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Legs, the inaugural book in William Kennedy’s acclaimed Albany cycle of novels, brilliantly evokes the flamboyant career of gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond. Through the equivocal eyes of Diamond’s attorney, Marcus Gorman (who scraps a promising political career for the more elemental excitement of the criminal underworld), we watch as Legs and his showgirl mistress, Kiki Roberts, blaze their gaudy trail across the tabloid pages of the 1920s and 1930s.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 28, 1975
About the author
William Kennedy
31 books265 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist born and raised in Albany, New York. Many of his novels feature the interaction of members of the fictional Irish-American Phelan family, and make use of incidents of Albany's history and the supernatural.
Kennedy's works include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), Ironweed (1983, winner of 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; film, 1987), and Roscoe (2002).
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist born and raised in Albany, New York. Many of his novels feature the interaction of members of the fictional Irish-American Phelan family, and make use of incidents of Albany's history and the supernatural.
Kennedy's works include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), Ironweed (1983, winner of 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; film, 1987), and Roscoe (2002).
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
March 13, 2020
Legs: life on the other side of the law; fake romanticism of the criminal world; vulgarity and greed, sentimentality and cruelty, sanctimony and villainy of mobsters; corruption and hypocrisy of society; fraudulence of publicity and prostitution of journalists…
Generally, gangsters have a short lifespan – it’s the overhead expenses of their profession.
Consider the slightly deaf sage of Pompeii, his fly open, feet apart, hand at crotch, wetting surreptitiously against the garden wall when the lava hits the house. Why he never even heard the rumbles. Who among the archaeologists could know what glories that man created on earth, what truths he represented, what love and wisdom he propagated before the deluge of lava eternalized him as The Pisser? And so it is with Jack Diamond’s last image. It wouldn’t matter if he’d sold toilet paper or milk bottles for a living, but he was an original man and he needs an original epitaph, even if it does come four and a half decades late.
Generally, gangsters have a short lifespan – it’s the overhead expenses of their profession.
January 24, 2020
Legs is the first of William Kennedy's Albany books and the story of gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond told by his friend and lawyer Gorman. It is full of violence and humor as well as sex and loads of alcohol, a somewhat atypical gangster book actually. Enjoyable to read.
The story is told in a series of vignette chapters each with the name "Jack" in the title. Each one fills in consecutive order details of the life of Legs and his relationships with his wife, his lover, his lawyer and his gang. The language is colloquial with lots of slang which gives the book a realistic feel.
I think my favorite character was the beautiful and eternal Kiki, a sort of pastiche of Marilyn Monroe:
I see her there yet. I see her also crossing and uncrossing her silkiness, hinting at secret reaches, dark areas of mystery difficult to reach, full of jewels of improbable value, full of promise of tawdriness, of illicitness, of furtiveness, of wickedness, with possibly blue rouge on the nipples, and arcane exotica revealed when she slips down the elastic waistband of those sheerest of sheer. They infected my imagination, those dark, those sheer, those elasticized arenas of that gorgeous girl's life. (p. 68)
She is emotionally and financially dependent on Legs. Her relationship with his wife is unusual - sometimes fiercely competitive, sometimes woefully submissive and accepting.
Marcus Gorman gets more than he bargained for when he forsakes his political career for becoming a mob lawyer. It was dark now and I was wet to the underwear, standing in the middle of desolation, maybe about to be buried in a landslide, giving traffic directions to a bleeding, one-eyed psychopath who was, with one hand, trying to drive a mythic vehicle backwards up an enchanted mountain.
I'd come a long way from the K. of C. library. (p. 78)
This passage is typical of Kennedy's sense of absurdity and humor throughout the Albany novels.
There is a hilarious trip to Europe full of drinking and sex and crime where Jack doesn't quite learn all that he could: He could discover in quiet what his body already understood: that his fame hadn't answered the basic question he had asked himself all his life, was still asking. (p. 123) And so Legs just keeps running at full-speed through women and drugs getting shot multiple times before the final time...
There is a small truth about the mystique surrounding Legs that makes him a pop culture hero despite his violence and unworthiness as Marcus - writing decades later - compares to that of Nixon: who left significant history in his wake, but no legend; whos corruption, overwhelmingly venal and invariable hypocritical, lacked the admirably white core fantast that can give evil a mythical dimension. Only boobs and shitheads rooted for Nixon in his troubled time, but heroes and poets followed Jack's tribulations with curiosity, ambivalent benevolence, and a sense of mystery at the meaning of their own response. (p. 216)
After being absolved of a murder charge in court, The Pathé News cameraman then filmed it all. Inspecting the floor for a closeup, he discovered that the dust that fell was not dust at all, but pigeon shit. (p. 280)
An enjoyable read and a crazy trip, Legs is a great introduction to Kennedy's Albany universe.
The story is told in a series of vignette chapters each with the name "Jack" in the title. Each one fills in consecutive order details of the life of Legs and his relationships with his wife, his lover, his lawyer and his gang. The language is colloquial with lots of slang which gives the book a realistic feel.
I think my favorite character was the beautiful and eternal Kiki, a sort of pastiche of Marilyn Monroe:
I see her there yet. I see her also crossing and uncrossing her silkiness, hinting at secret reaches, dark areas of mystery difficult to reach, full of jewels of improbable value, full of promise of tawdriness, of illicitness, of furtiveness, of wickedness, with possibly blue rouge on the nipples, and arcane exotica revealed when she slips down the elastic waistband of those sheerest of sheer. They infected my imagination, those dark, those sheer, those elasticized arenas of that gorgeous girl's life. (p. 68)
She is emotionally and financially dependent on Legs. Her relationship with his wife is unusual - sometimes fiercely competitive, sometimes woefully submissive and accepting.
Marcus Gorman gets more than he bargained for when he forsakes his political career for becoming a mob lawyer. It was dark now and I was wet to the underwear, standing in the middle of desolation, maybe about to be buried in a landslide, giving traffic directions to a bleeding, one-eyed psychopath who was, with one hand, trying to drive a mythic vehicle backwards up an enchanted mountain.
I'd come a long way from the K. of C. library. (p. 78)
This passage is typical of Kennedy's sense of absurdity and humor throughout the Albany novels.
There is a hilarious trip to Europe full of drinking and sex and crime where Jack doesn't quite learn all that he could: He could discover in quiet what his body already understood: that his fame hadn't answered the basic question he had asked himself all his life, was still asking. (p. 123) And so Legs just keeps running at full-speed through women and drugs getting shot multiple times before the final time...
