Larger	Very Old Bones (Contemporary American Fiction) Author: William Kennedy
	Book Information Publisher: Penguin Books Book Type: Paperback Rating: 4 ISBN-13: 9780140138986 - ISBN-10: 0140138986 Pages: 304 Book Reviews

The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Ironweed continues his acclaimed Albany Cycle with this tragicomic novel about a turbulent Irish-American family haunted by real and imagined sins. Dreamers, drinkers, and failures, their heartbreaks and prevailing sense of humor are at the core of what may be Kennedy's most accomplished work.

Library Journal
"The past is the present," says O'Neill's Mary Tyrone in Long Days Journey Into Night , a theory that the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kennedy adheres to. In relating "this cautionary tale of diseased self contemplation," the author uses Orson Purcell, the bastard son of artist Peter Phelan, to carry on his Roman fleuve of Albany, New York's Phelan clan. Building his tale around a family gathering in 1958, Purcell relates his own life story as well as episodes in the history of each family member, both living and dead, who struggle to overcome their collective and individual pasts to embrace a brighter future. Though not a genuine masterpiece like Ironweed ( LJ 12/1/82), this book is still moving, sometimes bleak and difficult but often humorous, much like the lives of the Phelans themselves. The Phelans can claim a place beside O'Neill's Tyrones and Steinbeck's Joads as one of the premier families of American literature who endure and, one hopes, prevail. If you think the great books are no longer being written, reading William Kennedy will change your mind. Highly recommended.
- Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"