Award-winning novelist and screenwriter Dennis Lehane will
deliver the keynote address at the Massachusetts Bar Association's
Annual Dinner on Thursday, April 28, at the Westin Boston
Waterfront. Born and raised in Dorchester, Lehane has published
more than 12 novels that have been translated into more than 30
languages and become international bestsellers. Some of Lehane's
novels showcase both Boston and the criminal justice system. Lehane
recently took part in a Q&A session about his literary
career.
Where do you get your ideas for characters? From growing
up in Boston?
Lehane: I honestly have no idea. I rarely base anyone
even a tiny bit on anyone I've known, so it's not like I can draw a
chart from Jimmy Marcus, say, to some guy I used to play baseball
with at Savin Hill park. At the end of the day, it's all about
imagination. I sit in a room, stare at the ceiling and conjure
stuff up. That's the job.
Your initial books were detective stories, but then some
of your books went in different directions (with more of a focus on
a family). What prompted the change in direction?
Lehane: It was always an organic process. There was
never a plan. I don't like to repeat myself, so even in the
detective series, each book has a different mood and was toying
with different aspects of the sub-genre of the P.I. novel. And then
when I was done with it, I was done with it. Onto "Mystic River."
After that was done, I felt like I needed a break from urban novels
in general and thought I'd try my hand at a gothic, which is how
"Shutter Island" came about. Then it was, "I always liked big fat
historical epics. …" And so on.
Your stories always seem to be more than just a crime
novel -- they have an underlying moral or message. Why is that
important? Does the moral come before the idea for the
characters/plot?
Lehane: I'm not sure I'd agree that my stories have
morals at the end; that seems something better left to Aesop and
Sunday homilies. But all good fiction, I'd argue, is moral fiction
(that's not the same things as fiction with a moral), and what
hangs in the balance of most good books is often a character's
soul. I mean, why else are we reading it if all that's at stake is
whether someone gets a good bowl of cereal or not? Cormac
McCarthy's got a great definition of what he writes -- "fiction of
mortal event." I love that. I try for that.
Were there any local stories that inspired "Shutter
Island?"
Lehane: It was inspired by Long Island, off Squantum.
There's a drug treatment facility there now (or maybe it's even
something else by now) that used to be a minimum security mental
institution. My uncle took me and my brother there when we were
kids - it was abandoned at that time - and let us roam around and
told us the ghosts of dead mental patients were rumored to walk the
grounds. And then he hid from us for a while until we freaked out.
Hilarious people, my family. Real cards.
Some of your stories are historical fiction -- what
inspired you to do that?
Lehane: I like history. I like how the more you look at
it, the more you realize the human race barely changes at all. The
same issues people were obsessed about in 1919, are the same ones
we obsessed about in 2008. The clothing changes, the technology
obviously does, but at the end of the day we're as foolish and
childish as our ancestors. I find that oddly endearing.
Boston itself is often a character in many of your books
-- and in many popular movies. What do you think it is about the
city that seems to captivate audiences?
Lehane: Boston is pretty unique; as the rest of the
country, even the world, grows more and more homogenous, Boston
remains kind of tribal and resistant to having its edges smoothed.
That's not true in every neighborhood or town, obviously, but it's
true just enough. If you say, "That guy's from Boston," people get
an instant idea in their heads about what that means. If you say,
"That guy's from Aurora, Illinois," I'm not sure they do.
How much say do you have in the final product, when your
book is turned into a movie?
Lehane: None. I just write the book.
You have done a lot of TV work lately (writing for
"Boardwalk Empire," "The Wire," appearing in "Castle"). Do you see
yourself going more in the screenplay direction, or will novels
still be the main focus?
Lehane: Well, I live in L.A. now, so you can draw your
own conclusions. I love what's going on in TV right now and I
happen to have been lucky enough to have been on the ground floor
when this revolution in premium cable TV started. It's a novelist's
medium and I happen to be a novelist. So I'm not sure what's going
to happen. I just finished a novel that will be out next spring so
that's consistent with my one-book-every-two-years pace, which
suggests I can still do both. We'll see.
Are any of your other books currently in the works to be
turned into movies?
Lehane: Ben Affleck just finished directing an
adaptation of "Live By Night."
Have there been any lawyers you know who inspired you
with their client cases, etc.? Did you have a particular experience
with the legal community that shaped your crime
novels?
Lehane: Not really, no. I'd be insane to steal ideas
from a lawyer. You guys are rumored to sue about stuff like
that.