There is a small truth about the mystique surrounding Legs that makes him a pop culture hero despite his violence and unworthiness as Marcus - writing decades later - compares to that of Nixon: who left significant history in his wake, but no legend; whos corruption, overwhelmingly venal and invariable hypocritical, lacked the admirably white core fantast that can give evil a mythical dimension. Only boobs and shitheads rooted for Nixon in his troubled time, but heroes and poets followed Jack's tribulations with curiosity, ambivalent benevolence, and a sense of mystery at the meaning of their own response. (p. 216)
After being absolved of a murder charge in court, The Pathé News cameraman then filmed it all. Inspecting the floor for a closeup, he discovered that the dust that fell was not dust at all, but pigeon shit. (p. 280)
An enjoyable read and a crazy trip, Legs is a great introduction to Kennedy's Albany universe.
March 6, 2020
First book in what has been called The Albany Trilogy. This book focuses on gangster Legs Diamond, a native of Philadelphia who eventually resettled up in New York. This is the story of the last few months of his life as related by his attorney. Lots happens, but for me it is a slow read. In a way I was reminded of the Dennis Lehane book "The Given Day" which was the first of his Coughlin Trilogy, and which I also found a slow read. As with all books on gangsters, the inevitable happens to Legs even though he is portrayed in the most favorable of light.
March 30, 2026
After loving "Ironweed" a few years back, I thought it was time to begin the Albany Cycle at number 1. I'm not usually into the whole New York gang type thing when it comes to books, but Kennedy has a beautiful way with language and description. "Legs" was poetic, a bit dreamy at times, a bit noir-ish, but also abstract and emotional. Jack Legs Diamond knew what type of person he was and there was no changing the trajectory of what his life would come to - an early death. I'll take a break before I continue with the cycle, but plan on reading them all the way through.
July 21, 2015
Probably at least a 3.5, this is an entertaining portrayal of an iconic gangster that explores the iconography of gangsters which I would have perhaps rated higher if I hadn't read Doctorow's similarly-themed Billy Bathgate at the start of the year; the stylistic voice and analyses of crime and human violence captured in that novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy at his best, overshadowed Kennedy's book for me.
October 22, 2020
Well written gangster fiction. I vacillated between 4 and 5 stars for this but the writing reminds me a bit of Archie Goodwin’s from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories if he were on the other side of the law (at least tangentially) and that’s always good for a ratings boost from me.
September 24, 2022
Sometimes life takes unexpected turns that leave us wondering how exactly we get to where we are. Those moments of pondering almost always come with a sense of incredulity and absurdity.
For Marcus Gorman, his such moment also carries a great deal of drama and a hint of humour.
“It was dark now and I was wet to the underwear, standing in the middle of desolation, maybe about to be buried in a landslide, giving traffic directions to a bleeding, one-eyed psychopath who was, with one hand, trying to drive a mythic vehicle backwards up an enchanted mountain. I’d come a long way from the K. of C. library.”
Marcus is a lawyer who throws away a future in politics to work for the big-shot gangster / bootlegger Jack “Legs” Diamond.
Jack, with his charms, his womanizing ways, his flamboyant lifestyle, his ability (or luck) to escape death and of course his cruelty and violence, stands as a legendary figure in the prohibition era underworld, until his eventual demise.
Marcus, an otherwise “normal” man and outsider of the gangster world, serves as the chronicler of the life of the notorious Legs Diamond for us.
Having the “outsider” as the narrator is an ingenious arrangement on part of the author William Kennedy.
Why would a successful lawyer want to risk his future to get involved with the mobster? How a gangster who has murdered, robbed and kidnapped can elicit so much sympathy and sentiment from a “normal “ person?
The questions intrigued me throughout my reading of the book.
They turn what could have been a run-of-the-mill action packed gangster novel into an inspection of human psyche.
“I knew then that this man was alive in a way I was not. I saw the vital principle of his elbow, the cut of his smile, the twist of his pronged fingers. Whatever you looked at was in odd motion. He hit you, slapped you with his palm, punched you with a light fist, clapped you on the shoulder, ridding himself of electricity to avoid exploding. He was conveying it to you, generating himself into yourself whether you wanted to receive him or not. You felt something had descended upon him, tongues of fire maybe or his phlogiston itself, burning its way into your own spirit.
I liked it.”
( there is also a fascinating part where Marcus compares Legs to the great Gatsby. Apparently,Jack has met Fitzgerald, twice. Jack describes him as “a condescending young drunk the first time they met, an apologetic, decent man the second time”)
Also, our narrator Marcus is clearly well educated with a great deal of intellectual and philosophical acumen, who is capable of carrying out discourse on deeper topics like religion, good vs evil and role of media eloquently. He does not just tell the stories, he also analyses and makes us think.
This is also a genius move of Kennedy’s, all those deeper discussions blend so well into the backdrop of sex, violence and alcohol without the narration losing authenticity for even one second.
What stood out for me the most was the part where Marcus broke down how the media created a myth out of a man.
“So the newsmen, installing Jack in the same hierarchy where they placed royalty, heroes, and movie stars, created him anew as they enshrined him. They invented a version of him with each story they wrote, added to his evil luster by imagining crimes for him to commit, embellishing his history, humanizing him, defining him through their own fantasies and projections. This voyage had the effect of taking Jack Diamond away from himself, of making him a product of the collective imagination. Jack had imagined his fame all his life and now it was imagining him.”
I loved Kennedy’s writing.
The stories of Jack are told in a fragmented way, each chapter contains some vignettes from Jack’s life.
The narrative jumps from present to past and past to present quite often, and that, strangely, thickens the emotional impact, at least for me.
Kennedy is a magician that can bring a character to life with few lines, with an abundance of humour too.
“I would describe Jimmy as a giant maggot, an abominable toad with twelve-ounce eyelids and an emancipated nose that had nothing to do with the rest of his face. He was a globular figure of uncertain substance. Maybe all hotdog meat, goat’s ears and pig’s noses inside that salmony, shantung sportshirt.”
( Oh boy, Kennedy can be mean!)
I am not too sure how I feel about the depiction of women…the 1920s was not a great era for women.
When Jack’s wife wants to shoot the rifle, Jack says “You’re better with a frying pan.”
Oh, the casual misogyny.
I also didn’t particularly like the parts about the competition between the wife Alice and the mistress Kiki.
The misogyny aside ( which is inevitable considering the time period the stories take place), I still think it’s a book well worth reading.
This book is the entry to Kennedy’s Albany trilogy.
I intend to read the Pulitzer winning Ironweed, the next book in the trilogy, soon.
For Marcus Gorman, his such moment also carries a great deal of drama and a hint of humour.
“It was dark now and I was wet to the underwear, standing in the middle of desolation, maybe about to be buried in a landslide, giving traffic directions to a bleeding, one-eyed psychopath who was, with one hand, trying to drive a mythic vehicle backwards up an enchanted mountain. I’d come a long way from the K. of C. library.”
