The Drop

By: Dennis Lehane

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Dennis Lehane returns to the streets of Mystic Riverwith this love story wrapped in a crime story wrapped in a journey of faith - the basis for the major motion picture The Drop, from Fox Searchlight Pictures directed by Michaël Roskam, screenplay by Dennis Lehane, and starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and James Gandolfini.

Three days after Christmas, a lonely bartender looking for a reason to live rescues an abused puppy from a trash can and meets a damaged woman looking for something to believe in. As their relationship grows, they cross paths with the Chechen mafia; a man grown dangerous with age and thwarted hopes; two hapless stick-up artists; a very curious cop; and the original owner of the puppy, who wants his dog back.

©2014 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

Simple yet tightly knit story grounded in reality

It does read like a script that there is a lot of dialogue between characters, but book is excellent, and I throughly enjoyed it. It is a very focused book on few characters. Author does a great job developing these characters, and I got to know them very well.

Story is simple but powerful rooted in gritty reality that I could see these events could take place in rea life. At times, readers are introduced to either very accomplished tough guys, or naive incompetent ones. This books walks a fine line between these characters which are possibly neither. It made a very interesting read. This is my first Lehane book, but it will not be the last. I highly recommend Lehane.

Narrator did a great job portraying the grittiness of various tough guys. Overall, narrator is able to capture the spirit of the book. Again, I would be looking for other books narrated by from Jim Frangione.

New Favorite

I read this book because I loved the film. I didn't realize when I saw it that LeHane wrote the book, but that didn't matter -- I needed to read the source material. I am now a big fan. As much as I liked the novel, the performance lacked some nuance in areas. I could have used more emphasis in certain passages.. While these were distracting at times they didn't take away from the story. Mr LeHane writes very literal books that make great movies like Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. I will be listening to many more of his novels.

Why all the positive reviews for this book?

I just realized I was halfway through this book, and it was still going nowhere. Overly and unimportantly wordy with little more than superfluous observations to keep the reader or listener’s interest. The narrator is also not helping...
Returning.

Short but Satisfying

If you could sum up The Drop in three words, what would they be?

Plenty of tension

What other book might you compare The Drop to and why?

None come to mind.

What about Jim Frangione’s performance did you like?

He gets out of the way of the story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and I almost did, but I wanted to save the ending for the next day!

Any additional comments?

The Drop is short for a Dennis Lehane, but the story didn't suffer from it. As usual, Lehane masters the craft of inner dialogue that allows us to live inside the protagonist's head and reveals the complete character. I wished it were a bit longer; then again, this one has so much tension I might be glad it's shorter than usual. Another Lehane winner.

So much more

than I expected. No good guys nor bad ones. Just flawed people getting to the next day.

A relief after stepping out of Blood Meridian

Another Author could have written double the character development and still not accomplished Lehan ‘s simple story. Just enough to hook you emotionally to the characters while still moving the story forward. Violence. Love and redemption…

Excellent

Lebanese cane write dialog and create characters so very real and deep it's like you grew up with them.
satisfying

It Kept Me Listening (and Squirming)

I wanted to keep listening to the story just to see how all of the people in it were going to survive the questionable decisions they made as the story goes on. It's a world where almost no one's intentions are completely pure. The main characters seem to get squeezed tighter and tighter as the story moves forward, unable to avoid the trouble that comes with being close to organized crime. Parts of it also give credence to the expression "No good deed goes unpunished."
The ending is about as upbeat as one could expect, given all of the bad things and people that are in it.
The character development is quite good. The images created by the author are vivid and disturbing.
There is also an undercurrent running through the story about the nature of forgiveness, are some actions are so bad as to be unforgivable, and what is required to receive forgiveness.
The narrator does a good job of intonation with the different characters (who are either from Boston or Chechnya) - maybe he goes a little over the top sometimes, but not in an annoying way.

Entertaining but a little short

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, keep me intrigued

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Main character; some of the characters backgrounds that played very small rolls in this shorter book

Which character – as performed by Jim Frangione – was your favorite?

Main character

Do you think The Drop needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Sure

Mr. Lehane is getting better as he ages.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Drop to be better than the print version?

Having not read the print version, I can't say. However, all other things being equal, I always prefer the audiobook, because the performance aspect adds so much to the story that it begins to resemble a movie that is cast in your head. In this case, there actually is a movie of the Drop. It is James Gandolfini's last performance, and it also includes a stunning performance by Thomas Hardy, whom I personally cannot get enough of.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

It did. The Chechens seem like the nastiest people on earth. Their vicious characters contrast in a very poignant way with the gentleness of Bob's adoption of a puppy, who, of course, turns out to be a pitbull. Along with this we have a permanently wounded woman, whose ex-boyfriend is a truly crazy individual who claims to have committed a murder that he actually didn't do, just to give him some street cred. Are you on the edge of your seat yet?
The plot just keeps getting wound tighter and tighter. Mr. Lehane never lets a loose thread get away from him, even though there are cross-currents all over the place.

Which scene was your favorite?

I seldom have a single scene that I remember above the others. Thomas Hardy is in almost all of them, and each scene he is in, he's just like Bette Davis: you just can't take your eyes off him. Even in scenes with James Gandolfini (I realize that I am now referring to the movie. So?) Mr. Hardy keeps the screen and holds it. He brilliantly portrays the depths of this character, from one extreme of human cruelty to the other of human kindness and love. Mr. Lehane has written a terrific book here: as they say, it will stay with you for quite a while.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I neither laughed or cried. I did feel sympathy for the down-and-outers who populate the book, although the truly evil ones do not elicit much fellow-feeling. The initial scene, in which Bob picks up the puppy from the garbage can, and sees the way in which the prior owner has beaten the puppy within an inch of its life: easy to remember writing like this.

Any additional comments?

It is really good to see Mr. Lehane branch out from the Patrick Kenzie-Angelo Gennaro series. Many writers get trapped in their own successes (you, you know who you are) but Mr. Lehane shows us that he can do stand-alone books that are sometimes better than the series books. Different characters, different plots, although all are located in Boston. Mr. Lehane clearly can keep writing for many years. My proverbial hat is off to him. I'm a fan.