Back in 2004 I went to a booksigning with Dennis Lehane and got my copes of Mystic River and Shutter Island signed. Clint Eastwood’s film version of Mystic River was in post-production, Shutter Island had just been published, and during the Q&A period Lehane was asked why he’d chosen to change from modern detective fiction to something with a more historical bent.
“One thing to know,” Lehane suggested, “is that novels are never about the periods in which they are set, but rather about the periods in which they are written.”
He also mentioned that the rights to Shutter Island had been optioned, and it looked as if Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, Air Force One, Trojan ManTroy) was set to direct.
I read the book in a day, and found it entertaining, but slight—I was probably too absorbed by the plot and the pacing to have given much though to Lehane’s “periods in which they are written” statement, but having watched the movie today, one can see where it’s possibly a metaphor for the war on terrorism, and specifically our penchant for finding bogeymen everywhere we look (more so in 2002-2003, when the book was written).
The film, like the book on which it is based, is entertaining, if flawed. There may not be enough there to put it together, but viewed under the subtext of what the author claimed the book was “about,” there’s another shade of interestingness there, and certain speeches, when viewed through that lens, become slightly more poignant. So give that some thought if and when you check it out.