Marcus is a lawyer who throws away a future in politics to work for the big-shot gangster / bootlegger Jack “Legs” Diamond.
Jack, with his charms, his womanizing ways, his flamboyant lifestyle, his ability (or luck) to escape death and of course his cruelty and violence, stands as a legendary figure in the prohibition era underworld, until his eventual demise.
Marcus, an otherwise “normal” man and outsider of the gangster world, serves as the chronicler of the life of the notorious Legs Diamond for us.
Having the “outsider” as the narrator is an ingenious arrangement on part of the author William Kennedy.
Why would a successful lawyer want to risk his future to get involved with the mobster? How a gangster who has murdered, robbed and kidnapped can elicit so much sympathy and sentiment from a “normal “ person?
The questions intrigued me throughout my reading of the book.
They turn what could have been a run-of-the-mill action packed gangster novel into an inspection of human psyche.
“I knew then that this man was alive in a way I was not. I saw the vital principle of his elbow, the cut of his smile, the twist of his pronged fingers. Whatever you looked at was in odd motion. He hit you, slapped you with his palm, punched you with a light fist, clapped you on the shoulder, ridding himself of electricity to avoid exploding. He was conveying it to you, generating himself into yourself whether you wanted to receive him or not. You felt something had descended upon him, tongues of fire maybe or his phlogiston itself, burning its way into your own spirit.
I liked it.”
( there is also a fascinating part where Marcus compares Legs to the great Gatsby. Apparently,Jack has met Fitzgerald, twice. Jack describes him as “a condescending young drunk the first time they met, an apologetic, decent man the second time”)
Also, our narrator Marcus is clearly well educated with a great deal of intellectual and philosophical acumen, who is capable of carrying out discourse on deeper topics like religion, good vs evil and role of media eloquently. He does not just tell the stories, he also analyses and makes us think.
This is also a genius move of Kennedy’s, all those deeper discussions blend so well into the backdrop of sex, violence and alcohol without the narration losing authenticity for even one second.
What stood out for me the most was the part where Marcus broke down how the media created a myth out of a man.
“So the newsmen, installing Jack in the same hierarchy where they placed royalty, heroes, and movie stars, created him anew as they enshrined him. They invented a version of him with each story they wrote, added to his evil luster by imagining crimes for him to commit, embellishing his history, humanizing him, defining him through their own fantasies and projections. This voyage had the effect of taking Jack Diamond away from himself, of making him a product of the collective imagination. Jack had imagined his fame all his life and now it was imagining him.”
I loved Kennedy’s writing.
The stories of Jack are told in a fragmented way, each chapter contains some vignettes from Jack’s life.
The narrative jumps from present to past and past to present quite often, and that, strangely, thickens the emotional impact, at least for me.
Kennedy is a magician that can bring a character to life with few lines, with an abundance of humour too.
“I would describe Jimmy as a giant maggot, an abominable toad with twelve-ounce eyelids and an emancipated nose that had nothing to do with the rest of his face. He was a globular figure of uncertain substance. Maybe all hotdog meat, goat’s ears and pig’s noses inside that salmony, shantung sportshirt.”
( Oh boy, Kennedy can be mean!)
I am not too sure how I feel about the depiction of women…the 1920s was not a great era for women.
When Jack’s wife wants to shoot the rifle, Jack says “You’re better with a frying pan.”
Oh, the casual misogyny.
I also didn’t particularly like the parts about the competition between the wife Alice and the mistress Kiki.
The misogyny aside ( which is inevitable considering the time period the stories take place), I still think it’s a book well worth reading.
This book is the entry to Kennedy’s Albany trilogy.
I intend to read the Pulitzer winning Ironweed, the next book in the trilogy, soon.
June 26, 2013
An intimate yet soaring novel about the last years of notorious booze-runner, Legs Diamond. William Kennedy's first entry into the Albany Cycle, this novel is narrated by the playful and sharp-tongued attorney, Marcus Gorman, and the in typical Kennedy fashion, the story bounces around from past to present, sometimes within the same sentence. What may infuriate some traditional readers made me re-read passages with awe and wonder. There is such a beauty to Kennedy's rhythm to this tale of a likeable thug who charmed his way to the top before falling off the throne, wallowing in poor health and even poorer bank accounts. This is a story of staying important in the scene, taking whatever you can get from the public eye, and it's also a playful drama about a love triangle: Legs, his wife Alice, and the bountiful mistress, Marion 'Kiki'. 'Legs' is ribald, sentimental and rough around the edges when it needs to be, a fine novel about New York and America, celebrity gangsters and the Irish-American way.
March 31, 2020
An interesting, clever, concisely written novel about the last years of legendary gangster, Jack ‘Legs’ Diamond, (who was born 10 July 1897 and died on 18 December 1931), narrated by Marcus Gorman, who became Jack’s lawyer. Jack was married to Alice. Jack also had a showgirl mistress, Kiki Roberts. Set mainly in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Albany, New York. Marcus met Jack’s wife and mistress and a number of Jack’s associates. Jack’s life became very public due to being shot at on a number of occasions and being arrested for murder, torture and kidnapping. Jack was a bootlegger and had a ruthless reputation.
Oddly given how eventful Jack’s life was, I found this book a slow read. As a reader you learned early how Jack’s life was to unfold. Still, Kennedy covers a lot of issues including, corruption, murder, kidnapping, journalism, publicity, public opinion and how people’s behaviour was influenced by what they read.
Here are a couple of quotes from the book:
‘But fear is a cheap emotion, however full of wisdom. And, emotionally speaking, I’ve always thought of myself as a man of expensive taste.’
‘Do something new and you are new. How boring it is not to fire machine guns.’
Another book written about gangsters in the same era that I highly recommend is Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow, published in 1989 and winner of the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award and 1990 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
Oddly given how eventful Jack’s life was, I found this book a slow read. As a reader you learned early how Jack’s life was to unfold. Still, Kennedy covers a lot of issues including, corruption, murder, kidnapping, journalism, publicity, public opinion and how people’s behaviour was influenced by what they read.
Here are a couple of quotes from the book:
‘But fear is a cheap emotion, however full of wisdom. And, emotionally speaking, I’ve always thought of myself as a man of expensive taste.’
‘Do something new and you are new. How boring it is not to fire machine guns.’
Another book written about gangsters in the same era that I highly recommend is Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow, published in 1989 and winner of the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award and 1990 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
July 1, 2022
Attorney Marcus Gorman meets Prohibition-era gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond at the Kenmore Hotel in Albany in 1925. A few years later he agrees to represent him, straddling the line helping with his defense and getting involved in his crimes. We’re then taken through Jack’s life, through the smuggling business and all the ruthless violence that goes with it. We’re also shown how Jack deals with his wife and showgirl lover.
