is any element of suspense, the child in me pushes me to read the last pages to find out what has happened whereupon I lose interest in the book. I read the last pages of this book and still read the whole book.

I loved the intelligent dialogue, the humour was great and I liked the style of reading. It was an Irish novel with the pain and the humour of the Irish which also had a view of black people in Boston - something that is entirely foreign to me as I am not American.

While I don't think this book will lead me to read more of its genre, I do think I will read more of Lehane's works. I like the characters (though I think the protagonist is quite puerile at times) and I really have difficulty relating to his sidekick's unhealthy addiction to her husband.

I must admit the one character that I really connected with was Jenna and, hard though it is to believe, I cried reading her last scenes. I found my reaction absolutely amazing as she was a character that occupied so few pages, but whose presence is felt deeply throughout.

A great read - highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Drink Before the War
Review: I just finished Dennis Lehane's A DRINK BEFORE THE WAR, and enjoyed it very much. The story is written in first person, beautifully written I might add. Lehane can describe something rather ordinary in the environment in such a way that a very precise picture is painted in the reader's mind. I found the extreme squalor and hopelessness that he depicts almost beyond belief. I did appreciate how the protagonist reflected on the contrast between the affluent sections of Boston and the poor areas. He also dealt with racial issues quite nicely throughout the book.

The protagonist is Patrick Kenzie, a PI in Boston. Lehane never describes him, or if he did, I missed it, but very early on the reader gets the impression that Kinzie's good-looking based on comments made by his partner, the attractive but tough, Angie Gennaro. She affectionately calls Kenzie, Skid. She's also married to an abusive husband, whom she still loves. There's a nice bit of sexual tension between Patrick and Angie, and I thought Lehane did a great job with that.

Then there's Patrick and Angie's friend, Bubba, who happens to be a psychopath. He acts as their backup and provides weapons when needed. He added a little comic relief to the story--based on Kenzie's opinions and reactions to him--but I found the fact that he was still on the streets instead of in jail a little hard to swallow. Then there are the cops who have a like/hate relationship with Kenzie and Angie.

Anyway, the two are hired by a politician to track down documents that a cleaning women supposedly stole. And it seems that everyone, for different reasons, wants to get their hands on these photographs, including two rival gangs that go to war as the story plays out. Both gangs are willing to kill anyone who gets in their way. Oh, and that's how the title came about. I normally would not have looked at this book if I didn't know what it was because of the title. Based on the title, I might have thought it was about WWII or something like that. I do love how the title comes from the dialogue in the story.

This was a great read that kept my attention throughout. Kenzie is a well developed, sympathetic character with a past.

What I didn't care for was the sidekick, Bubba, an action that Kenzie and Angie take toward the end of the book, and the description used during a chase scene. Too many details are described during the chase that Kenzie would not have had time to notice, and they were happening behind him, too, so he wouldn't have seen them much less take the time to describe them. But these are minor problems with a book that I really enjoyed.

Rating:
Summary: I'll read more
Review: There's nothing actually wrong with this book. It's quite fun. Good characters. Strong writing. I wonder if I maybe should oughta shift gears here and pick up a new genre for a while. The best way to describe my experience: I just couldn't bond with the book.

The characters are well developed, but I didn't find myself caring a lot about them. Angie Gennaro was probably my favorite character. Patrick Kenzie seems to lack patience and a sense of humor. Kenzie explores some of the ghosts of his past, anger toward his father, attempts to understand racism. Some of the explorations work, some don't. We don't get any real answers, there aren't any. Lehane's way of keeping it real and I appreciate that, although some of Kenzie's self analysis and heated discussions about racism felt manufactured. I will have to agree with the reviewers who say 'Preachy'. Quite a bit of action, which I will have to agree with the reviewer who said cartoonish. So there is some strong writing, but you can certainly see my reservations.

I'm going three stars because I believe the book is better than I what I put into it. At least I hope so. I WILL read the others. And I hope that with familiarity I will be able become more involved in Lehane's writing.

