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Title: The Friends of Eddie Coyle: A Novel by George V. Higgins, Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0-8050-6598-9 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A Dated Groundbreaker
Comment: A seminal book in the world of crime fiction, Higgins' 1970 debut placed maximum emphasis on creating realistic dialogue for the criminals and police and letting that carry a fairly slender plot along. The story concerns a smalltime hood named Eddie Coyle and a loose ring of associates. He's sweating because he's facing a two year stretch, and he can't handle any time at his age (45). The question is, who's he going to throw to the cops in order to duck that time? The story and its resolution are very much in keeping with the dark tone of the early '70s when the nation was realizing Vietnam was unwinnable and hard drugs were getting more and more prevalent, think of films like The French Connection, Badlands, or High Plains Drifter. (I've not seen the 1973 film version of the book, starring Roger Mitchum as Eddie Coyle.)
The book has been greatly lauded for its simplicity, dialogue, and realistic characters. However, my own reading was that everyone in the book (men, women, law, criminals) spoke more or less the same clipped wise guy talk as everyone else, and not only that, but other than talking about the "Broons" (Boston's pro hockey team, the Bruins), there's little that differentiates the speech from that of countless New York and Brooklyn gangsters. So much so that one occasionally has a hard time keeping track of who is who. So, maybe it was revolutionary to reveal the inner woes of criminals back in 1970, but read today, the book lacks the punch it must once have held.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good read, great dialog...
Comment: I read a list by James Ellroy where he listed Higgins as one of his major influences, so I bought this one. I was pleasantly surprised.
The story is very simple, the dialog is incredibly lifelike and readable. The characters are very real and the story is believable. Its not really a mystery as much as it is a story about some criminals and what they think and feel.
Warning, though. Don't buy this if you like the 'high concept' plots of Grisham and Patterson. This is a very simple story about real people and real criminals. If you're an aspiring writer of crime fiction, definitely check it out especially the dialog.
Rating: 3
Summary: 10 Pages of Greatness
Comment: This book has a great reputation, particularly for the crackling dialogue, and I must say I was in complete agreement for the first 10 pages, which took me through the end of the brilliant first chapter. After that, you start to notice that everybody in this book -- the good guys, the bad guys, their wives, girlfriends -- _everybody_ talks exactly the same, some sort of blue-collar, Cliff-Klaven-meets-Edward-G-Robinson patois. It's lazy writing and the result is that the characters all kind of blur together. Tack on a "so what?" ending and you get a two-star book, plus one extra star for the first chapter, which really is terrific.
If you like crime novels, your best bets are Ray Chandler, Jim Thompson or Joe Wambaugh. You may enjoy Chandler or Wambaugh even if you _don't_ particularly like crime novels. Thompson has probably too much of what Southey would call "the yell of savage rage, the shriek of agony, the groan of death" for the unsuspecting reader.
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Title: At End of Day: A Novel of Suspense by George V. Higgins ISBN: 0156011905 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins ISBN: 0786711086 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 23 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler ISBN: 0375726713 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: On Writing: Advice for Those Who Write to Publish (Or Would Like to) by George V. Higgins ISBN: 0805011803 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell ISBN: 015626224X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: March, 1972 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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