Editors Reads Verdict
Kennedy's Pulitzer winner and his finest novel — Francis Phelan is one of American fiction's great fallen figures, and Kennedy's Albany is as fully realised a fictional city as any in the literature.
What We Loved
- The hallucinatory prose — the dead speaking to Francis, the past interrupting the present — is precisely controlled and never arbitrary
- Francis Phelan is one of American fiction's great portraits of guilt as a way of life
- Kennedy's 1938 Albany is rendered with the specificity of a city both loved and mourned
Minor Drawbacks
- The hallucinatory style requires acceptance of its premises — readers wanting realism throughout may resist it
- The novel's place in the Albany Cycle means some resonances are stronger for readers who have read the earlier books
Key Takeaways
- → Guilt carried long enough becomes identity — Francis is not a man who did terrible things but a man whose terrible things are all he is
- → The Depression-era bum is not a social type but a specific person with a specific history — Kennedy insists on this
- → Going home is not possible for Francis, but it is necessary — what he finds there is not forgiveness but something more complicated
| Author | William Kennedy |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Pages | 227 |
| Published | January 1, 1983 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, American Literature |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Literary fiction readers interested in American historical fiction and the Depression era, and anyone drawn to novels of haunted, fallen characters seeking some form of grace. |
Francis Phelan
Francis Phelan dropped his infant son Gerald on the kitchen floor in 1916 and Gerald died. He has been running from that moment ever since — first through baseball (he was a genuine talent, a major league third baseman), then through drink, then through the life of the Albany bum: the missions, the flophouses, the cold encampments by the railroad tracks.
It is 1938 and Francis is back in Albany for the first time in years. He is picking up the bodies of dead bums from the streets for the city. He is accompanied by Helen, a former concert pianist who is also dying. The ghosts of the people he has killed speak to him.
The Hauntings
Kennedy’s formal decision to render Francis’s guilt as literal haunting is the novel’s most daring move. Gerald, the dead infant, is present in the narrative. So is the scab worker Francis killed during a trolley strike. So are others. They are not melodramatic — they speak in the tones of the dead, which is to say matter-of-factly, without demand.
Ironweed was rejected by more than a dozen publishers before being accepted by Viking under pressure from Saul Bellow, who wrote a letter on Kennedy’s behalf. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Kennedy continued the Albany Cycle with several later novels, but Ironweed remains its acknowledged masterpiece.
Our rating: 4.3/5 — Kennedy’s Pulitzer masterpiece; Francis Phelan is one of American fiction’s great haunted figures.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Ironweed" about?
Albany, 1938. Francis Phelan is a bum, an alcoholic, a man who dropped his infant son on the kitchen floor and could not live with it. He was also a professional baseball player and is haunted, literally, by the people he has killed. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winner is the third of the Albany Cycle — a hallucinatory, lyrical, deeply American novel about guilt, grace, and the impossibility of going home.
Who should read "Ironweed"?
Literary fiction readers interested in American historical fiction and the Depression era, and anyone drawn to novels of haunted, fallen characters seeking some form of grace.
What are the key takeaways from "Ironweed"?
Guilt carried long enough becomes identity — Francis is not a man who did terrible things but a man whose terrible things are all he is The Depression-era bum is not a social type but a specific person with a specific history — Kennedy insists on this Going home is not possible for Francis, but it is necessary — what he finds there is not forgiveness but something more complicated
Is "Ironweed" worth reading?
Kennedy's Pulitzer winner and his finest novel — Francis Phelan is one of American fiction's great fallen figures, and Kennedy's Albany is as fully realised a fictional city as any in the literature.
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