leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (12/18/85)
LEGS by William Kennedy
Penguin, 1983, $5.95.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
I rarely get around to reading a lot of what the mainstream considers
to be "good fiction." I am not talking here about best sellers, though I
don't read many of those either, but about the stuff that the prestigious
magazines think is good fiction. However, on vacation at Club Med, a
particularly sun-burned gentleman mentioned to me that he had just read and
enjoyed the Pulitzer-Prize-winning LEGS by William Kennedy. This was a
novel about the gangster Legs Diamond. After I got home I noticed the book
for sale and decided to give it a try. For one thing, I have never read a
novel that won any prize more prestigious than a Hugo award. Also, it would
give me an opportunity to research the actual character and put the novel in
an historical context. Particularly good for this purpose are BLOODLETTERS
AND BADMEN by Jay Robert Nash and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN CRIME by Carl
Sifakis. I tend to go to these books after seeing a film like THE COTTON
CLUB or even GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL in order to find out more about
characters.
The book seems to tale some liberties with the facts though in general
it is reasonably faithful to the facts about the character's late career.
The character tells his wife that his real name is John Thomas Diamond. It
is odd she would marry him without already knowing his real name, but odder
still, she would know that his real name was John Thomas Noland. Apparently
Kennedy did not even know Diamond's real name.
The novel itself is told from the point of view of Marcus Gorman, a
young lawyer whom Diamond befriends and who allows himself to be pulled into
an association with Diamond that he knows will destroy his career plans.
Gorman is occasionally pulled into the plot but for much of the book he is
just observing Diamond's relationship with other gangsters (especially Dutch
Schultz), with the law, and with the two women in his life, his wife Alice
Kenny and his mistress, a dancer named Kiki Roberts. This is not the kind
of book that really comes to any conclusions about Jack Diamond. Diamond is
neither hero nor villain. He is a selfish man who uses people from time to
time and rewards them at other times. At the end of the novel we know a
little more about Diamond, though we still have not come to any real
understanding of the character. If this is a story with a beginning, a
middle, and an end, it's almost all middle. There is almost no beginning
and the end is flat, quick, and a letdown.
It is difficult for me to see much greatness in the book and I am
unlikely to go on to read Kennedy's other two "Albany novels," BILLY
PHELAN'S GREATEST GAME and IRONWEED, but the combined experience of reading
the book and the background material in Nash and Sifakis was worthwhile.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leepercv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas) (12/20/85)
-=- [Mark Leeper writes:] > > It is difficult for me to see much greatness in the book and I am >unlikely to go on to read Kennedy's other two "Albany novels," BILLY >PHELAN'S GREATEST GAME and IRONWEED, but the combined experience of reading >the book and the background material in Nash and Sifakis was worthwhile. Don't let this review stop you from trying any of Kennedy's work. I have read both LEGS and IRONWEED with great enjoyment. His characterizations of various Albany bums, gangsters and 'regular guys' paint an almost surreal picture of the period, no less interesting for being based on actual events. Has anyone else read Kennedy? Let's hear what you think.... Chris J. Valas {decvax,utzoo,philabs,security,allegra,genrad}!linus!cv -=-
wendyt@isieng.UUCP (Wendy Thrash) (12/21/85)
<Mark Leeper writes on _Legs_, comments on historical inaccuracies, says he won't be moved to read the other Albany novels.> I'm one of those strange people who read "serious" fiction. About ten years ago I migrated from SF through Vonnegut to Pynchon, then Barth and other more "mainstream" writers. _Ironweed_ was the first of the Albany novels for me. Without getting technical, I loved it! I immediately sought out _Legs_ and _Billy Phelan's Greatest Game_. I enjoyed _Legs_ most of the three, though _Ironweed_ is probably the most successful as a novel. So, if you don't give a hoot whether Diamond's name was really Bullwinkle, can distinguish between historical fiction and history, and want a really good book to read, try pulling _Legs_ down from the shelf. Even better, pull up an _Ironweed_. Save _Billy_ until you've read the other two.
emneufeld@watdragon.UUCP (Eric Neufeld) (01/08/86)
I would like to add my voice to those who think this is a great book. For my part, fictional writers fall into two great categories: those who describe life by plot and use detail to flesh out the story and those who describe life by paying incredible attention to detail which they hang on a fairly simple plot. My current favoutites in the latter cateogry are : William Kennedy, Flannery O'Conner, Thomas Wolfe, Guy VanderHaeghe (the soon to be great Saskatchewan writer who was recently reviewed in the New Yorker) and Evan S. Connell. Though I prefer this type of writing, I view it as a matter of taste. When it comes to movies, I feel exactly the opposite and love slam bang action movies, of which the Americans are masters. Eric Neufeld