In Mamet’s Book, George V. Higgins Is Tops for Dialogue

David Mamet in The Week reaffirms his longheld opinion that George V. Higgins was the best writer of dialogue. Outlaws (Holt, 1987) tops his list of six all-time favorites:

“Great dialogue—in novels, drama, on the street corner, or at the barbershop—adheres to our consciousness and shapes our understanding of the world. If you appreciate great dialogue, read some of George Higgins’s novels. He was a 1970s state and federal prosecutor before he became a Homeric chronicler-inventor of the language of the cops, crooks, and shysters of Boston.”

Vintage, 2010

Orion (UK), 2012