An Albany Trio

An Albany Trio

“With <i>Legs</i>, <i>Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game</i>, and . . . <i>Ironweed</i>, William Kennedy is making American literature.”—<i>The Washington Post Book World</i><br>  <br> <i>Legs</i> inaugurated William Kennedy’s celebrated cycle of novels set in Albany, New York. True to both life and myth. <i>Legs</i> evokes the flamboyant career of the legendary gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond, who was finally murdered in Albany, and his showgirl mistress as they blaze a trail across the tabloid pages of the 1920s and 1930s.<br>  <br> The second novel in the Albany cycle depicts Billy Phelan, a slightly tarnished poker player, pool hustler, and small-time bookie, as he moves through the lurid nighttime glare of a tough Depression-era town. Full of Irish pluck, he works the fringes of Albany sporting life with his own particular style—until he falls from underworld grace.<br>  <br> In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, <i>Ironweed</i>, Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, and full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany after killing a scab during a workers’ strike, and again after he accidentally—and fatally—dropped his infant son. Now, in 1938, Francis is back, roaming familiar streets and trying to make peace with ghosts of the past and present.