The Agent

by George V. Higgins

Book Overview

One of fiction's keenest observers rips open the world of pro-sports agenting in this brisk tale of murder and mystery. Alexander Drouhin built one of the nation's premier sports agencies through... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151003572
• ISBN13: 9780151003570
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

the good, bad, and dirty dealings of big time sports

His 29th book, The Agent is all Higgins. Master of the literary thriller, he turns his eye for detail and his ear for dialogue to the high powered, high dollar world of sports agenting. If you care to learn this trade, just nod and fasten your seat belt, you're in for a swift education. Located in Boston, the good, bad and dirty dealings of big time sports where one hand pats the back as the other lifts the wallet, the reaching words of sincerity, the glowing warmth of the father figure and the comfy sense of security are all bigger than life when Alexander Drouhin come into yours. Football, baseball, basketball and hockey talent from all walks of life line up to hear what the great man cando with their lives: planning their future, assuring unlimited financial security and creating utopia. Never have so many made so much; greed is the way of life and America is the entertainment capital of the world with sports as the main attraction. Is this the way it works? It sure is. Who is the bad guy; the owner, the general manager, the agent or the client? Who can tell, they are contiually changing before your eyes. How do we sober-up and release from jail the NFL's leading rusher to make his role-model date at the YMCA camp? That's easy. How do we keep a NBA star out of the evening TV news after throwing his wife out the second story window of their home? That's a bit tougher, but can do. And along the way there is a murder to solve. This story is as currant as this morning's sports page. Higgins doesn't allow us to set in one spot very lonl. Good company for a lonesome night.

Higgons adopts unusual narrative structure

The Agent by George Higgins is a curate's egg. As those of you familiar with Higgins' work will know, his speciality is description through conversation. It is an odd technique that is exemplified in The Friends of Eddie Coyle. The Agent, however, begins in far more standard narrative style. Sports agent Alexander Drouhin is negotiating deals. There is a great deal of description of his business, his house and his lifestyle. Then, at the end of part one, he is murdered (I can tell you this because it is revealed in the blurb). As a result the central character becomes Lt Francis Clay and the book's style changes radically, beyond anything seen in The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Parts two and three are not only almost entirely conversation, as Clay investigates the case, but they are long conversaions. Curiously, this radical departure from conventional narrative structure works. Of course, I'm biased, being a great Higgins fan, although I admit that he has written some dogs.

Higgins at his best-again!

I have been a fan of George V.Higgins since "The Friends of Eddie Coyle." I have a copy of every book he's written, including two really hard to obtain books, "Style vs Substance" and "Sins of the Fathers," the latter published only in England. This is a writer who cannot be topped. "The Agent" is a fascinating look at a world I have read about often, that of sports agents, but Higgins has made crystal-clear what this field is like. His characters are wonderfully described, his dialogue as crisp as ever, and his story line just flows. I love sports and this book has given me an inside look at the behind-the-scenes machinations of agents and owners. One reason I definitely enjoyed this book is that, unlike "A Change of Gravity(Not one of his better efforts), "The Agent" reads very well. Even though he has had an occasional dip in quality (and those have been extremely rare), George V. Higgins is the only author of whom I can say: Buy his work. You won't regret it.

The Agent is a great introduction to Higgins work.

I'm a long time fan of Higgins' work and I don't think that The Agent is the best of the batch. But that's not to say that it is not a very good book. My suspicion is that it was written as an effort to broaden his audience. I hope it does. It's easy to read and moves quickly. In some of Higgins' other books, a conversations between two people could last a hundred pages. That demands a bit more attention from the reader. (And offers a greater reward in the end.) Anyway, The Agent is definitely worth reading. Even though it's not the best Higgins, it's still better than most other offerings in or out of the genre.

Terrific novel

I'm not a sports fan, but I found this book enthralling, well-written and generally terrific. Higgins spends a lot of time on the sports world as seen through agents' eyes, and even though you couldn't pay me enought to make me watch a hockey or basketball game, it was fascinating. Just as John McPhee in the nonfiction arena can write about oranges, or geology, or taking out the trash, and by his prose skills make it fascinating to the general reader, so too Higgins pulls off the same thing in this novel. I have been a fan of his since 1972 when his first book, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, was published. He writes a lot and rarely disappoints; he certainly does not do so here. Any reader who enjoys a good story, excellent prose and first-rate dialogue will enjoy this book tremendously; if you're a sports fan, you will have an additional dimension added to your enjoyment.