Coronado: Stories
by Dennis Lehane
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 187)
Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Lehane fans, noir fans
Lehane writes great noir novels like Mystic River; as far as I know this is his only short story collection. Where Mystic River was concerned with cops and criminals as friends, Coronado is about criminals and fringe characters.
The most unusual story here is "Gone Down to Corpus", where some Texas high school gridiron grunts decide to "mess up" a team member who dropped the ball on the two-yard-line and cost The Team a championship. In Texas, high school footballers a...more
The most unusual story here is "Gone Down to Corpus", where some Texas high school gridiron grunts decide to "mess up" a team member who dropped the ball on the two-yard-line and cost The Team a championship. In Texas, high school footballers a...more
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Read in August, 2008
My first introduction to Lehane's writing. Like in Mystic River (the movie), Lehanes's depiction of the more nefarious aspects of human nature are raw, unsettling, and provocative. Being a Boston native, I can't help to see some <a href="www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dot+rat">Dot rat</a> in each of his characters, so the ubiquitous Southern accent is a bit disconcerting, but I'm sure that's a personal opinion.
Lehane's style is terse and unforgiving. It cuts de...more
Lehane's style is terse and unforgiving. It cuts de...more
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Read in February, 2008
This collection of Lehane's short stories includes "Until Gwen," which I loved the first time I read it, still liked the second time I read it, and enjoyed again here, although the thrill diminishes when the element of surprise is gone. Still one of the best first lines of all time:
"Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen Dodge Neon with an eight ball in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the backseat."
Can anything else really live up to that? ...more
"Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen Dodge Neon with an eight ball in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the backseat."
Can anything else really live up to that? ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who likes to read
I really enjoyed reading this anthology. Dennis Lehane's writing style varied with each new story and he managed to capture the essence of each character without boring you with long, elaborate descriptions of their physical and mental traits. The thing I loved most about his writing style was the grittiness he was able to infuse into the lives of his characters. From the mean streets of LA to the backwoods of the deep south, he just understands how to create compelling and unpredictable charact...more
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Read in July, 2008
The five short stories were bleak and while this isn't startling coming from Lehane, they seemed a little cliched. He's better at capturing an underclass world in a northeastern city as opposed to the small southern towns he writes about in Coronado. I did enjoy the play at the end of the book adapted from one of the stories. He cleverly ties three story lines together -- however, a few of the lines he selects from the short story sound wrong coming from the characters as dialogue in the play. T...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Lehane fans, short story fans
Lehane proves he is a master of the short story as well as a novelist. Most interesting to me was the story 'Until Gwen' which was written in the rare 2nd person POV. I've never actually read a story written this way so it was fun to see it done and Lehane handled it well. Another high point was the play 'Coronado' which is a fuller version of 'Until Gwen.' I'm not one to read plays often as I'd much rather see them performed, but I have to say I enjoyed this one.
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Read in August, 2008
I've never been a big fan of short stories, but I have enjoyed everything I've read of Lehane's that I didn't want to miss out on anything. Thereis very little here. Some nice vignettes that would add great back-story to a full novel, but everything is so open-ended. My favorite story was "Running out of Dog." Lehane created a complete environment and story in this one.
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Read in March, 2008
My first introduction to Dennis Lehane was his play Coronado, which I saw in Chicago. In a word, it was fabulous, and I highly recommend seeing it if you ever have the chance. This collection of stories was much like the play: rough and dark. It's a quick read, and for the most part enjoyable, but some of the stories were a bit too intense and twisted for my taste.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
This is a collection of short stories about people who live in small towns and participate in illegal activities. I "liked" the first few stories, but I "really liked" the last two stories in the book. The play, written in two acts, is based on the previous story.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Bostonians
Lehane - he has this thing? He likes to do it with dialogue. A technique. But the technique? It gets old. Especially because I remember him talking about it when he came to visit my creative writing class, so it's like I can see him using this device every time a character opens his mouth.
I very much enjoyed the title story, though.
I very much enjoyed the title story, though.
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Very interesting set of short stories. Lehane has left his familiar Boston settings for these tales. The final piece is a play that is based on one of his short stories. I would love to do this play in a dark, small theater one day. Lehane's gritty and dark view of the world is omnipresent thru all of these stories.
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Read in June, 2008
I've read a few of Dennis Lehane's books, and although I really liked the stories in here, I felt that there was too much left open. I wanted to know what happened to some of the characters after it was over. Not sure I'd recommend it, unless someone was in the mood for incomplete endings, then sure.
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Read in July, 2008
Gritty and evocative of places you don't want to be, this collection of five short stories and a play is typical of Lehane's style. Fortunately, these are short enough that you don't hit the levels of utter disgust with human depravity that you do with Lehane's full-length novels.
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Okay, so I only read the first short story. I didn't grab my attention enough for me to want to read the others. In all fairness to Mr. Lehane, I'll try reading one of his novels. I have a feeling that's what he's better at, and I want to give the faculty here a fair shot!
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Great ear for language, especially regional dialects, but his stories are all too post-modern for me (i.e., they don't have an ending, just characters waiting for something to happen). I might try one of his novels and see if I like that better.
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Read in May, 2008
Collection of short stories and one screenplay he wrote for his brother, a stage actor. Good crime writing, some good characters and gritty dialogue. Overall, it's solid, but not superlative. My sense is his best work is his full-length stuff.
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Some good stuff in here, but I like his full-length mysteries better. Also, Lehane has written for "The Wire" (one of the great TV shows) and there's a line in here that ended up in an episode of the show, which I found kind of interesting.
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Read in December, 2007
Each story was a twisted, homicidal, perversion of a what could be a happy ending sort of tale. Could the author benefit from some mental therapy? Probably, but then we wouldn't get to enjoy such brilliant writing.
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Got this in the mail as an ARC at my last job, and really liked the short stories. Very dusty dry backwoods meathooks tales. I love the first one about Blue and the dogs.
Makes me want to read more.
Makes me want to read more.
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Read in April, 2008
Not my favorite by Lehane. I'd like to read some more stories and plays by him, but by no means would I choose his short fiction over the Kenzie & Generro series.
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