Last night author Dennis Lehane made an appearance at the Brookline Booksmith, where he read from his just released novel Shutter Island.

In his own words, the chapter he chose to read from was ‘pretty raw’, and he made sure there were no innocent ears in the room before diving into a vivid, fairly disturbing bathroom scene between a painfully distant husband and wife. It wasn’t the liberal smattering of ‘fucks’ that he warned us about (although he did joke “Now I know what that baby’s first word is going to be.”), but a cameo by the dreaded ‘C’ word. Dennis even apologized in advance for his inevitable blushing when he said it outloud (“I’m a Catholic boy, after all.”).

Shutter Island’s ingredients? A hospital for the criminally insane, two investigators trapped on an island, a hurricane fast approaching. Murder, deception, deadly fires, betrayal… wrap it up with what rumor says is a monster pay-off in the final scenes. Although this novel is supposedly somewhat of a departure for Lehane, the chapter he read proved that the writing style was definitely still his own. I’m so psyched to get lost in this book over the weekend, and hopefully Amie will be done with our newly-autographed copy by then.

He took audience questions after the reading, so here’s a few highlights…

– Shutter Island came to him almost completely in a dream, and was actually the first book he ever outlined in advance… he claims he had no choice, as the twists and turns are relatively complicated.

– As many Lehane fans probably know, after his last novel, Mystic River, he planned on writing a novel he’d been thinking about for a long time called “Missing Delores.” He even went so far as to discuss it in interviews while promoting Mystic. Typically, he spends the first chunk of his novels writing about characters, and around page 150 or so, they go out in search of a plot. When he got to that point in Missing Delores, he sent them out in search of the plot, but they came back empty-handed… nothing came to him at all. He agonized about where the novel should head, but was never able to properly work it out. He was forced to bail on it completely and instead wrote Shutter Island. He did, however, steal some of the character names for the new novel, including Teddy (the main character from M.D.), and his wife Delores. If he ever does finish the aborted book, he joked that he’ll have to change the name to “Missing Stephanie” or something.

– He couldn’t be happier with the experience of watching his last book, Mystic River, be turned into a film… he’d had nothing but bad hollywood dealings before, but this changed all that.

– He didn’t visit the set that much when filming started, even though director Clint Eastwood said it was cool … he assumed that was just Clint being gracious. Eventually a friend of Eastwood’s took Dennis aside and said “Y’know, Clint is a little put-off that you’re not coming around the set more often.” Again, that’s usually the exact opposite of the way hollywood treats writers. Lehane was stunned.

– He sat down with Sean Penn (who stars in Mystic River) for drinks one night shortly after filming started. After “about 15 shots”, and the realization that he was sitting there talking to Sean Penn, who was starring in a movie based on a book that he had written… and that it was actually happening… Penn looked at him and said “It’s never going to be any better than it is right now.” Dennis related this anecdote with a gleam in his eye. He had the same look when describing …

– … Two weeks ago, he was sitting in Boston Symphony Hall with Clint, listening to the BSO record the score for the film. 84 people on stage, making music for something that started in his brain, and with his long-hand scribblings. What did Clint and him talk about? Well, women, of course.

– Eli Wallach arrived on set for a day to film a cameo appearance, playing Mr. Lionel Looney. He’s getting on in years, and actually had a tough time raising the shotgun he carries in the scene. Clint, who rarely allows more than 1 or 2 takes, gave Eli about 15. For those who haven’t made the connection, Clint and Eli starred together in western classic “The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly“… Clint played “The Good”, Eli played “The Ugly” (aka Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez). Lehane mentioned to me after the reading that Clint and Eli hadn’t seen each other since 1965… the year he was born.

– Wolfgang Peterson (In the Line of Fire, Troy, Air Force One) has already optioned Shutter Island for a film adaptation, and as many Lehane readers already know, the rights to two of his Kenzie-Gennarro novels have been acquired by Ben Affleck. “Ben and J.Lo as Patrick and Angie?” he joked. That got a half-laugh / half-nervous chuckle from the crowd of obvious Patrick-Angie fans.

In addition to the photo on the right, I got a few more pictures at the reading, as well.