William Kennedy, known as the author who captured Albany, New York, talks to Tom Deignan. ℘℘℘ William Kennedy is telling a story about his father that could very well be a haunting moment from any one of his seven "Albany cycle" novels. "My father's father came from Tipperary," the novelist, 74, says over an Irish breakfast in Fitzpatrick's mid-town Manhattan hotel. Kennedy's … [Read more...] about Out of Albany
Irish author
The Voice of the Dispossessed
February 2, 2002 marked the centenary of John Steinbeck's birth. Jim Dwyer writes about the great American writer's Irish Roots. ℘℘℘ All the great novels and stories of John Steinbeck slice into the American experience, clear to the bone. They are set in California, or along Route 66, where the Joads trekked across the Southwest from the Dust Bowls. And Steinbeck himself, born … [Read more...] about The Voice of the Dispossessed
Thomas Flanagan (1923-2003) Earned His Place in Irish Literature
By Seamus Heaney
On March 16, 2002, Thomas Flanagan reviewed a history of St. Patrick's day for The Irish Times and was identified by the paper's literary editor as "a novelist and scholar...currently working on a book about Irish-American writers." When he died in Berkeley from a heart attack five days later, he had submitted to The New York Book Review of Books his piece on William Kennedy … [Read more...] about Thomas Flanagan (1923-2003) Earned His Place in Irish Literature
Books: Roscoe
Roscoe – the latest book from Albany author William Kennedy – is a splendid novel: at once an exuberant elegy, a sad comedy, a realistic fable of life and death. In the seventh novel of Kennedy's "Albany cycle," the meshed subjects are the stuff of the real world, from politics to love, corruption to honor. But there is also room for a ghost story (the epitome of a unburied … [Read more...] about Books: Roscoe
Report From Ground Zero
An excerpt from Dennis Smith's latest book. ℘℘℘ In the chief's van, Chief Pfeifer hears the Manhattan dispatcher announce that a plane has gone into tower 1 of the World Trade Center. The chief reaches for the telephone. "Battalion 1 to Manhattan." "Okay," the dispatcher answers. It is John Lightsey who is working the microphone this shift. "We have another report of a … [Read more...] about Report From Ground Zero