Customer Reviews

Very Old Bones

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read Very Old Bones and thought that the theme is true to life. Many people look at their ancestors to discover something of themselves. I found the narration interesting using Orson Purcell, the illegimate child of Peter Phelan to portray the Phelan family. I have also read Ironweed and found that some of my questions about protagonist Francis Phelan (in Ironweed) answered or more informative anyway. Enjoyed both books. I love Kennedy's style.

William Kennedy is one of America's best living writers. This is far away his best book. Although it shares characters and events with other books in Kennedy's 'Albany Series', its not necessary to have read any of Kennedy's previous work to enjoy Very Old Bones. Kennedy's greatest skill is in his dialogue. He allows his characters to speak for themselves, rather than mouth his own intentions. As a result, his work gives wonderful insight into one family, one city, and one point in time. Despite the fact that his most recent work, The Flaming Corsage, was a waste of paper, Kennedy will one day be the deserving winner of a Nobel Prize. After reading Very Old Bones go back and read the jury's commentary on the Nobel Prize given to John Steinbeck. Their words could just as easily been written about Kennedy. His is a fine American voice.

I picked up "Very Old Bones" at a book sale, based on the back cover blurb. Having finished the book, I can't say it really had much to do with that blurb. To be fair, this is the first of Kennedy's books I've read, so perhaps there's some back story I'm missing. I found it to have rich character development, the kind that evolves as one reads about the actions of a character. Building the characters in that way is more satisfying to me as a reader than constant description and enumeration of a character. I appreciate that an author lets me figure these things out on my own. To me, the characters were the most interesting part of the read, and kept me plowing through a storyline that didn't hold my interest that much.

For one thing, at times that narrator's voice seemed to break down. I was confused on occasion, as it seemed to shift from the third person through Orson's eyes to some indeterminate character. Maybe that was my own fault, reading on a bus full of teenagers, but nonetheless it jarred my reading of the narrative.

I found the ending somewhat anti-climactic. All this buildup for this? Maybe if I re-read the book in a different setting, I'd have appreciated it more. After all, sometimes life is full of drama and struggle, and ends up to be anticlimactic. Perhaps this is the true brilliance of the book?

One of my favorite books. Reads like an old friend. It is a thrill to read his Albany series, as the books relate to each other. Just like a family conversation, one sentance may relate to a person or event from a previous book in which you know the whole story. Read this one first, then any of the others.

Recently, in reviewing an early William Kennedy Albany-cycle novel, "Ironweed" I mentioned that he was my kind of writer. I will let what I stated there stand on that score here. Here is what I said:

"William Kennedy is, at least in his Albany stories, my kind of writer. He writes about the trials and tribulations of the Irish diaspora as it penetrated the rough and tumble of American urban WASP-run society, for good or evil. I know these people, my people, their follies and foibles like the back of my hand. Check. Kennedy writes, as here with the main characters Fran Phelan and Helen Archer two down at the heels sorts, about that pervasive hold that Catholicism has even on its most debased sons and daughters, saint and sinner alike. I know those characteristics all too well. Check. He writes about that place in class society where the working class meets the lumpen-proletariat-the thieves, grifters, drifters and con men- the human dust. I know that place well, much better than I would ever let on. Check. He writes about the sorrows and dangers of the effects alcohol on working class families. I know that place too. Check. And so on. Oh, by the way, did I mention that he also, at some point, was an editor of some sort associated with the late Hunter S. Thompson down in Puerto Rico. I know that mad man's work well. He remains something of a muse for me. Check."

Although "Very Old Bones" is structurally part of Kennedy's Albany-cycle of novels it is far more ambitious than the other novels in the cycle that I have read. Those previous efforts, led by the premier example, "Ironweed" set themselves the task of telling stories about particular characters in the Phelan clan and their neighbors in particular periods of the cycle that runs from approximately the 1880s to, as in the present novel, the late 1950s. Here we get a vast view of the clan, its trials and tribulations and its cursedness as a result of the insularity of the Irish diaspora, Albany style.

I am, frankly, ambitious about the success of this endeavor. While it is very good to have a summing up of the history of the Phelan clan, its struggle for "lace curtain" respectability, and its remarkable stretch of characters from the cursed Malachi generation through to Fran (of "Ironweed"), and here his brother Peter as well, and on to Orton, the narrator's generation (and Billy Phelan's) there is almost too much of this and it gets in the way of the plot line here, basically the current survivors trying to cope with the traumas brought on by those previous generations. Conversely, I ran through the book at breakneck speed. Why? Change the names and a few of the incidentals, and a few f the specific pathologies, and this could have been the story of my Irish-derived family in that other diaspora enclave, Boston. Hence the ambiguity. Moreover, there is just a little too much of that "magical realism" in the plot that was all the rage in the 1990s in telling the sub-stories here and then expecting us the sober, no nonsense reader to suspend our disbelieve. Is this effort as good as "Ironweed"? No, that is the standard by which to judge a Kennedy work and still the number one contender from this reviewer's vantage point.

It seems to me that this is sort of the author's life told in a novel format. It's very good, well written and certainly a classic. This is my first book by William Kennedy, which I read because my local librarian, Mrs. Prettyman, told me I needed to upgrade my reading habits and she suggested this book. She was right, this is head and hands above the stuff I'd been reading. I feel privileged, because I've read this and I intend to go onto reading better books, thanks to William Kennedy and Mrs. Prettyman.

A wonderfully written book about family ties and the effects of ancestors on future generations. The subject matter was somewhat disturbing . The Phelan clan is very disfunctional. As the story unwinds we see the possitive but mostly negative results of their disfunctional life. Orson the bastard son , in search for his identity. Peter , Orson's father and his unacceptance of Orson. Malachi the most disfunctional of them all. The story unfolds to tell the lives of all the relatives. The family had many heart aches though they were not shared. Most of the family members had their personal problems . I feel most of the disfunction was rooted in their past. Very well written, at times raunchy, at other times touching. This book is a serious read. You must give it full attention or you can get off track fast. This is not a book that you can skip a chapter and still follow. This is the first book I have read by William Kennedy but now I will want to read "Ironweed" to read more about the Phelan clan.

After reading the customer reviews I had great hopes of enjoying this book.I agree with most of what the reviewers had to say;but I still found it long,convoluted and not very enjoyable. One reviewer suggested that Kennedy was in a class with Steinbeck and one day might even win a Pulitzer,I hope he's right.Steinbeck is one of my favorites but I am sure not to everyone's liking.By the way I read Riding the Yellow Trolly Car and didn't care for it either.However;that's me ,give it a go,others really liked it.