Customer Reviews

Victories

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My introduction to the late Mr. Higgins' work was this wonderful book, "Victories," when it first came out in paperback during 1990. I was floored by his snappy, believable dialogue and interesting characters. The novel takes place in 1967-1968 when "Hank" Briggs, an ex-professional baseball pitcher, is convinced to run against a popular, 14-term, septuagenarian, Vermont Congressman named Bob Wainwright. The story is not some intricate whodunit or complex plot with oodles of action and gunfire, but a colorful and entertaining description of the going-ons behind the scenes of someone deciding to run for office. It explains through educational and sometimes funny conversations by mulitple characters the duplicitous nature of politics and the human condition. If the reader is more into suspenseful pulp fiction such as Mickey Spillane's work, you're going to be greatly disappointed by "Victories." Mr. Higgins was one of the 20th Century's great writers but few people, today, seem to know about him. I'd take this author over Hemingway or Faulkner any day of the week.