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Title: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game by William Kennedy ISBN: 0-14-006340-4 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1982 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I'll lay 1-9 odds that you'll like this book.
Comment: "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" by William Kennedy is a mesmerizing, hysterical, and suspenseful romp through Depression-era Albany. Read the first chapter, where Billy bowls someone "to death", and I seriously doubt that you will put the book down. Billy is one of the most memorable characters in William Kennedy's galaxy, moreso than Francis Phelan in my book. Billy is a risk-taker, a guy whose heart is in the right place, and a rough-and-tumble sort that relies on his confidence in the midst of trouble. And these are the qualities that make him the inevitable, although unwilling, middle-man in a kidnapping negotiation.
Billy's world of gamblers, drinkers, sharks, corrupt Albany lackies, and broken families is dark and smoky but never despairing or hopeless. And Billy's moral calculus is a bright spot in this otherwise bleak setting. For my money, "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" is the best of three in the Albany cycle. I found "Legs" to be slow-going and lacking focus. "Ironweed" is a sensational book, a close second to this novel, but its plot of two drinkers going from job to job, joint to joint, drink to drink does begin to wear down. "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" has a good deal of plot tension, moral conflicts, humor, and a wider array of characters. I'm in the minority here, and that's fine, but in my analysis it's
WIN: (by a nose)"Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"
PLACE: "Ironweed"
SHOW: "Legs"
Rating: 5
Summary: man about town
Comment: Billy Phelan, son of long gone Francis (Ironweed) has become a "man about town" on the streets of Albany. A snappy dresser, willing to participate in, or bet on, any game in town, has found himself caught up in a kidnapping. This isn't just another game and Billy must play the game of his life for his life.Again Kennedy has the talent to make his wide variety of characters true. My advice is to read this book before Flaming Corsage. The whole cast is there.
Rating: 5
Summary: favorite kennedy trip
Comment: Billy Phelan is my fave of the great Kennedys' books. Billy is a fun guy to roam about with, listen to, learn from and even be inspired by. He is a great pool shooter, decent poker player, half-ass bookie and lovely raconteur.He takes the world as it comes and dives in to any and all of it with gusto and guts.Kennedy tosses in illustrative examples of the magic in daily life and the importance of being able to bounce back from those inevitable moments of (temporary!) defeat. All this told in Kennedys fine voice, a voice like that of a chain-smoking angel who can tell a snappy joke or a dazzling blue stretcher. What fun.
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Title: Legs by William J. Kennedy ISBN: 0140064842 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1982 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Ironweed by William J. Kennedy ISBN: 0140070206 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Quinn's Book by William J. Kennedy ISBN: 0140077375 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Flaming Corsage by William J. Kennedy ISBN: 0140242708 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Very Old Bones (Contemporary American Fiction) by William Kennedy ISBN: 0140138986 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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