Boston Confidential

Yesterday's Boston Globe featured a longish piece on the flourishing intersection of Boston and crime fiction. The article features some lengthy quotes from Dennis Lehane, one of my favorite writers:

"The thing that I think differentiates us even from New York is the dark sense of humor that is particular to [Boston's] neighborhoods," Lehane says. "We just accept that God is a prankster. It's this attitude that, `You know, we're all [screwed], can I buy another round? 'I went out with some friends from my old neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, and that humor just came out. They're all getting screwed by their bosses . . . and yet they just have this great wry irony about it. It was hysterical. People in New York aren't funny that way, they just think they are."

Lehane says he believes every good writer is given one true gift, and "mine was always an ear."

"But who wouldn't have one, having grown up in that environment?" Lehane says. "I just remember being with friends and one of my mentors, [the novelist and short-story writer] John Dufresne, just trading stories. He turned to me and said, 'I wish I had grown up like you guys.'"