Why It Took So Long

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter I
2. Contents VII
3. Preface XI
4. About Kennedy and His Work
5. Introduction to Part One 3
6. The Sudden Fame of William Kennedy 7
7. O Albany! O Kennedy! 19
8. William Kennedy 29
9. Human Capital 45
10. Violent Places 53
11. The Literary Brilliance of the Opening of Ironweed 59
12. Rattling Great Yarn 63
13. Family Values 67
14. Bootlegger of the Soul 73
15. O Albany! 77
16. World Premiere of Roscoe 89
17. Jam Session 93
18. An Interview with William Kennedy 97
19. William Kennedy’s Literary Biography 111
20. Kennedy in His Own Words
21. Introduction to Part Two 145
22. Why It Took So Long 149
23. Reinventing Albany in Fiction 157
24. Learning from Faulkner 173
25. Gifts from Joyce 181
26. Saul Bellow In Memoriam (1915–2005) 197
27. A Nonpareil Force Field 203
28. A Box of Books 209
29. The Secrets of Creative Love 215
30. In the System 227
31. William Kennedy’s Albany—The City and Inspiration 241
32. Scholarly Perspectives
33. Introduction to Part Three 267
34. William Kennedy as Journalist 271
35. Edward and Katrina Daugherty 285
36. The Snows of Reduction 307
37. A Magical Time in Albany 319
38. The Cyclical Impulse of The Flaming Corsage 339
39. Courtesans, Stars, Wives, and Vixens 359
40. Epilogue 373
41. Acknowledgments 379
42. Contributors 381
43. Index 385