Customer Reviews

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Eddie Coyle is a low-level Boston hood, supplying mobsters with handguns. He earned his nickname, "Fingers", after one gun deal went poorly & he had his hand slammed in a drawer, giving him an extra set of knuckles on his left hand. Once in a while the mob throws him some more lucrative work, but on the last such opportunity he was arrested in New Hampshire illegally trucking liquor. Now he faces three to five years in prison and as he says: "Well, ...I got three kids and a wife at home, and I can't afford to do no more time, you know? The kids're growing up and they go to school, and the other kids make fun of them and all. Hell, I'm almost forty-five years old."

The only way Eddie can avoid prison is to trade information & he's soon caught in between the Feds, his gun dealer & the Mob. George V. Higgin's debut novel (now almost thirty years old) is notable for it's streetwise dialogue and the nearly Shakespearean sense of tragedy (well, at least, Billy "Sonnets" Shakespeare) that surrounds Eddie.

GRADE: A

Possibly the best account of real life crime, gangsters, and cut throats ever written...a rare insight into the real world of low level criminals, proving "There is no honor amongst thieves"...having been born, raised, and lived in the neighborhoods depicted in this novel, I can honestly say..."This story is all too real relative to Boston area criminals and their alleged loyaties...this book is a masterpiece...

I first read The Friends of Eddie Coyle 25 years ago and I can still remember the opening lines (Jackie Brown, at twenty-six, with no expression on his face, said that he could get some guns.) It is a shame Higgins is gone. He was the true master of dialogue. This was the book that drove my desire to write crime fiction myself. It is the story of the real-life poor SOBs who are just trying to make it day to day in a world moving way too fast for them. It is real, which is why I believe I enjoyed it so much ... and can still remember the characters so well (not to mention the dialogue). This is a story of how it really goes in the underworld. The Godfather is for the simple minded fantasy seekers; George V. Higgins was the real deal.

I have just finished re-reading this book for probably the sixth or seventh time since it was published 25 years ago. It was written with a baseball bat and is one of Higgins' best. Best investment you can make if you don't know his work -- a terrific book in every way. Broke new ground when it was published.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle still remains a classic because George V. Higgins knew how to write dialogue. His voice is as fresh today as when this crime novel first hit the shelf back in 1972. It must've been a screenwriter's dream when Paul Monash was asked to adapt this novel for the film which Peter Yates directed. This Henry Holt edition also includes an introduction from Elmore Leonard. Leonard explains how George V. Higgins taught him, as a writer, how to get into scenes without wasting time and how he realized criminals could appear to be ordinary people and have the same concerns as the rest of us.

This book is still a bleak, fascinating read.

I had also been searching for the film for years (it was not available on VHS or DVD) but thanks to Amazon Unbox, I finally got a chance to see this classic with Robert Mitchum. Highly recommend!!!

I got this after seeing the generally unknown but highly-praised-by-film-nerds movie with Robert Mitchum. I did not love the movie, it was fragmented and a little boring. After reading the book, now I know why. They (Hollywood) just stole random pages from this excellent book and slapped them together into a script. All the things that really make no sense and have little impact in the film, hit hard in the book. Great characters, especially Jackie Brown. Five stars!

No less an authority than Elmore Leonard has called this the best crime book ever. I have to agree. More of us crime novelists, both novice and seasoned, have gone to school on this book than any other. Check out how Higgins drives the plot forward with dialogue--dialogue that is both street-tough and brilliant.Speedo

I reread this one after maybe twenty years; it's as amazing now as it was then. Nobody could write dialogue like Higgins. Gritty as hell, dark, violent, tremendously funny, incredibly inventive, all served straight with no chaser, like a shot of Bushmill's. A landmark novel.
The Mitchum film was pretty good, too.

This is an outstanding, dialog driven crime story taking place in Boston and the North Shore. Eddie "Fingers" Coyle is a gun running middleman for the mob looking at 3 to 5 years in prison for a botched liquor truck heist in New Hampshire. Eddie, who is close to 50 with a wife and kids is not a big fan of doing any more time in prison. Eddie starts dealing with a Boston fed, trying to wheel and deal his way out of prison while also making deals with gun dealers and supplying bank robbers with untracable weapons. What is great about this novel to me is that there is no clear good or bad guys. Nor the crooks or cops really have any redeeming values or loyalties yet remain very interesting in their own rights. As mentioned before, this is a dialog driven story and the dialog is gritty and authentic for the era. This a short but great read. I highly reccomend this story to fans of Dennis Lehane or just crime fiction fans in general.