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The Sins of the Fathers
- GenresShort Stories
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 25, 2025
“TOO LITTLE TOO SHORT”
‘The Sins of the Fathers’ is a collection of 14 short stories. I have read quite a few George V. Higgins’s (1939-1999) novels but never his shorter pieces. His work has always been appealing due to his excellent grasp of believable dialogue; the storylines have been secondary to me. Mr. Higgins was a Boston attorney and author. His characters inhabit the gritty parts of the human condition. Often his dialogue is amusing because of how local colloquialisms are portrayed. The author’s work relied heavily on dialogue. I don’t typically have favorites in any category such as author, music, acting, movies, politics, artist, historian etc., but Mr. Higgins certainly is my favorite when it comes to mastering dialogue. His work influenced other great writers such as the late Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) and Dennis Lehane.
Each story is loaded with sarcasm and often crude remarks. Divorce and infidelity are all over this thing. The collection was published in 1988, so it should not come as a surprise that it includes terms that are offensive to today’s sensibilities. The short stories cover such issues a police officer blackmailing another cop; retribution and infidelity; Irish Republican Army gunrunners; a lawyer in the FBI’s crosshairs because of corrupt Senator; a law firm having an internal squabble; two female congressional aides gossiping about politician’s affairs; a rebellious 14-year-old boy who is giving his self-absorbed parents headaches; a newspaperman unexpectedly causes the death of a Boston newspaper; two neighbors playing the stock market; ducks being used as a metaphor for humans; two middle-aged women reminiscing about their sex lives; two boys talking about aberrant adults, but think the adults are the norm; and an S&M prostitute whose dead client causes problems for the police.
Mr. Higgins’s short stories feel more like eavesdropping and not getting a well-rounded measure of what is happening. The dialogue is topnotch, but my frustration was in wanting to know more about each story. A few of them felt like whole stories, the law firm internal squabble and the destruction of a newspaper come to mind. Some include interesting twists in their conclusions. I find Mr. Higgins’s novels more appealing than ‘The Sins of the Fathers.’
‘The Sins of the Fathers’ is a collection of 14 short stories. I have read quite a few George V. Higgins’s (1939-1999) novels but never his shorter pieces. His work has always been appealing due to his excellent grasp of believable dialogue; the storylines have been secondary to me. Mr. Higgins was a Boston attorney and author. His characters inhabit the gritty parts of the human condition. Often his dialogue is amusing because of how local colloquialisms are portrayed. The author’s work relied heavily on dialogue. I don’t typically have favorites in any category such as author, music, acting, movies, politics, artist, historian etc., but Mr. Higgins certainly is my favorite when it comes to mastering dialogue. His work influenced other great writers such as the late Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) and Dennis Lehane.
Each story is loaded with sarcasm and often crude remarks. Divorce and infidelity are all over this thing. The collection was published in 1988, so it should not come as a surprise that it includes terms that are offensive to today’s sensibilities. The short stories cover such issues a police officer blackmailing another cop; retribution and infidelity; Irish Republican Army gunrunners; a lawyer in the FBI’s crosshairs because of corrupt Senator; a law firm having an internal squabble; two female congressional aides gossiping about politician’s affairs; a rebellious 14-year-old boy who is giving his self-absorbed parents headaches; a newspaperman unexpectedly causes the death of a Boston newspaper; two neighbors playing the stock market; ducks being used as a metaphor for humans; two middle-aged women reminiscing about their sex lives; two boys talking about aberrant adults, but think the adults are the norm; and an S&M prostitute whose dead client causes problems for the police.
Mr. Higgins’s short stories feel more like eavesdropping and not getting a well-rounded measure of what is happening. The dialogue is topnotch, but my frustration was in wanting to know more about each story. A few of them felt like whole stories, the law firm internal squabble and the destruction of a newspaper come to mind. Some include interesting twists in their conclusions. I find Mr. Higgins’s novels more appealing than ‘The Sins of the Fathers.’
March 31, 2021
One of the masters of telling a story through conversation, and letting people be as nasty as they really are.
October 16, 2016
1991 notebook: what some dialogue.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews