Join host David Hartmann and fellow Columbia alumni as the book club discusses Ironweed by William Kennedy. Francis Phelan has hit bottom. More than twenty years ago, the ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, and full-time bum with the gift of gab left Albany after a tragic accident. Now, in 1938, Francis is back in town and faced with the wife and home he abandoned, roaming the old familiar streets, trying to make peace with the ghosts of the past and present. Winner of the Pultizer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Ironweed “goes straight for the throat and the funnybone” (The New York Times).

Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Times: 6:30PM Central, 7:30PM Eastern, 4:30PM Pacific. For those in Europe the time is 12:30AM in London on January 8.

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free

Reviews

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/apr/10/the-story-behind-william-kennedy-ironweed-pulitzer
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-kennedy/ironweed/