Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tour de force of dialogue, suspense, and atmosphere, 6 Jan 2003
George V Higgins was a Boston lawyer who took to writing; this is his first book. In it he displays his incredibly sharp ear for the many and various patois of the region; it is so precise that I've often wondered if anybody who has not lived in the Boston area and known its many dialects could truly appreciate the way Higgins captures them. Regardless (or, as they might say in Needham, IRregaddless), there are many other qualities to appreciate: his swift characterizations, his knack for suspense, his deft portrayal of criminals at the edge of their competence and the harried cops who chase them.If you like Elmore Leonard, you'll like Higgins; indeed, Leonard acknowledges Higgins as one of his primary influences. Later in his literary career, Higgins would occasionally get bogged down in experiments with dialogue and plot - triply nested quotations, multiple flashbacks, excessive detail - but he always remained interesting. In this book, he is at his crispest: vital, perceptive, acute. "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" is a classic that deserves to be placed alongside "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon".
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Listening in on some bad men, 17 Dec 2003
By A Customer
The novel is written in dialogue, with very little narrative. This means that you have to work hard to work out the plot. Higgins does not tell you. You are immediatly plunged into the world of a smalltime Boston criminal, Eddie Coyle, as he aims to buy guns for his bank robbing friends, gather useful information to pass on to the police, and stay out of prison for a drink smuggling charge. This seems like a tall order, as he is acutely aware. Previously, Coyle has collected an "extra set of knuckles", after his "friends" shut his fingers in a drawer and kicked it shut(retribution for selling traceable guns).
What is enjoyable about this novel is the sense of eavesdropping on an amoral world. The humour is deadpan and cynical. There is a constant sense of fear and paranoia. The impression that comes through is of the high price to be paid for a life of crime, in terms of mental peace.
Set in the 1970's against a background of student radicalism and racial tension, a bleak portrait of the country emerges. If you like Elmore Leonard, read Higgins to whom he owes an acknowledged debt. The recent film, Mystic River, based on a Dennis Lehane novel and again set in Boston, shares some of the grittiness of this world. It is not an easy read, but it is a thought provoking one.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic hardboiled Higgins - twisting plot mostly told through scintillating dialogue, 8 Jul 2002
Eddie's world is in a mess. His "friends" have smashed his hand in adesk drawer because he supplied a gun with a history to another crook;he's taken the rap for a little illciit transport of liquor, and hisattempt to turn informant to secure himself a shorter sentence seems tobe causing him at least as much trouble as his crimes did.As ever, Higgins' characters swim through the murky waters of the Bostonunderworld talking, talking, talking as they go - this is anotherclassic of dialogue and atmosphere. Short, sharp, punchy and colloquial,it's everything Higgins does best distilled into one near-perfect novel.pete
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