I read Higgins's THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE and then went
through the archives and read a lot of the comments on him.
The copy I have has a short intro by Leonard describing his
debt to Higgins, and I've noted elsewhere that quite a few
crime writers were influenced by Higgins.
What exactly did Higgins do that was so revolutionary? He's
praised for his use of a colloquial Eastern gangster patois,
but I saw that in Crane's MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS. I
notice that descriptive narrative is at a bare minimum, and
the plot is driven predominantly by dialogue, but that could
be ascribed to borrowing from the play or script media.
Higgins explores the thoughts and world of the low-rent
criminal, but noir fiction had been doing that for years. My
guess is that it's not any one of these in particular but the
combination of them all that makes the book innovative. Any
thoughts on this?
And where does Higgins's book fit in as far as breaking down
language barriers involving the use of profanity? Was his
book a major turning point? The only thing I can think of
earlier that used a lot of profanity is Iceberg Slim's PIMP
(1969), but I think of it as more of an underground text
playing to a different set of rules. I recall Himes
substituted
"mother-raper" in COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (1965) for the more
common expletive.
Thanks, miker
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