Travel up north with the novels of William Kennedy
For inhabitants of Florida, the northern urbanity of New York might as well be on the other side of the world. In reality, though, it’s really just a trip up the coast. Of course, the trip is even easier when you travel within a good book. There are many authors who have drawn from the fount of inspiration that is New York, but William Kennedy is one who gives readers the opportunity to travel not only in space, but in time as well. His novels portray Albany, New York during the 1920s and 1930sa time of open political machinations, crushing poverty, and small but meaningful triumphs.Kennedy was originally a newspaper reporter. It was during an assignment with a Puerto Rico newspaper that he met Saul Bellow, the Pulitzer- and Nobel-Prize-winning novelist who drew from Chicago in much the same way that Kennedy would draw from the streets of Albany. Kennedy would also develop a strong relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, the father of “Gonzo journalism.”Like both of these authors, Kennedy’s work is rooted in the traditions of storytelling, but infused with modern experimentation and creativity. Among other features, his work often includes slight elements of fantasy combined with human drama. Kennedy’s first novel The Ink Truck was published in 1969, and was a fictionalized account of a newspaper strike set in a city that was obviously Albany, but was never named. While the book is not as acclaimed as his following novels, it showed Kennedy’s talent for describing place, and for making heroes out of ordinary people. It was in Legs, Kennedy’s second novel and the first of his Albany cycle, that people started to take notice. His depiction of 1920s gangster “Legs” Diamond must have already seemed like a slice of history in 1975, but it is even more so today. 1978′s Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game was the next book in the cycle, and the first in which the Phelan family appeared. These characters would return again in five more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize/National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Ironweed. This novel was later turned into a 1987 film, directed by Hector Babenco and featuring the talented Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Kennedy also wrote the script for this film, nd co-atuhored the screenplay for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club. In addition to novels and screenplays, Kennedy has also written two plays, two children’s books, and three works of non-fiction. Most of his novels are still in print and can be easily found at online retailers and used bookstores alike.