Rating:
Summary: Great when it's not moralizing at you.
Review: Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War (Avon, 1994)

This was my third trip through the wonderful world of Dennis Lehane (I started with Mystic River and then went on to Darkness, Take My Hand). While it was enjoyable enough, and is of historic value for introducing the world to Kenzie and Gennaro, I didn't get as much of a kick out of this one as I did out of the first two. Much of the reason for this is that Lehane spends far too much time in this book having Patrick Kenzie stop the action, turn to the reader, and make speeches about various political subjects. To Lehane's credit, at least they have something to do with the novel's plot, and they're never long enough to really start detracting from the novel itself. That they exist at all, though, is a problem. To his credit, it's obvious from the two more recent works I read before this one that Lehane has gotten much slicker at integrating medium with message since, and thus a little leeway should be allowed him here; those who found themselves turned off by the moralizing here should give Lehane another chance. Those who haven't read it yet, be prepared. Once you get past the moralizing, there's a fine little mystery/action hybrid here. ***

Rating:
Summary: The Dark (Humor?) Side of the Crime Genre
Review: ...

'A Drink before the War' is the first novel in a series about Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator working with his partner out of a belfry in Boston. A little short on business, Kenzie and his partner, the alluring Angie Gennaro, take a case from a senator looking to recover some documents stolen by the cleaning crew.

Kenzie and Gennaro get to work on a case they know is not all that it seems, and their assumption is quickly proven true. Before they know, the local street gangs are lining up to take them down. As they move toward wrapping up the case, they are faced with making a decision between completing their duty to their clients, or looking for further justice.

... Lehane has a fair amount of social commentary. This largely comes in commentaries on gang warfare and the politically influential, or one might say the haves and have nots. In a very post-modern move, Lehane outlines the fragmented society by exploring Kenzie's relationship with his dead father. I'm reading a lot more theory into the elements of this novel, which most readers will recognize on the surface. With the commentary, Lehane reminds me of Hiaasen, only Lehane deals with even darker subject matter.

On the lighter side, Kenzie does deliver plenty of wise cracks, not all the commentary is gloomy, and the banter between Kenzie and Gennaro is frequently fun. The character of Bubba, who Kenzie hires for back-up from time to time, doesn't know the meaning or restraint and adds another dimension to the novel. Add a cop duo investigating the gang activity that are so close that they both got married, divorced, promoted, you name it, on the same day, and the cast becomes even richer.

This novel was great because it wasn't what I expected, but it still delivered so much. I'd recommend it to Leonard fans that are looking for something a little darker, ... , and any crime fiction fan in general. I'm looking forward to picking up the next novel in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A Drink Before the War
Review: Patrick Kenzie is a Dorchester, Mass., boy born and bred. Now, working out of a church belfry as a private detective (along with partner Angela Gennaro, who has been his best friend since childhood and suffers at the hands of an abusive husband), he is hired by a senator to locate some papers reportedly stolen by an African-American (the senator uses a less polite term) cleaning woman. When the woman is gunned down in downtown Boston, it becomes clear that the materials in her possession were not the government documents the senator had claimed. The sure pacing, humor, and clear sense of place are unusually strong for a debut novel. Lehane's depictions of working-class Dorchester and the great divide between its Irish-American and African-American inhabitants are so on-target the reader could practically use them as a map and drive right into town. Even better are the descriptions of local foibles. Kenzie recounts that a friend had once been successful at removing a Denver boot (a clamp, which makes it impossible to move a car, placed around a car's tire after too many traffic tickets) and was downhearted to find that it was a fluke and that he would not be ``making more money than Michael Jackson.'' There is a lot of gun play here, and plenty of other violence too. Not only does Gennaro regularly come into work with black eyes, but Kenzie also recalls his firefighter father, a man whom he sarcastically refers to as ``the Hero,'' but who was brutal in his own home. A lively debut about residents of the Boston metropolitan area who don't summer in Hyannisport.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Mystic River and Gone,Baby, Gone...
Review: Reading this as I enjoyed "Mystic River" (MR) and "Gone Baby Gone" (GBG) very much. However, this first novel lacks the depth of MR and GBG. Also, there is a part where Patrick and Angie listen to a tape at a police station that bothers me for 2 reasons: 1) it is similar to a section in Alexie Sherman's "Indian Killer" (IK) and 2) the cops mention that "...it went on for ninety minutes after" and they know this from the tape.... Well, do police have self-contained, small, recorders that can tape for more than 90 minutes and is it believable that Socia didn't find it considering the whole event?? I don't want to get specific and give away too much to those who have yet to read "Drink before the War" but suffice it to say it is not his best. Read MR and GBG instead. I highly recommend Indian Killer also.