The friends of Eddie Coyle
by George V. Higgins · first published 1972
3mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2015–2026first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
"Eddie Coyle is a small-time punk with a big-time problem - who to sell out to avoid being sent up again. Eddie works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is onto Eddie, and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. And then there's Dillon, a full-time bartender and a part-time contract killer pretending to be Eddie's friend. These and others make up the bunch of hoods, gunmen, thieves, and executioners who are wheeling, dealing, chasing, and stealing in the underworld of Eddie Coyle."--BOOK JACKET.
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The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a book I've read twice. I think the clean, tight simplicity of the story might make it live on, like O'Henry stories. But who TF knows? I have read some Nabokov, but I'd never even heard of Transparent…
on “Which Writers Will We Remember?” ↗Apparently! I'm mostly a non-fiction reader but a few fictions I really like: - The Friends of Eddie Coyle - A River Runs Through It - Stoner - The Tartar Steppe - Siddhartha And a very cliche recommendation but will still make it, the first 3 Game of Thrones books. I also like the Dark Tower series.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…Peter Leonard said. “Elmore was a major Hemingway fan. He was the influence that got my dad to write.” Then Sudduth showed Leonard the university’s Higgins collection, including the manuscript for “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.” “That got dad’s attention. That book set my dad free. It really changed his outlook on writing. George Higgins was free with characters and dialogue. Hemingway and Higgins were the two influences in…
on “The Elmore Leonard Story” ↗