Call number
FIC KEN
Collection
Genres
Publication
The Viking Press (1996), Edition: 1st, 224 pages
Description
Moving back and forth between the 1880s and 1912, this sixth novel in William Kennedy's acclaimed Albany cycle follows the lives of Edward Daugherty, a first generation Irish American who will break out beyond Albany as a playwright, and Katrina Taylor, a beautiful, seductive woman with complex attitudes towards life. Their marriage is a passionate one, but a cataclysmic hotel fire changes it into something else altogether. The Flaming Corsage evocatively portrays the seething, contradictory impulses of our humanity, lusts and furies that know no bounds of time or place.
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member Griff
Not my favorite Kennedy book, but a very good read. Characters that have ambitions, ambitions complicated by social and familial baggage, are central to the book. Succumbing to personal desires and disenchantment with the personal desires and decisions of others creating a complicated tragic
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mystery, a mystery explained in various ways by various characters - never fully resolved or disentangled. In the end, the reality of unfulfilled promise and potential is harsh. One of the few Kennedy books that did not convey a sense of redemption amid the personal pain. Show Less
LibraryThing member mahallett
don't quite know what to say about this. is it about the despair and unfullfilment of aging? is it that the charm and beauty of youth can hide real wackiness? or we never really know anyone or what really happened? or what?
LibraryThing member NoLongerAtEase
The Flaming Corsage is my favorite of Kennedy's novels. I'll not argue that it's the best, the most important, or the most fully realized. I haven't the space or the desire to make such strong claims.
Part of what pushes Corsage to the forefront of Kennedy's collected works is its well developed
Corsage is given over to recounting Edward's downfall and describing the social, personal, and natural circumstances from which it was brought about. This downfall, of course, is precipitated by the event described in the novels opening pages: the love nest killings of 1908. Therein, we are witness to a murder-sucide taht takes place in Edward's hotel suite. Edward is wounded but not severely.
Note: Of all Kennedy's protagonists, is the one with whom educated folk can most fully empathize. Daugherty is an intellectual rather than a politician, a bum, o
Part of what pushes Corsage to the forefront of Kennedy's collected works is its well developed
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main character, Edward Daugherty. We have met Daugherty earlier in the Albany cycle. He appears, in Billy Phelan, as the aged, disgraced, but nevertheless father of Martin. Corsage is given over to recounting Edward's downfall and describing the social, personal, and natural circumstances from which it was brought about. This downfall, of course, is precipitated by the event described in the novels opening pages: the love nest killings of 1908. Therein, we are witness to a murder-sucide taht takes place in Edward's hotel suite. Edward is wounded but not severely.
Note: Of all Kennedy's protagonists, is the one with whom educated folk can most fully empathize. Daugherty is an intellectual rather than a politician, a bum, o
Show Less
Pages
224
ISBN
0670858722 / 9780670858729