With all that, Marcus seems to be trying to humanize the gangster. He never apologizes for the man, never hides any of the illegal things he does. Yet, he seems to be his sounding board, the man to whom he turns to sort things out, almost like a therapist. It might just be that Marcus enjoys the life, even though he claims at the onset to just be the lawyer. In a clever way, Kennedy makes him part observer, part participant. There’s plenty of action here, plenty of shady dealings to satisfy the crime novel enthusiast. There’s also terrific prose, the story told in a fascinating, every authentic voice, sounding very much like a middle-class, 20th Century Albany attorney looking backward, but one with a great sense of poetry, irony, and humor. It verged on hard-to-follow but was simple enough that a knucklehead like me could understand. It’s a good historical novel, and my wife would love all the kooky 20s lingo, too.
I read this because I loved Ironweed, which I read way back in the 80s. And yes: the library was clearing out their inventory and I got this for free. FREE BOOKS!
A funny and interesting look at the life of a gangster in the Roaring Twenties. Great writing, accessible. Very worthwhile.
With all that, Marcus seems to be trying to humanize the gangster. He never apologizes for the man, never hides any of the illegal things he does. Yet, he seems to be his sounding board, the man to whom he turns to sort things out, almost like a therapist. It might just be that Marcus enjoys the life, even though he claims at the onset to just be the lawyer. In a clever way, Kennedy makes him part observer, part participant. There’s plenty of action here, plenty of shady dealings to satisfy the crime novel enthusiast. There’s also terrific prose, the story told in a fascinating, every authentic voice, sounding very much like a middle-class, 20th Century Albany attorney looking backward, but one with a great sense of poetry, irony, and humor. It verged on hard-to-follow but was simple enough that a knucklehead like me could understand. It’s a good historical novel, and my wife would love all the kooky 20s lingo, too.
I read this because I loved Ironweed, which I read way back in the 80s. And yes: the library was clearing out their inventory and I got this for free. FREE BOOKS!
A funny and interesting look at the life of a gangster in the Roaring Twenties. Great writing, accessible. Very worthwhile.
April 26, 2026
Ok, this guy Kennedy, geez, his dialogue, his prose, top notch. The way that he structured the story, starting from the end and adding in details, the invented narrator and the way tension was added to a known final scene, very well done.
I had read "Ironweed" again and found it much better than when I first read it. After I finished that I thought to look at the "Albany Cycle." The books, as far as I could tell were linked only by location. I will read the middle book of the cycle, about the pool player soon I think.
This guy came a while after Malamud I think or he would have been a writer I read a lot of. There is a decent depth to Kennedy's writing without getting bogged down. His stuff flows nicely. The dialogue is really good as well. He has written quite a few book I think, and I will go to the trouble of reading them in the future.
"Ironweed" shows up at the resale stores, that is how I read it the first time, because it had "Pulitzer" on the cover. I got this from the library, the St Louis City Library, their copy was yellowed had a torn cover. I was in Half Price Books the other day and they had the whole Albany Cycle in paperback, but at near retail price. When it comes time for another by Kennedy I will probably just get it from Abe Books, they mostly don't have shipping costs anymore.
Kennedy is still alive, approaching 100, according to a New York Times article, and still participating in public readings as of last year. I am trying to find an email or snail-mail address for him.
I had read "Ironweed" again and found it much better than when I first read it. After I finished that I thought to look at the "Albany Cycle." The books, as far as I could tell were linked only by location. I will read the middle book of the cycle, about the pool player soon I think.
This guy came a while after Malamud I think or he would have been a writer I read a lot of. There is a decent depth to Kennedy's writing without getting bogged down. His stuff flows nicely. The dialogue is really good as well. He has written quite a few book I think, and I will go to the trouble of reading them in the future.
"Ironweed" shows up at the resale stores, that is how I read it the first time, because it had "Pulitzer" on the cover. I got this from the library, the St Louis City Library, their copy was yellowed had a torn cover. I was in Half Price Books the other day and they had the whole Albany Cycle in paperback, but at near retail price. When it comes time for another by Kennedy I will probably just get it from Abe Books, they mostly don't have shipping costs anymore.
Kennedy is still alive, approaching 100, according to a New York Times article, and still participating in public readings as of last year. I am trying to find an email or snail-mail address for him.
August 5, 2017
Feels like a classic gangster movie with flashes of Scorsese and Tarantino spliced in. The book is self-aware of its tawdry subject matter, yet it still can't resist the pull to glamorize the lives of a psychopathic hood and his female companions. Occasionally slips into poetic ruminations, which are generally corny in the extreme.
The moral ambivalence of the narrator (a lawyer who goes on Legs Diamond's payroll), and his worshipful admiration of his client, combined with some untrustworthy narrator flourishes, are quite affecting. The portrait of the scumbag lawyer is more compelling than that of the charismatic gangster, but the author doesn't seem to realize this except in flashes.
This is not a good book, but there are some good impulses. It's not a terrible book, but it has some stretches of insipid awfulness. It's too pretentious to be worthy of beach reading and not smart enough to be worthy of study. I'd say it's an admirable failure, but apparently is was pretty successful. I'll just say I can't recommend it.
The moral ambivalence of the narrator (a lawyer who goes on Legs Diamond's payroll), and his worshipful admiration of his client, combined with some untrustworthy narrator flourishes, are quite affecting. The portrait of the scumbag lawyer is more compelling than that of the charismatic gangster, but the author doesn't seem to realize this except in flashes.
This is not a good book, but there are some good impulses. It's not a terrible book, but it has some stretches of insipid awfulness. It's too pretentious to be worthy of beach reading and not smart enough to be worthy of study. I'd say it's an admirable failure, but apparently is was pretty successful. I'll just say I can't recommend it.
November 11, 2010
I had been interested in reading William Kennedy's trilogy about upstate New York for a long time, but this is one of those novels that has less of a plot than a biography that is written like a novel. I think when novelists rise to a certain stature, no one asks them to cut the fat anymore. This is a three-million-times told story of the fancy gangster with the hot mistress and the loving wife and people who love him even tho he's really bad. Nothing remarkable here, to me. The narrator is the most compelling character, but he's no great shakes.
July 2, 2012
I am on a streak of five-star books. Of course, when one reads William Kennedy, one knows they are reading one of the all-time great writers. As the back cover tells us, "Legs inaugurated William Kennedy's brilliant cycle of novels. "Legs" is Jack Diamond, gangster, tough guy, bootlegger, lady charmer and brutal murderer. The story is told from the point of view of Diamond's attorney, Marcus Gorman, who exchanges a potential political career to view the mayhem around Diamond's life. It was a trip, and in Kennedy's hands a great read.
