The bad people of Boston
Harriet Waugh
IMPOSTORS by George V. Higgins
Andre Deutsch, f9.95
George Higgins is a novelist who writes about Boston. If any of its citizens lead regular, comfortable existences with- out framing, murdering and betraying their friends, lovers, colleagues and rivals they do not appear between the pages of his books. The only robustly moral figure and even he is prepared to sell out for love — in his latest novel Impostors is a murderer, and thereby hangs the tale.
In America George V. Higgins has a large cult following and has been praised as an original talent and likened to Henry James and Damon Runyon. Personally I do not think his writing warrants this enthusiasm but he does tell compelling stories in an idiosyncratic style that makes his thriller-type tales stand out from those around them. In fact the plot of Impostors would do well if adapted to television as a soap serial in the style of Dynasty although Mr Higgins does use a larger social frame and some of the writing — most successful- ly accomplished through monologues — is without the programme's vapidness.
The plot of Impostors concerns a news- paper millionaire executive called Mark Baldwin. His past in a sleepy suburb called Waterford is under threat of exposure from an ex-colleague and television anchorman called Joe Logan. Joe has shot and killed the drunken driver who killed his wife and son. Destroyed by their deaths, Joe mur- dered the man because he considered rightly that he had received too light a sentence. Now he is threatening to expose the town's corrupt practices during his trial. Mark Baldwin hires a beautiful divor- cée called Constance Gates, who ekes out an uncomfortable existence doing legal work, to pose as a reporter and go to Waterford to investigate Joe Logan's back- ground. He wishes to find out, without Constance guessing what he is after, whether Joe knew of an unsavoury episode in his life when they were colleagues in Waterford 20 years ago and, if he does know about it, whether he is likely to expose him.
The investigation gives Mr Higgins an excuse to peel back the smooth façade of respectable Boston and expose the chican- ery going on below it. None of the charac- ters sees their behaviour as being particu- larly reprehensible and would judge them- selves to be fairly decent men and women with, perhaps, some mild and very human blemishes that they would not wish to examine or have examined too closely. It is part of the amusement of Mr Higgins's novel that you see the the characters conduct from their vantage point so that behaviour which should disgust merely becomes a matter of interest as to whether they will get away with it. It is only later that it dawns on you quite how badly the characters do behave.
The central figure, Mark Baldwin, is a smooth, good-looking, clever man in his forties who suffers from a bad back and satyriasis. Amongst the women with whom he is having an affair is his receptionist Sylvia, married to an undeclared homosex- ual. She relieves her unhappy pent-oP feelings at being at the disposal of two politely unloving men by shop-lifting. While Constance Gates investigates the past, the reader follows the unhappy out- come of this silly and desperate womans life as the two men, lover and husband, try to pass the buck between them. Then there is Mark's lawyer, Roger Kidd. He is a partner in one of Boston's old established firms and shows some distaste and dis- approval of the manner in which Marks chooses to conduct his life, but in one n' the best judged scenes in the book, set over an idyllic breakfast in Mark's house, he gives indirectly — during a question-and- answer session in which he asks the ques- tions — chilling and amoral advice on hew Mark might rid himself of his embarrassing mistress. Meanwhile, the heroine, Const- ance, beds down with the obese chief-of- police in Waterford in return for dirt on a 20-year-old murder and some ancient land deals that have made a number of citizens very rich. This causes ripples in the higher echelons of Boston's business society: it is not only Mark's hide that is in danger. Mr Higgins is at his best when showing how people eat and talk. He is at his least good when describing the prosaic aspects of everyday life. His prose is serviceable; it does not give pleasure. Nor do lengthy detailed descriptions of women rolling on tights, cleaning their teeth and rinsing their, mouths add anything to your knowledge 0.` those people. It is only personal in ! familiarly boring way. On the other hand, the curious monologues in which the char- acters indulge and which Mr Higgins used to unfurl his plot do work both as a method of keeping the story rolling and as a way of bringing the speaker to life. When at the end the bad and the bad liveo cheerfully and happily ever after, you , not feel that Mr Higgins has seriousu, dented their personalities. Their inner are still private or non-existent. Only their are and appetites have been exposed. In effect it is pretty superficial stuff, but very readable for all that.
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