Instruct: Classify a review as either positive or negative.
Query: The Given Day

This is an enormously readable, hard to put down historical novel. Dennis Lehane pulls the reader in on page one and never lets go. His characters - including Babe Ruth and J. Edgar Hoover - spring to life, and several separate story lines converge seamlessly at a pace that never lags. Historically, it's a compelling look at a period that would bring drastic changes in the way life is lived in America . Individual characters are, for the most part, well-drawn, although considerably stronger on the male side than the female. Lehane's prose is sure-handed, skilled, evocative and edgy.