May 14, 2013
This is a great quote from the book, "I am bored by people who keep returning life to a moral plane, as if we were reducible, now, to some Biblical concept or it’s opposite, as if all our history and prehistory had not conditioned us for what we’ve become. When we get off the moral gold standard, when the man of enormous wealth is of no more importance to anybody than the man in rags, then maybe we’ll look at our own day as a day justifiable social wrath."
July 22, 2013
Great writing about a truly original character, Jack Diamond. A real bootlegger, told from the point of view of his lawyer, attracted by the unique heroism and bravada and humanity of one of the irishmen controlling the Catskills in the roaring twenties. A bit reminiscent of The Great Gatsby in its time and place, but better characters (I think, haven't read Fitzgerald since 1980 or so).
January 25, 2021
“Legs” by William Kennedy is a novel about the life of gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond in the state of New York. While Jack Diamond was a mafioso-type in New York City for a while, he ended up in Albany, New York as its undisputed bad guy. Booze, women, drugs, murder, and all sorts of mayhem come into play. As an underworld leader, there was always someone wanting to take you out and take over your region of command, and so it is here as Diamond has to fight to keep what he has.
William Kennedy is famous for what is called his Albany Cycle of tales set in and around the state capitol of Albany – and “Legs” was the first in the series (“Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game” and Pulitzer Prize-winner “Ironweed” are the next two in the cycle). The tale is a little bit like Bonnie and Clyde roaming around the countryside wreaking havoc, but with “Legs” we don’t move too far. It is an interesting tale that moves slowly in the first part, and becomes a page-turner for those that make the investment. Recommended.
William Kennedy is famous for what is called his Albany Cycle of tales set in and around the state capitol of Albany – and “Legs” was the first in the series (“Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game” and Pulitzer Prize-winner “Ironweed” are the next two in the cycle). The tale is a little bit like Bonnie and Clyde roaming around the countryside wreaking havoc, but with “Legs” we don’t move too far. It is an interesting tale that moves slowly in the first part, and becomes a page-turner for those that make the investment. Recommended.
November 27, 2014
As other reviewers have mentioned, LEGS is the first of William Kennedy's 'Albany cycle', a series of eight books set in and around the city of Albany, N.Y. LEGS is the story of Jack 'Legs' Diamond, notorious gangster and bootlegger of the 1920's who was murdered in an Albany apartment in 1931 by two unidentified men who were finally able to put down 'the most shot at man in America'. Kennedy's portrayal of Diamond is nuanced, complex--beginning at the height of Diamond's popularity and power, the book then meanders through the gangster's last years, and rather than a straightforward account, it focuses on how the world consumed Jack Diamond and spit out the myth of Legs Diamond.
Told in flashback conjured up by four old acquaintances who all knew Diamond, the strongest voice is that of Marcus Gorman, Diamond's lawyer and sometimes confidante. He proceeds anecdotally; flashing forward and back, as the need arises, cutting across time and space to highlight Jack Diamond's relationships with his women and with others to give a picture of the man apart from the legend. And it is a favorable depiction, despite Diamond's gangster methods; to me, it's almost as if Mr. Kennedy is suggesting (through the lawyer Gorman) that Jack Diamond was a prototype of the modern Albany, or America at large--a sort of founding father, with (or because of) his warts and all. Perhaps not, but there is no doubt that the legend of Jack Diamond tapped into a part of the American consciousness, and even if he's less remembered today, that doesn't mean his persona didn't function as a kind of archetype in the twenties and thirties.
All that is probably beside the point. LEGS is an entertaining and thought-provoking read about people and time and place, with a great ear for dialogue. The exchanges between characters are too long to copy in a review, but the staccato pulse of the back and forth, and even the `eye' dialogue capture a tone that places the novel squarely within its time period. Some reviewers have also mentioned the sex and violence in the book, though considering the subject matter, I never thought the material tasteless or vulgar. Perhaps I'm desensitized, but I thought LEGS was less sensational, less graphic than many 'true crime' accounts, as well as that of much mainstream literary fiction I've read. It seemed to me to strike exactly the right note, if one's objective were to humanize a figure known primarily for his underworld activities and flashy lifestyle.
This is the first book by William Kennedy that I've tried, and it's obvious to me that he is one of America's serious talents--as opposed to the many satiric talents that seem to crowd into the `literary fiction' genre. Personally, I've gotten to where I can barely stand that clever cuteness anymore, and LEGS was a welcome break from that--I look forward to moving on to the next book in the cycle, BILLY PHELAN'S GREATEST GAME. Yet even though I really enjoyed it, something about Mr. Kennedy's back and forth style of storytelling put me off a bit--nothing serious, but enough to make the reading feel somewhat disjointed. Other, more careful readers will probably have no issue, and may even enjoy the presentation all the more for its unusualness.
One last note: Why no Library of America treatment?
Told in flashback conjured up by four old acquaintances who all knew Diamond, the strongest voice is that of Marcus Gorman, Diamond's lawyer and sometimes confidante. He proceeds anecdotally; flashing forward and back, as the need arises, cutting across time and space to highlight Jack Diamond's relationships with his women and with others to give a picture of the man apart from the legend. And it is a favorable depiction, despite Diamond's gangster methods; to me, it's almost as if Mr. Kennedy is suggesting (through the lawyer Gorman) that Jack Diamond was a prototype of the modern Albany, or America at large--a sort of founding father, with (or because of) his warts and all. Perhaps not, but there is no doubt that the legend of Jack Diamond tapped into a part of the American consciousness, and even if he's less remembered today, that doesn't mean his persona didn't function as a kind of archetype in the twenties and thirties.
All that is probably beside the point. LEGS is an entertaining and thought-provoking read about people and time and place, with a great ear for dialogue. The exchanges between characters are too long to copy in a review, but the staccato pulse of the back and forth, and even the `eye' dialogue capture a tone that places the novel squarely within its time period. Some reviewers have also mentioned the sex and violence in the book, though considering the subject matter, I never thought the material tasteless or vulgar. Perhaps I'm desensitized, but I thought LEGS was less sensational, less graphic than many 'true crime' accounts, as well as that of much mainstream literary fiction I've read. It seemed to me to strike exactly the right note, if one's objective were to humanize a figure known primarily for his underworld activities and flashy lifestyle.
This is the first book by William Kennedy that I've tried, and it's obvious to me that he is one of America's serious talents--as opposed to the many satiric talents that seem to crowd into the `literary fiction' genre. Personally, I've gotten to where I can barely stand that clever cuteness anymore, and LEGS was a welcome break from that--I look forward to moving on to the next book in the cycle, BILLY PHELAN'S GREATEST GAME. Yet even though I really enjoyed it, something about Mr. Kennedy's back and forth style of storytelling put me off a bit--nothing serious, but enough to make the reading feel somewhat disjointed. Other, more careful readers will probably have no issue, and may even enjoy the presentation all the more for its unusualness.
