Read in early March 2010.
SHUTTER ISLAND is the suspense novel the Martin Scorsese movie was based on. I saw the movie first. The movie was, of course, excellent.
However, I wanted to read the book, as Scorsese usually does a great job of translating novels into film (and he did so here, as well) and the novels he uses are usually good.
SHUTTER ISLAND was good - not great. Nothing life-changing or genre-shattering. A quick read, and very engrossing. It is also has several thought-provoking moments that resonate throughout the story. So, it is what I'd call a "substantial" read. I didn't feel like I wasted my time reading it.
The narrative consists of two federal marshalls in 1954 who are sent to a mental institution on Shutter Island, a somewhat remote island off the mid-atlantic coast. The marshalls have been requested to help find an inmate/patient that has escaped. What ensues from here is a mystery shrouded in the storms of both the physical world and the psychological.
The setting is perfect and reminiscent of the best Poe mysteries - an old, spooky hospital that was once a POW camp in the Civil War; a remote island fraught with thunderstorms, blowing tree limbs and wet leaves, and much creeping around dark, dripping hallways and abandoned sea-caves. Ghosts, in the form of dreams - or are they? - float in and out of the narrative. Rats even make an appearance.
The story itself, too, is very reminiscent of Poe's stories, where the stormy, violent scenery becomes a metaphor for the protagonist's mind.
All in all, SHUTTER ISLAND is very well done. I was never bored reading this.
Just one last note - I happened to have liked the movie's ending better. Although the movie closely follows the book, the ending is slightly different and more ambiguous. Personally, I feel that is more in keeping with the tradition and ambience of the gothic mystery. The novels' ending is a little more clear-cut.
I would read more of Lehane's novels, if I had a weekend or a few days in between reading something else. In my opinion, this is good airplane/beach/pool/vacation reading. Extremely entertaining, careful and thoughtful narrative, and engaging, likable characters.
REcommended for a quick, painless read.
