Roscoe

R$ 124,90

Sinopse

Insubstantial but charming, William Kennedy's Roscoe seems to unintentionally resemble many of the politicians it depicts. The seventh novel in Kennedy's Albany series, Roscoe follows Roscoe Conway, a quick-witted, charismatic lawyer-politician who has devoted much of his life to helping his Democratic Party cohorts achieve and maintain political power in 1930s and ‘40s Albany, New York. It's 1945, and Roscoe has decided to retire from politics, but a series of deaths and scandals forces him to stay and confront his past. Kennedy takes the reader on an intricate, whirlwind tour of (mostly) fictional Albany in the first half of the 20th century. He presents a mythologized, tabloid version of history, leaving no stone unturned: a multitude of gangsters, bookies, thieves, and hookers mingle with politicians, cops, and lawyers. In the middle of it all is Roscoe, the kind of behind-the-scenes, wisecracking, truth-bending man of the people who makes everything happen--or at least it's fun to think so. Kennedy shows an obvious affection for his book's colorful characters and historic Albany, and he describes both with loving specificity. Though the book often works as light comedy, its clichéd plot developments and stereotypical characters undermine its serious concerns with truth, history, and honor. "You've never met a politician like Roscoe Conway," promises the book's jacket blurb. But we have, through his different roles in countless films and TV series. As with its notoriously deceitful hero, Roscoe is likeable as long as you don't take it too seriously.

Participantes

Autor: William Kennedy

Autor

WILLIAM KENNEDY

Jogadores, políticos, gângsteres e jornalistas, quase todos de origem irlandesa, se misturam e às vezes se confundem na obra do escritor William Kennedy (1928, Albany, Estados Unidos). Eles estão em O grande jogo de Billy Phelan, de 1978, relançado no Brasil neste ano. E, de alguma forma, estão em Kennedy, escritor de ascendência irlandesa admirador de jogos que já cobriu os métodos de gângster dos políticos quando trabalhava como jornalista investigativo do jornal de sua cidade natal, Times Union. Autor de mais de dez romances, Kennedy também escreveu peças de teatro, livros infantis e foi roteirista de filmes como Cotton Club (1984), de Francis Ford Coppola. Em 1984, ganhou o prêmio Pulitzer de literatura por Ironweed, que Hector Babenco levou ao cinema. É integrante da American Academy of Arts and Letters. Tem publicado no Brasil os seguintes títulos: O livro de Daniel Quinn, Ossos antigos e O ramalhete em chamas. Ironweed (1983) está no prelo e Velhos esqueletos, uma reedição de Ossos antigos, será lançada ainda este ano.

fonte: www.flip.org.br