One last note: Why no Library of America treatment?
April 16, 2014
The first of the Albany trilogy will be the last read for me but I will read it sometime soon.
And now I'm doing it. This book was actually on my to-read shelf and I picked it up somewhere... maybe the local transfer station - a gold mine of free books! I've read "Ironweed" and "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" so I'm going to go ahead and give a 4* rating(for starters) to the last of the Albany trilogy. Already the tone of the book's been set. Jack Diamond is a violent, charismatic SOB. Warren Beatty might have been a good choice to play him though Mr. B.'s persona might have been a bit soft. Maybe Jack Nicholson or Mel Gibson... Nicholson would be out because he already played Francis Phelan in Ironweed.
So far not liking this as much as Ironweed or Billy Phelan's Greatest Game. Very little of the Albany depression "scene". Turns out that this was the first of the trilogy and that most of Kennedy's books are set there so it's really more than a trilogy. Anyway... this is about a charismatic criminal gangster, infamous/famous in his own time as much as Al Capone, Dutch Schultz etc. A very violent man. I tend to prefer the sociological/psychological over the poetic in these stories but maybe I'm still in George Eliot mode.
- As in Billy Phelan...there's the educated, intellectual Irishman fascinated by narcissism, sin, chaos and anarchy - as embodied in the violent career criminal.
- The well-received play about Berlin burglars, pimps and pickpockets is probably a reference to Berthold Brecht's/Kurt Weill's music play(based on The Beggar's Opera by John Gay that was turned into The Threepenny Opera). Can't think of the name...
- Well... I have to say there's a whiff of the pretentious in the poetic prose from time to time. As if Mr. Kennedy simply chose the story of Jack Diamond as a vehicle for his fancy writing. I DO like the writing because I like poetry but sometimes it seems kind of pointless. The scene with the playwright in Germany is WAY over the top!
Finished up last night. My overall feeling about the book is ambivalence. Marcus Gorman, who ought to know better(Kennedy too) than to semi-worship a violent peckerhead just because he has charisma. A lot of those guys had it. Comes with the outlaw territory... We're fascinated by the non-conformist. All that fancy, semi-loving prose in service to a story about a sociopath creates doubt in the final awarding of stars. 3.75 rounds up to 4* - barely. On the other hand... why not celebrate the outsiders... look at them... illuminate what it is about us and them that makes for the fascination. Billy-the-Kid etc.
- The doggie in the water reminded me of Ship of Fools.
- The repetitive violence can be a bit off-putting but we do get the point: Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.
- Marcus is not exactly sympathetic... a "typical mob lawyer" I guess, but not like Robert Duvall in the Godfather.
- Prohibition brought back some of the spirit of the old west. It was a terrible idea - obviously!
- The lightning rod salesman... remember Something Wicked This Way Comes?
And now I'm doing it. This book was actually on my to-read shelf and I picked it up somewhere... maybe the local transfer station - a gold mine of free books! I've read "Ironweed" and "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" so I'm going to go ahead and give a 4* rating(for starters) to the last of the Albany trilogy. Already the tone of the book's been set. Jack Diamond is a violent, charismatic SOB. Warren Beatty might have been a good choice to play him though Mr. B.'s persona might have been a bit soft. Maybe Jack Nicholson or Mel Gibson... Nicholson would be out because he already played Francis Phelan in Ironweed.
So far not liking this as much as Ironweed or Billy Phelan's Greatest Game. Very little of the Albany depression "scene". Turns out that this was the first of the trilogy and that most of Kennedy's books are set there so it's really more than a trilogy. Anyway... this is about a charismatic criminal gangster, infamous/famous in his own time as much as Al Capone, Dutch Schultz etc. A very violent man. I tend to prefer the sociological/psychological over the poetic in these stories but maybe I'm still in George Eliot mode.
- As in Billy Phelan...there's the educated, intellectual Irishman fascinated by narcissism, sin, chaos and anarchy - as embodied in the violent career criminal.
- The well-received play about Berlin burglars, pimps and pickpockets is probably a reference to Berthold Brecht's/Kurt Weill's music play(based on The Beggar's Opera by John Gay that was turned into The Threepenny Opera). Can't think of the name...
- Well... I have to say there's a whiff of the pretentious in the poetic prose from time to time. As if Mr. Kennedy simply chose the story of Jack Diamond as a vehicle for his fancy writing. I DO like the writing because I like poetry but sometimes it seems kind of pointless. The scene with the playwright in Germany is WAY over the top!
Finished up last night. My overall feeling about the book is ambivalence. Marcus Gorman, who ought to know better(Kennedy too) than to semi-worship a violent peckerhead just because he has charisma. A lot of those guys had it. Comes with the outlaw territory... We're fascinated by the non-conformist. All that fancy, semi-loving prose in service to a story about a sociopath creates doubt in the final awarding of stars. 3.75 rounds up to 4* - barely. On the other hand... why not celebrate the outsiders... look at them... illuminate what it is about us and them that makes for the fascination. Billy-the-Kid etc.
- The doggie in the water reminded me of Ship of Fools.
- The repetitive violence can be a bit off-putting but we do get the point: Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.
- Marcus is not exactly sympathetic... a "typical mob lawyer" I guess, but not like Robert Duvall in the Godfather.
- Prohibition brought back some of the spirit of the old west. It was a terrible idea - obviously!
- The lightning rod salesman... remember Something Wicked This Way Comes?
August 22, 2008
Kennedy creates the world of Legs so vividly, I feel like I'm there. Not that I'm an expert on the world of bootleggers during prohibition, but it seems perfect to me. Even beyond that, though, Kennedy gets to the heart of the yearning of his characters. What they hope for. What they dream. How their lives change and acquire meaning as life denies those hopes and dreams. This is a great book for the world is recreates, but an even better one for the human core of the characters in that world that is really the more important focus. That really takes this book beyond a thriller novel into the realm of immortal literature.
July 25, 2016
This fictional story of real-life gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond was gorgeously written. Kennedy's prose is incredible, although at times the action was gritty enough that I felt like I wanted to cover my eyes, as if I were watching a movie, so as to only halfway see the gory stuff.
The chronology bounces around a little and it's so hard to keep track of all the gangsters--who is on who's side and who owes money to whom and the like. But the story is fast-paced and gave a real insight to the less-than-glamorous life of the 1920s/1930s gangster.
