Billy Phelan's Greatest Game

by William Kennedy

Book Overview

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ironweed explores the seedy underbelly of a Depression-era town in the second novel in the Albany cycle

Billy Phelan, a slightly tarnished poker player, pool hustler, and small-time bookie, moves throuh the lurid nighttime glare of Albany, New York. A resourceful man full of Irish pluck, Billy works the fringes of the city's sporting life with his own particular style and private code of honor,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140063404
• ISBN13: 9780140063400
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A too tough Damon Runyan

This is the second of the Kennedy books I have read. I liked 'Ironweed' much better. True, this one has a great opening scene in which there is a head- on- head bowling match related with great suspense and pizzazz. Billy takes on a serious cheap character named Streck. Each one has his own backer. Streck's is Charlie McCall a scion of the family that runs Albany political life. Billy Phelan's is Morrie Berman, a small- time Jewish hood who has sympathy for the fatherless Phelan. The bowling match and especially its aftermath takes a surprising and violent turn, in typical Kennedy style. At the end of the novel Billy Phelan who has stood by his principles and is not a stoolie finds himself ostracized. All in all this is a tough realistic work, with sharp dialect and real humor. If I did not go for it as much as I went for the 'Ironweed' book it is I believe because the violence of the whole thing, the world and the people in it, come to finally turn me off. As I see it Kennedy is a kind of more realistic, and serious Damon Runyan. But precisely Runyan's gentleness with his characters, his feeling that the oddballs and screwballs of his gambling, sports , crime world are loveable jerks after all is what greatly appeals to me. This is not to say Kennedy does not do a good job in delineating admirable sides of his characters, but rather only anything which goes so swiftly and casually from violence to violence ( even in language)is not my cup of Schaefer's , Budweiser's , Ballantine's Miller's , Molson's or any other Albany beer.

"A sucker don't get even till he gets to heaven."

Albany, New York, during the Depression, when mobsters, crooked politicians, and fast-buck artists were in control, is the setting of _Billy Phelan's Greatest Game-, the second in William Kennedy's "Albany cycle." With some of the same characters appearing in the earlier _Legs_, and later appearing in the later Pulitzer Prize-winning novel _Ironweed_, this novel is a huge step forward for Kennedy. His ability to define character, create suspense, and explore major themes affecting fathers and sons and their values is far more sophisticated here than in _Legs_, the story of mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond. In a sensational opening scene young Billy Phelan, part-time bookie and small-time card-player and gambler, is bowling the string of his life--two strikes away from a perfect score. The unexpected conclusion of the match, and its consequences for his opponent, produce a kind of metaphor for life in this era: Everyone lives on the edge, no one knows when disaster will strike, and there's not much anyone can do about it. Billy, whose father disappeared when he was young, is doing the best he can, "honoring" those he must "honor," helping his mother and sister, and acquiring a local reputation as a "good guy," taking bets and paying off, and not straying far from home. When one of his acquaintances, Charlie MacCall, the son and nephew of two local pols, is kidnapped, Billy is asked to monitor the activities of one of the men with whom he plays cards, a man suspected of involvement in the kidnapping. Not a "stoolie," Billy faces a crisis of conscience. The reappearance of his father, an alcoholic who "helps" people who can help him, adds to his dilemma, since he counsels cooperation. Martin Daugherty, a newspaper columnist, offers a more mature view while commenting on the political and social aspects of the kidnapping of Charlie MacCall. Whereas _Legs_ is a fairly straightforward biographical novel, this novel is far more complex. Numerous sets of fathers and sons, all of whom have intergenerational problems, reveal the changing morality of Depression-era Albany. Billy's moral code is more stringent than his father's, Martin Daugherty's son is studying for the priesthood (to his dismay), and the kidnapped Charlie MacCall is isolated from the political machine of his father and uncle. An outstanding novel which has not received its due recognition, this is a carefully crafted novel with well developed themes, dramatic dialogue, and grounding in setting that is rare in modern fiction. n Mary Whipple

I'll lay 1-9 odds that you'll like this book.

"Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" by William Kennedy is a mesmerizing, hysterical, and suspenseful romp through Depression-era Albany. Read the first chapter, where Billy bowls someone "to death", and I seriously doubt that you will put the book down. Billy is one of the most memorable characters in William Kennedy's galaxy, moreso than Francis Phelan in my book. Billy is a risk-taker, a guy whose heart is in the right place, and a rough-and-tumble sort that relies on his confidence in the midst of trouble. And these are the qualities that make him the inevitable, although unwilling, middle-man in a kidnapping negotiation. Billy's world of gamblers, drinkers, sharks, corrupt Albany lackies, and broken families is dark and smoky but never despairing or hopeless. And Billy's moral calculus is a bright spot in this otherwise bleak setting. For my money, "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" is the best of three in the Albany cycle. I found "Legs" to be slow-going and lacking focus. "Ironweed" is a sensational book, a close second to this novel, but its plot of two drinkers going from job to job, joint to joint, drink to drink does begin to wear down. "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" has a good deal of plot tension, moral conflicts, humor, and a wider array of characters. I'm in the minority here, and that's fine, but in my analysis it'sWIN: (by a nose)"Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"PLACE: "Ironweed"SHOW: "Legs"

man about town

Billy Phelan, son of long gone Francis (Ironweed) has become a "man about town" on the streets of Albany. A snappy dresser, willing to participate in, or bet on, any game in town, has found himself caught up in a kidnapping. This isn't just another game and Billy must play the game of his life for his life.Again Kennedy has the talent to make his wide variety of characters true. My advice is to read this book before Flaming Corsage. The whole cast is there.

favorite kennedy trip

Billy Phelan is my fave of the great Kennedys' books. Billy is a fun guy to roam about with, listen to, learn from and even be inspired by. He is a great pool shooter, decent poker player, half-ass bookie and lovely raconteur.He takes the world as it comes and dives in to any and all of it with gusto and guts.Kennedy tosses in illustrative examples of the magic in daily life and the importance of being able to bounce back from those inevitable moments of (temporary!) defeat. All this told in Kennedys fine voice, a voice like that of a chain-smoking angel who can tell a snappy joke or a dazzling blue stretcher. What fun.