Mystic River by Dennis Lehane - amazing book and movie!

Original Title: Mystic River

Norwegian Title: I Blodet
Written by: Dennis Lehane
Genre: a crime novel
Written for: Adult
Pages: 431
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 2001
Published in Norway: 2003
My copy: 2003 (Paperback)
Norwegian Publisher: Cappelendamm
I read it: May 5Th - May 17Th 2011
Source: From my own "library"

My Rate: ☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠ (10/10 Skulls)

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Three young boys; Jimmy, Sean and Dave is having a little discussion/fight on the street when a car slowly arrives. Two "old" men is sitting in the car and one of them gets out of the car . By the way he is dressed and the way he acts, the boys assume that the men are from the police. The man who has gotten out of the car, talks to the boys and ask them to behave themselves. He asks the boys where they're from. Two of them tells him they're from the neighborhood while the other one tells him that he is from another neighborhood. The man asks that boy to get in the car so that he can drive him home and tell his mom about his behavior. The boy gets in the car. He is missing in four days before he manage to escape and come back home. But the friendship between Jimmy, Sean and Dave is not the same or ever will be. The friendship has somehow changed for good. Several years later they meet again as grown-ups. They meet again under tragic circumstances when Jimmys daughter, Katie, is found murdered, one of the three friends is a cop and will investigate the case and the third one is one of the suspects. The three childhood friends destinies involves into their lives again.

After watching the movie, I really wanted to read the book as well (even though I prefer to read the book before I see the movie, but that time I didn't knew it was based on a book). But I don't know why it took me so many years to finally read it. Cause I saw the movie for the first time in like 2005 and I loved it so much that I've seen it several times. And the book has been standing on my shelf since like 2006. I even loved the movie so much that I just had to get the amazing soundtrack as well. Most of the tracks are composed by Clint Eastwood and one track is also composed by his son, Kyle (who is a jazz mucisian). While reading most part of the book I was listening to the soundtrack to get in the right atmosphere. I don't do that a lot 'cause I don't have many soundtrack but when I have a book that has been turned to movie and if I have the soundtrack - I listen to it while reading that book. And if it's a book who's not turning to a movie, I often find music that I think will match the plot and listen to it while reading. It's an exciting experiment.

Like in most movie adaptions there are a few changes but still I think the movie was very true to the book. And even though I’m not a fan of knowing what the characters look like before I read the book – I didn’t mind it this time. I didn’t mind imagining Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins while I was reading. I think they fit so well to these characters so much that it didn’t bother me.

This is not an ordinary crime novel where cars explodes, computers get hacked and secret documents leaks or other typical crime novel signs. This is a quiet and slow crime novel. It was a bit unusual to read the book in the beginning ‘cause I thought it was a little too slow. I was also not used to Lehane's writing style (even though I have read Shutter Island). But after getting through the first ten pages it got easier and faster to read. And really enjoyed he book. It was fascinating to get well known with each of the characters, the neighborhoods in Boston and characters surroundings.

Mystic River is a book about the dark side, dark secrets and dark destinies. Even though the book is sad and brings up subjects about the dark sides of life. Mystic River is still a good and fascinating read. I finished reading the book several days ago but it still feels like I finished the book today. ‘Cause the book stays with me and I even hear glimpse of some parts of the dialogs as well. It’s like the characters and the atmosphere don’t want to be forgotten and I fully understand why Clint Eastwood bought the movie rights. It was a very smart choice!

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