Legs (novel)
![]() First edition | |
Author | William Kennedy |
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Language | English |
Publisher | Coward, McCann & Geoghegan |
Publication date | 1975 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 317 pp |
ISBN | 0-698-10672-5 |
OCLC | 1345969 |
813/.5/4 | |
LC Class | PZ4.K3615 Le PS3561.E428 |
Preceded by | The Ink Truck |
Followed by | Billy Phelan's Greatest Game |
Legs is a 1975 novel by William Kennedy. It is the first book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle.
Plot summary
The book chronicles the life of the gangster Jack 'Legs' Diamond. It is told from the perspective of Jack's lawyer, Marcus Gorman. Marcus becomes involved with "Legs" Diamond to add excitement to his otherwise boring life, and the best way to do this was by immortalizing a highly popular gangster. Through Gorman's eyes, Kennedy is able to elicit sympathy for the criminal, transposing this sympathy into the context of America during the 1920s and 30s: excess, collapse, destitution, and analysis of right and wrong, good and evil.
Adaptations
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of Legs, narrated by Joe Barrett, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
External links
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Articles lacking sources from March 2015
- All articles lacking sources
- 1975 American novels
- Biographical novels
- Novels set in the United States
- Novels set in the 1920s
- Novels set in the 1930s
- Novels by William Kennedy
- Cultural depictions of Legs Diamond
- Coward-McCann books
- All stub articles
- Biographical novel stubs
- 1970s historical novel stubs