The chronology bounces around a little and it's so hard to keep track of all the gangsters--who is on who's side and who owes money to whom and the like. But the story is fast-paced and gave a real insight to the less-than-glamorous life of the 1920s/1930s gangster.
November 1, 2024
Nice, fast, entertaining read. Needed a break from that big NYC book — this was perfect.
Follows the story of gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond from the perspective of his lawyer. Really interesting dynamic, demonstrates well how much of a grip a charismatic individual can have over others.
Jack, even as such a horrible person, is able to make others obsess over him with his charm and wit. He’s clever, but his willingness to do anything to get ahead makes people respect and fear him. An interesting commentary on how people react to powerful individuals.
Very well written too, nice word choice and good flow to it too.
Follows the story of gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond from the perspective of his lawyer. Really interesting dynamic, demonstrates well how much of a grip a charismatic individual can have over others.
Jack, even as such a horrible person, is able to make others obsess over him with his charm and wit. He’s clever, but his willingness to do anything to get ahead makes people respect and fear him. An interesting commentary on how people react to powerful individuals.
Very well written too, nice word choice and good flow to it too.
December 23, 2020
This book, the first in the author's Albany books, tells the tale of real life Albany gangster Legs Diamond. The tale is told by his lawyer. The tale is interesting. The despair and poverty of te Depression blur the lines between good and evil making Legs a more sympathetic character than he would have been in more prosperous times. A good read.
June 1, 2019
I really enjoyed,"William Kennedy's book ,"Legs!" I actually bought this book from a quaint bookstore on the corner of Dove and Hudson street not far from where I live in Albany, NY. As I was paying for it, the owner told me to look out the window and he said there was the house at 67 Dove street where Jack "Legs," Diamond was shot and murdered on December 18th 1931! He also told me to look next door to another old house next door, that was and still is the house of the Author William Kennedy, now how cool is that! I knew from that point I was going to enjoy this story about the flamboyant career of this legendary gangster! I especially enjoyed it because the author included all the historic places in New York State that Jack Diamond frequently did business. William Kennedy is a master at his craft of writing, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this genre of criminal nonfiction! It was like I was with,"Legs," as he goes about his day and life in the world of bootlegging, murder, and enjoying the so called good life, he was quite the ladies man and dancer! . Legs and his showgirl mistress,Kiki Roberts, blaze a gaudy trail across the tabloids and papers of the 1920 and 2 years of the 1930's. I also enjoyed how the author included this legendary gangsters entourage which included some very famous gangsters of this era.
May 13, 2024
I came back to this book after it felt like the world changed a lot. It didn’t capture me in the same way after. That said, I could still get through it. I’m glad I started the Albany Cycle and come back to it at another time.
April 8, 2013
This intelligently written portrait submerges its reader into the world of the prohibition gangster Jack Diamond through the lens of his lawyer, Marcus. It follows Jack's complex love for both his wife and his mistress, his grand plans and the seemingly small things that would eventually derail him. The book establishes its title character as a man married to his myth; he doesn't believe, entirely, that he is this high velocity murderer, ruthless bootlegger the media portrays him, but he certainly seems entertained by the idea that he is.
While the pacing may be a bit esoteric and sluggish in places for modern readers, much of the book is written in stylish metaphor, with a very authentic noir feel. Coupled with the shoot outs and action spread throughout the book, Legs is a worthwhile escape for any one who needs a little more authenticity after the debacle of the film remake of Fitzgerald's Gatsby.
While the pacing may be a bit esoteric and sluggish in places for modern readers, much of the book is written in stylish metaphor, with a very authentic noir feel. Coupled with the shoot outs and action spread throughout the book, Legs is a worthwhile escape for any one who needs a little more authenticity after the debacle of the film remake of Fitzgerald's Gatsby.
August 7, 2021
William Kennedy is becoming my favorite writer. This book is just as good as Ironweed and Flaming Corset, which I loved. His characters are unforgettable, and his writing is often transcendent and beautiful.
“He stole from us all to the very end,” I said.
“Yes Marcus,” said Flossy, the loyal crone, misty-eyed over her wine, profoundly in love with all that was and would never be again. “But he had a right to. He was magic. He had power. Power over people. Power over animals.”
“Honest to God, Marcus, I really don’t think I’m dead.”
“He stole from us all to the very end,” I said.
“Yes Marcus,” said Flossy, the loyal crone, misty-eyed over her wine, profoundly in love with all that was and would never be again. “But he had a right to. He was magic. He had power. Power over people. Power over animals.”
“Honest to God, Marcus, I really don’t think I’m dead.”
February 12, 2012
Straight-forward story of Jack "Legs" Diamond who left Philadelphia as a boy for gangland New York, eventually becoming upstate New York's big celebrity. The narrator is his attorney Marcus Gorman. Diamond narrowly escaped death a few times, surviving shootouts, assassination attempts, and the wrath of his wife Alice and many girlfriends. This book won a Pulitzer prize and is the first of 3 books known as the Albany Cycle.
January 26, 2020
Just finished my reread for my thesis on Kennedy and his fiction and its links to Albany. I forgot just how much I love this book— the compelling characters and completely fascinating narrative voice really drew me in once again. The ending has some beautiful prose, and it's all wrapped up with some legitimately hilarious one-liners and really deeply interesting themes about [American] myth. Would recommend.
July 6, 2023
William Kennedy burst onto the literary scene in 1983 with the novel Ironweed, his fourth. My memory is that he’d had trouble finding a publisher because his earlier novels hadn’t sold. In an act of desperation he got in touch with Saul Bellow, whom he’d met when both men were in Puerto Rico (Kennedy lived there for a number of years, and married a Puerto Rican woman). Bellow had read the books and agreed to give them an endorsement (a rather lame one, it seems to me), “These Albany novels will be memorable, a distinguished group of books”).
Viking agreed to publish Ironweed and reissue the other two Albany novels in paperback. Ironweed won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award and was made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. There is one unforgettable Streep scene in the movie. Otherwise I thought the book was far better.
How’s that for a guy who couldn’t get his novel published?
I read that trilogy at the time—I loved those paperbacks—and eventually it became more than just a trilogy. The Albany cycle now stands at eight novels. I’ve read them all, and enjoyed every one, but in my recent obsession with reading the whole of an author’s work, I’ve decided to re-read them, because I feel sure I didn’t see all the connections as I read them through the years.
I’m somewhat astonished to say that I think Legs should have won the Pulitzer Prize, or at least some award. Kennedy was a great novelist already, in his second novel. I don’t remember thinking that before.
