Marathon Reading of Legs by William Kennedy, November 5

For the third year, a marathon reading of one of the novels from Kennedy’s Albany cycle at Albany Distilling on Livingston Ave., in Albany, NY, sponsored by the NYS Writers Institute. 

I was signed up for 3:00 but got well before to sit & listen. They were behind schedule, as always happens with readings like this. I had missed the beginning, had my copy of Legs, saw that they were somewhere in the section titled “Jack, Out of Doors.” My friend Roger Green from the Book Talk at the Albany Public Library was reading.

 

The lighting in the cavernous room was bad but I resisted using my flash until later in the day. I would sit & listen, sometimes just find where we were in my copy, take a photo. In the course of the next 3 to 4 hours I heard about 21 local folk read.

I was pleased to read 2 sections, a pretty hot & steamy in section “Playing the Jack.” After me, Wanda Fisher, who has hosted a radio program for years year read a section with multiple “fucks,” something she doesn’t get to say ever on the radio.

It was late afternoon, Happy Hour. My back & ass were sore from the metal folding chair, so I went up to the bar for a drink. I got a bourbon & soda, Ironweed, the title of the book we read in another marathon 2 years ago. Talked with lots of folks I knew, some had just read, others waiting to go on later. 

Bill Kennedy arrived with his entourage & was greeted heartily by a roomful of fans, as well he should be. He read later, towards the end. It was time for me to go, hoping to return later for the finale but didn’t make it. I had taken photos of those I had heard read, not always getting the name correct. I have the printout of the signup sheet but there are always substitutions & no-shows so I can’t entirely match up my shots with the list, or my notes for that matter. Lots of others have shared their photos on Facebook so there certainly is an archive.

I finished reading the rest of Legs that weekend, enjoying the play of language & the vitality of the characters in Kennedy’s inventive prose. Eventually I will post what I have on my Flickr site. One can find the shots from the marathon reading of Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game in November 2024 here.