Billy Phelan's Greatest Game
{{short description|1978 novel by William Kennedy}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book |
| name = Billy Phelan's Greatest Game
| image = File:BillyPhelansGreatestGame.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = William Kennedy
| country = United States
| language = English
| genre =
| publisher = The Viking Press
| release_date = 1978
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages = 282 pp
| isbn = 0-670-16667-7
| dewey= 813/.5/4
| congress= PZ4.K3615 Bi PS3561.E428
| oclc= 3630990
| preceded_by = Legs
| followed_by = Ironweed
}}
Billy Phelan's Greatest Game is a 1978 novel by William Kennedy. It is the second book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle.
Plot summary
The narrative is based on an actual event: The attempted 1933 kidnapping of John O'Connell Jr., the nephew of Albany Democratic boss Daniel P. O'Connell.{{sfn|Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917-2000|page=125}}
In 1930s Albany, New York, Billy Phelan is a hustler at pool, card sharp, bowler, and occasional bookmaker.{{sfn|"The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"}} Martin Daugherty is a reporter, and the son of a famous writer now grown old.{{sfn|"The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"}} Phelan and Daugherty become involved in the events surrounding the kidnapping of the son of a corrupt Albany political boss.{{sfn|"The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"}}
The kidnapping is the central point of the story, but Kennedy also details the everyday lives of the characters inhabiting Albany's working class and poor neighborhoods.{{sfn|"The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"}} Some of the characters, including Billy Phelan's father Francis, appear in Ironweed, the third installment of the Albany Cycle.{{sfn|"The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"}}
Adaptations
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, narrated by Nick Sullivan, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
=Internet=
- {{cite web |url=http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2012/07/book-you-have-to-read-billy-phelans.html |title=The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game |last=Pierce |first=J. Kingston |date=July 13, 2012 |website=The Rap Sheet |publisher=J. Kingston Pierce |location=Seattle, WA |ref={{sfnRef|"The Book You Have to Read: Billy Phelan's Greatest Game"}}}}
=Books=
- {{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=Heinz-D. |last2=Fischer |first2=Erika J. |date=2002 |title=Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917-2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2o4Ywn4LJwC&pg=PA125 |location=Munich, Germany |publisher=K. G. Saur |isbn=978-3-598-30186-5 |ref={{sfnRef|Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917-2000}}}}
{{William Kennedy}}
Category:Novels by William Kennedy
{{1970s-novel-stub}}