Many of his novels feature the interaction of members of the fictional Irish-American Phelan family, and make use of incidents of Albanys history and the supernatural. Quoted from the classic New York Timesreview of Ironweed, which made it an overnight sensation. William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist born and raised in Albany, New York. It is more fierce, but also more forgiving. Guardianīut for all the rich variety of prose and event, from hallucination to bedrock realism to slapstick and to blessed quotidian peace, Ironweed is more austere than its predecessors. The premise of Ironweedwas so unpromising, that in marketing terms the writer still to this day finds it funny: the story of a bunch of itinerant alcoholics, knockingaround Kennedys hometown, falling out, having visions, trying to pass for soberto cadge a bed for the night in thehomeless shelter.

Francis his wino ladyfriend of nine years, Helen and his stumblebum pal, Rudy, shuffle their ragtag way through the citys bleakest streets, surviving on gumption, muscatel, and black wit. Now hes on the way back to the wife and home he abandoned, haunted at every corner by the ghosts of his violent life. He left Albany twenty-two years earlier after he dropped his infant son accidentally, and the boy died. All the narrative energy and insight is focused on this one main character, Francis Phelan. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Author of The Underground Railroad, Most Famous Colson Whitehead book, Author of The Goldfinch and more.

Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Robert Towers called Ironweed a kind of fantasia on the strangeness of human destiny, on the mysterious ways in which a life can be transformed and sometimes redeemed.

The beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, basis of the film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.įrancis Phelan, ex-big-leaguer, part-time gravedigger, full-time bum with the gift of gab, is back in town. Ironweed is the story of one man’s physical and emotional struggle for survival and redemption. We become Francis Phelan, a deep-witted walking grave, lighted up with family ghosts like fireflies in twilight.

Ironweed author