Book Review
Feb. 27th, 2009 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariIronweed
by William Kennedy
This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is just like a Tom Waits song. The prose is lovely and the characters are down and out. It is the story of Francis Phelan, an alcoholic bum who returns to his hometown, Albany, in 1938. There he meets up with his companion of many years, Helen, another alcoholic drifter. In Albany, Francis ends up confronting the ghosts of his past, his guilt, remorse, and sorrow. Kennedy gives Francis and Helen's brokenness a warmth and beauty completely free of judgement and sentimentality.
by William Kennedy
This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is just like a Tom Waits song. The prose is lovely and the characters are down and out. It is the story of Francis Phelan, an alcoholic bum who returns to his hometown, Albany, in 1938. There he meets up with his companion of many years, Helen, another alcoholic drifter. In Albany, Francis ends up confronting the ghosts of his past, his guilt, remorse, and sorrow. Kennedy gives Francis and Helen's brokenness a warmth and beauty completely free of judgement and sentimentality.
