A Change of Gravity (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: George V. Higgins
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1959 to present
- Setting: Canterbury, Holyoke, and Springfield, Massachusetts
- Principal Characters: Ambrose “Amby” Merrion, Dan Hilliard, Marcia “Mercy” Hackett Hilliard, Diane Fox, Barrie Foote, Janet LeClerc, Lowell Chappelle, Sam “Sammy Paradise” Paradisio, Larry Lane, Leonard Cavanaugh, Robert Pooler, Julian Sanderson, Haskell “Heck” Sanderson, Geoffrey Cohen, Arnold Bissell, Geraldine “Sunny” Keller
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: Politics, Love or romance, Adultery, Politicians, Judges, Corruption, Courts or courtrooms
- Locales: Holyoke, MA, Canterbury, MA, Springfield, MA
With its emphasis on dialogue, character, and mood—and its neglect of plot—A Change of Gravity is a typical George V. Higgins novel. Higgins’s fiction concentrates on the realistic side of the lives of criminals, police officers, lawyers, and politicians. Higgins has a great deal in common with such nineteenth century realists as William Dean Howells, for his attention to the details of everyday life, and Henry James, for his revelation of complex psychology through conversations about the seemingly mundane. Higgins’s method in A Change of Gravity is to have...
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