FIU Alum’s Book, Mystic River, Now a Major Motion Picture

FIU Creative Writing alumnus Dennis Lehane (MFA ‘01) will get prominent billing in the credits for a new star-studded, Clint Eastwood-directed film hitting theaters nationwide on Oct. 8. Lehane penned the book, Mystic River, a psychological thriller, on which the movie of the same name is based.

The story deals with three boyhood friends reunited following the murder of one of the trio’s adult daughter. Starring in the big-screen version of the tale are heavy-hitters Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn. Critics have called the film “a masterpiece” and “a movie so powerful you won’t be able to forget it.”

Prof. John Dufresne still remembers celebrating with Lehane at a local pub following word that the then-graduate student’s first novel, A Drink Before the War, had been accepted by a publisher. That success, Dufresne says, had a lot to do with Lehane’s incredible drive, and the best-selling author himself claims to have gone through a dozen drafts of the book before striking pay dirt.

“He arrived [at FIU] with considerable talent and skill and, more importantly, a passion to write,” Dufresne recalls. “All we had to do was turn him loose. Even as a student, he stayed up all night writing while his roommates played video games in the parlor. Nothing interfered with his work.”

Lehane’s undeniable writing abilities notwithstanding, his professors in the Creative Writing Program did agree that one story in the collection he submitted as his thesis was weak when compared to the others and needed reworking.

“We asked him to rewrite [it],” Dufresne says, adding that even the first version “was still damn good, mind you.” That story eventually grew into Mystic River.

Lehane’s other novels includes Darkness, Take My Hand, Sacred, Gone Baby Gone and Prayers for Rain (to which Paramount Pictures holds film rights), all of which feature the same pair of Boston private investigators. His latest book, Shutter Island, which like Mystic River deals with new characters, was released earlier this year.