["Ironweed" is the] third in a series of novels set in Albany, N.Y., [and] this strong, authentic book bursts with black humor and stinging insights about a segment of American society. Francis Phelan, father of Billy, is a bum. He knows it and so does everyone else. It's 1938, and the landscape is thick with hobos—not just those looking for work, but those on the run. "What was it that did you in?" Francis wonders about a fellow traveler and then wonders about himself. Understanding why he's on the move is Francis's quest. Dodging the cold and taking care of his companion-in-arms, Helen, are his sacred duties. Returning to Albany 22 years after he had abandoned his family, Francis knows he never quit loving his wife, and by book's end, he is back home with plainspoken forgiveness on all sides. Wholly realistic dialogue and details of a tramp's rough life never clash with the big questions: How did I come to be what I am? And what am I? This supple, lyrical novel winds in and out of Francis Phelan's thoughts and questions, his sensitive perspective and perceptions, and creates a captivating character.
A review of "Ironweed," in Publishers Weekly (reprinted from the October 22, 1982 issue of Publishers Weekly, published by R. R. Bowker Company, a Xerox company; copyright © 1982 by Xerox Corporation), Vol. 222, No. 17, October 22, 1982, p. 42.
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