Decades after seeing Peter Yates's extraordinary film version of George V. Higgins's novel THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, I finally got around to reading the book, which has a reputation for greatness commensurate with the film's. I love the film deeply. Now I love the book the same way. Higgins, whose first published novel this was, has, as almost every critic has noted, a preternatural gift for startlingly real dialog. Much of the book is written in dialog. None of it is precious or self-consciously "real." It simply is real. Just about every phrase sounds as though it had been recorded verbatim from actual conversation, yet none of it contains the painful gracelessness of actual everyday speech. Every character sounds colorful, but there's no pretense about it, no visible brush strokes. Higgins at the time he wrote this book was an Assistant United States Attorney, and his knowledge of the world of criminals and the law was authentic. This story, about a range of criminals, each connected in some way with a small-time crook named Eddie Coyle, and the law enforcement figures who oppose them go about their activities during a brief period of time. That Eddie Coyle is coming up for sentencing on a minor felony is the hinge upon which all the elements of the story turn. One gets the feeling reading the book that this must be what life for the average criminal and lawman is really like -- often dull or commonplace, punctuated by violence and folly, spoiled or accomplished with large helpings of coincidence and error. This book makes me very much want to read Higgins's other works. (And interpolated kudos to whoever thought to have Robert Mitchum play Eddie Coyle. It's a role one would think no one would consider Mitchum for, yet it became one of his very best and most successfully executed.) ( )

looks like tarantino read this book and gave an excellent line to mr. blonde. ( )

Stumbled onto this one to as a lark- i had heard of it and there it was attractively shown at my library, with great write-ups attached ("best crime novel ever" ... words to that effect by ... Lehane?) Not sure i would go that far, but this is a fantastic, immediately grabbing book. Very fast read... the story of Eddie "Fingers" Coyle - low level (?) gun runner who is in trouble with the law and so has to consider turning rat to save himself. The story wends and winds all over grubby crimes (bank robberies and so forth), introducing a bevy of characters (with a capital C). Story is great, but i am burying the lead here... it is is language / dialog that carries this book to such heights. i can't speak to authenticity (what do i know) but it sounds so true and so appropriately targeted. A veritable confederacy of dunces for boston low life criminal language. Just loved it and will see about more of Higgins. ( )

Now that was...painfully fun. 70s hard-boiled. Not a lick of romance or Romanticizing... ( )

Short, fast paced crime story. One of the antecedents of modern cinematic crime story telling. ( )