Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night: Island of Misfits

By Wes Newbury

“As far as the writer as an outlaw,” said Dennis Lehane in his Literary Traveler interview,  “we are sort of the square pegs, and the world is the round hole.” Writers are very much the misfits of the world, and although Lehane admits, "they may not make the best of outlaws," writers relate to outlaws through their shared experience of social incongruity.

Cuba is considered the outlaw of nations—where dreams of outlaws go to decay. Sea walls that once served as protection from pirates crumble into grains of sand. Busted light bulbs trace the letters of old casino signs. Am...