Kennedy, William
Kennedy, William
- Lani Wolf
Extract
With his brilliant “Albany Cycle” of novels, William Kennedy is best known for his portrayal of the working-class, Irish-Catholic community of Albany, New York, particularly its specialized societies of gamblers, gangsters, politicians, and hoboes. Often compared to James Joyce's Dublin, Kennedy's Albany is a mythical place peopled by ostensibly simple characters struggling for identification within a community and a moral system. They relentlessly strive for full comprehension of their own flawed and contradictory natures—and herein lies the power and interest of Kennedy's work: illumination of the profundity within individuals superficially devoid of all complexity and recognition of the pathos of ordinary life.
Subjects
- North American Literatures
