Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Kennedy
- First Published: 1978
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Regional fiction
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Homelessness or homeless people, Crime or criminals, Ghosts or apparitions, 1930’s, Poverty or poor people, Kidnapping, Gangsters, Organized crime
- Locales: Albany, NY
Like Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game tells a story of Albany's seamier side, based on an actual incident from the city's history. In this second novel of what is often called the “Albany cycle,” Kennedy fashions his work of fiction around the real-life 1933 kidnapping of John O’Connell, Jr., the nephew of Mayor Dan O’Connell and the heir apparent to Albany's omnipotent Democratic machine. In Kennedy's novel, the year is moved forward to 1938, the O’Connells become the McCalls, and John, Jr., is known as Charlie Boy. Caught in the middle, torn between lending...
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