"O Albany!"

O Albany: Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels (William Kennedy)

This book is a mess. I read a review that states that a "straightforward, chronological history" - you know, the kind that makes sense - would "waste Kennedy's storytelling talents"; So instead here's this, which seems like Kennedy sat down with a tape recorder, then took his rambling and slapped the whole thing into a book. I just couldn't follow this book at all; On one page we're in 1890, the next page it's 1916, the page after that World War I has just ended, and the page after that we're in 1865 and Lincoln is visiting. Frankly, I think Albany has an interesting enough history that starting at the beginning with the Dutch arriving would be worth reading, but I couldn't make heads or tails out of this disaster. I note on the cover leaf that portions of this book appeared in the Knickerbocker Press, and if this is just a bunch of newspaper columns thrown together - it would explain, if not excuse, the mash between the covers.
(Also, "Fearless Ethnics", what?)

Grade: F