Ironweed (1983) by William Kennedy

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Ironweed (1983)

by William Kennedy

Albany, New York

New York: 21/105

Upstate New York: 20/23

    Ironweed, Pulitzer Prize winner and third book in William Kennedy's Albany Cycle, represents a kind of high-water mark of WHITE GUY literature- a moment in time when the entire literary establishment could fall under the spell of a drunken washed-up Albany area baseball player and his drunken regrets. And, don't get me wrong- I loved this book- def the highlight of the 22 books from Upstate New York in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.   In fact, I think there is a strong argument to include Ironweed on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list as well.

    Francis Phelan- played by Jack Nicholson in the movie(!) is a down but not entirely out bum (his word) eking out something approximating existence in Albany, where he abandoned his family 20 years ago after he dropped his infant son and the infant son died.  He's haunted by this and other mistakes- quite literally haunted by the shades of the dude he brained with a rock at a Union protest, or the labor protestors who were shot by the cops after he brained the guy with the rock.

   In between he does some casual labor, hangs out with this stomach cancer ridden friends (occupational hazard of hard core alcoholics, I gather) and makes up with his abandoned family.  Sad but a good read. And you know, he like, is doing stuff besides sitting in his bedroom and complaining about life, which I feel like is 30 percent of the protagonists of the titles in the 1,001 Novels project.