How long is it?
240 pages in the Penguin Books 1984 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction
Ironweed
CanonicalLarry McCaffery's 100 best 20th-century English-language fictionReading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 62 / 100High
- Length
- 240 pagesPenguin Books · 1984
- Reading time
- 4 h 45 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 4 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 10 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Back in Albany in 1938, Francis Phelan digs graves for a little money and searches for food, drink and shelter alongside Helen Archer, who once hoped to become a singer. A former professional baseball player, he abandoned his wife and children more than twenty years earlier after a family tragedy. Familiar streets bring him close to the household he left, while dead relatives and figures from his violent past appear and speak to him.
Reader notes
Earthy and sorrowful, the literary novel passes freely from present encounters into memory and conversations with the dead. Elaborate language alternates with rough street talk, and alcoholism and severe violence are inseparable from its portrait of survival. It can be read independently of the other Albany novels.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Atmospheric · Descriptive · Lyrical
- Tone
- Atmospheric · Bleak · Melancholic · Reflective
- Structure
- Nonlinear
- Driven by
- Atmosphere · Character · Relationships
- Point of view
- Third person, omniscient
- Setting
- Albany
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Belonging
- Family
- Guilt
- Memory
- Mortality
- Redemption
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Strong
- Swearing
- Strong
- Substance use
- Strong
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- Mild
Standing and awards
Canonical
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1984
- National Book Critics Circle Award, 1983
- PEN/Faulkner Award shortlist, 1984
- Larry McCaffery's 100 best 20th-century English-language fiction
- Modern Library 100 Best Novels
- Library of America
Series and reading order
Albany Cycle
- 3Ironweed · This book · 1983
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Penguin Books · 1984 · Paperback. ISBN 9780140070200.
What is the order of books in Albany Cycle?
3. Ironweed.
How long does it take to read Ironweed?
About 4 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 240-page Penguin Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
If you liked this
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Literary fiction
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Anne Tyler
Literary Fiction · Literary fiction · Psychological fiction
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Penguin Books
- Publication year
- 1984
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 240
- ISBN
- 9780140070200
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1983
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Literary fiction · Magical realism · Psychological fiction · Social novel
- Editions
- 24
- Languages
- 4 (English, Spanish, Korean, Unspecified)