I also didn’t remember what a despicable person Legs Diamond was. He had enormous charm; Kennedy, or at least his narrator, Marcus Gorman (Diamond’s attorney), sees him as almost having an aura. He exuded energy and charisma. People were drawn to him as he walked into a room. At the same time, of course, if you said the wrong thing, you might get your head blown off. It was like that scene in the movie Goodfellas. “You’re a funny guy.” “What do you mean funny?”
There is a scene early in the book, for instance, where he sneaks off to a speakeasy in the country (the book takes place during Prohibition, but the booze flows like water) to see his girlfriend Kiki, whom his wife Alice knows about and despises. Jack is “keeping” Kiki, which means that she spends most of her time sitting around hotel rooms staring at the walls. When he finally shows up at this deserted bar, in the middle of the afternoon, she wants to dance, something that she herself does for a living. So he gets a piano player to strike up a tune, and it turns out that Diamond, who is good at virtually everything he tries, is a fantastic dancer, a natural, the Charleston, the Black Bottom, almost better than Kiki. The scene ends badly, however, when the owner of the place finds the whole thing funny. He actually goes to the point of spitting beer at Diamond, as a show of contempt. How drunk was he?
Diamond was a stylish dresser, a ladies’ man, an entertaining companion, and a national hero. It’s hard to know why a brutal gangster would become a hero, but I think it’s because a determined minority passed prohibition laws while the vast majority of Americans wanted to drink. In effect, they were criminals themselves, just because they were having a little fun. So they looked up to, and applauded, the man who got them their booze. They ignored all he did to get to the top.
The kinds of things he did came to light late in the novel, when Diamond was once again out with Kiki and happened to pass an old guy who was driving a truckload of hard cider. That meant he had a still somewhere, or knew of a still, and Diamond had a thing about controlling all the stills in a certain area. So even though this guy was strictly small potatoes, selling hard cider to his country friends so he could make a little spare cash, Diamond pulled him over—it turned out he had a young kid in the truck with him—and tortured the man, there’s no other word for it, trying to find out where the still was. The old boy was on the verge of death, and still wouldn’t give in. Diamond finally relented, just because the man was old and pathetic. (The guy later bragged about having outwitted the famous Legs Diamond. He actually knew where the still was. He owned it.) The authorities made it into a case of kidnapping because the kid was involved, and had a strong case if there ever was one, but Diamond’s lawyers got him off, and the public cheered. I wasn’t cheering. That scene made me sick.
Diamond was famous for avoiding death. Toward the end of his life, he had God knows how many bullet holes in him and still hadn’t died. So his final death, at the hand of some gangster or other, seems anti-climactic. A couple of guys shot him while he was sleeping in bed, alone, probably mildly drunk. There wasn’t much left of him at that point. No one has any idea who made the hit.
He was 34 years old.
This is a marvelous novel, compelling on every page. Doris Grumbach, a prominent reviewer (and one I always enjoyed) said, “No one writing in America today has Kennedy’s rich and fertile gift of gab; his pure verbal energy; his love of people.” Exactly.
This is the next writer the Library of America should pick up.
www.davidguy.org
Viking agreed to publish Ironweed and reissue the other two Albany novels in paperback. Ironweed won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award and was made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. There is one unforgettable Streep scene in the movie. Otherwise I thought the book was far better.
How’s that for a guy who couldn’t get his novel published?
I read that trilogy at the time—I loved those paperbacks—and eventually it became more than just a trilogy. The Albany cycle now stands at eight novels. I’ve read them all, and enjoyed every one, but in my recent obsession with reading the whole of an author’s work, I’ve decided to re-read them, because I feel sure I didn’t see all the connections as I read them through the years.
I’m somewhat astonished to say that I think Legs should have won the Pulitzer Prize, or at least some award. Kennedy was a great novelist already, in his second novel. I don’t remember thinking that before.
I also didn’t remember what a despicable person Legs Diamond was. He had enormous charm; Kennedy, or at least his narrator, Marcus Gorman (Diamond’s attorney), sees him as almost having an aura. He exuded energy and charisma. People were drawn to him as he walked into a room. At the same time, of course, if you said the wrong thing, you might get your head blown off. It was like that scene in the movie Goodfellas. “You’re a funny guy.” “What do you mean funny?”
There is a scene early in the book, for instance, where he sneaks off to a speakeasy in the country (the book takes place during Prohibition, but the booze flows like water) to see his girlfriend Kiki, whom his wife Alice knows about and despises. Jack is “keeping” Kiki, which means that she spends most of her time sitting around hotel rooms staring at the walls. When he finally shows up at this deserted bar, in the middle of the afternoon, she wants to dance, something that she herself does for a living. So he gets a piano player to strike up a tune, and it turns out that Diamond, who is good at virtually everything he tries, is a fantastic dancer, a natural, the Charleston, the Black Bottom, almost better than Kiki. The scene ends badly, however, when the owner of the place finds the whole thing funny. He actually goes to the point of spitting beer at Diamond, as a show of contempt. How drunk was he?
Diamond was a stylish dresser, a ladies’ man, an entertaining companion, and a national hero. It’s hard to know why a brutal gangster would become a hero, but I think it’s because a determined minority passed prohibition laws while the vast majority of Americans wanted to drink. In effect, they were criminals themselves, just because they were having a little fun. So they looked up to, and applauded, the man who got them their booze. They ignored all he did to get to the top.
The kinds of things he did came to light late in the novel, when Diamond was once again out with Kiki and happened to pass an old guy who was driving a truckload of hard cider. That meant he had a still somewhere, or knew of a still, and Diamond had a thing about controlling all the stills in a certain area. So even though this guy was strictly small potatoes, selling hard cider to his country friends so he could make a little spare cash, Diamond pulled him over—it turned out he had a young kid in the truck with him—and tortured the man, there’s no other word for it, trying to find out where the still was. The old boy was on the verge of death, and still wouldn’t give in. Diamond finally relented, just because the man was old and pathetic. (The guy later bragged about having outwitted the famous Legs Diamond. He actually knew where the still was. He owned it.) The authorities made it into a case of kidnapping because the kid was involved, and had a strong case if there ever was one, but Diamond’s lawyers got him off, and the public cheered. I wasn’t cheering. That scene made me sick.
Diamond was famous for avoiding death. Toward the end of his life, he had God knows how many bullet holes in him and still hadn’t died. So his final death, at the hand of some gangster or other, seems anti-climactic. A couple of guys shot him while he was sleeping in bed, alone, probably mildly drunk. There wasn’t much left of him at that point. No one has any idea who made the hit.
He was 34 years old.
This is a marvelous novel, compelling on every page. Doris Grumbach, a prominent reviewer (and one I always enjoyed) said, “No one writing in America today has Kennedy’s rich and fertile gift of gab; his pure verbal energy; his love of people.” Exactly.
This is the next writer the Library of America should pick up.
www.davidguy.org
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