- This article is about the novel. For the film, see
Ironweed . For the plant,
see Vernonia
Ironweed is a
1983 novel by
William Kennedy. It received the
1984
Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction and is the third book in Kennedy's
Albany Cycle. It placed at number ninety-two on
the
Modern Library
list of the 100 Best Novels written in English in the 20th
Century and is also included in the Western Canon of the critic
Harold Bloom.
Plot summary
Ironweed is set during the Great Depression and tells the story of
Francis Phelan, an alcoholic vagrant
originally from Albany, New
York
, who left his family after accidentally killing his
infant son while he may have been drunk. The novel focuses
on Francis's return to Albany, and the narrative is complicated by
Phelan's hallucinations of the three people, other than his son,
whom he killed in the past. The novel features characters that
return in some of Kennedy's other books.
Adaptations
Kennedy wrote the screenplay for the 1987
film version directed by
Hector Babenco and starring
Jack Nicholson and
Meryl Streep. Major portions of the film were
shot on location in Albany. The film was nominated for
Academy Awards for
Best Actor in a Leading Role
(for Nicholson) and
Best
Actress in a Leading Role (for Streep).
In 2009,
Audible.com produced an audio
version of
Ironweed, narrated by
Jonathan Davis as part
of its
Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
External links