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The Friends of Eddie Coyle
George V. Higgins Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Friends of Eddie Coyle
"Though Higgins would write more than two dozen novels, his first -- published in 1972 and made into a movie with Robert Mitchum the following year -- remains his most famous. Eddie Coyle is a fairly small-time hood who moves guns for people in the Boston area. Big man Jimmy Scalisi has a standing order for hardware to pull a series of bank jobs, dealer Jackie Brown feeds the guns to Eddie, police officer Foley keeps trying to get Eddie to give up Scalisi, and Dillon is a bartender (and part-time contract killer) who listens to Eddie's beefs over drinks. In other words, one should put quotation marks around the "friends" of the title. This is a gritty, startling slice o' criminal life, Boston style -- most of it related strictly through dialogue."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Friends of Eddie Coyle
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 30%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%




Tone of story - Dry-cynical
Time/era of story: - 1960's-1970's
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
The crook is.... - criminal's rise in a crime organization - criminals killing each other - Get treasure/money from another criminal
Crime Thriller Yes
Mostly a criminal POV story Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - thief/con artist
Age: - 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use? - a significant amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - criminal
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - Dirty, dangerous (like New York) - dangerous - Boston

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 8 or more
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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