Ironweed Book

Treasure of the Rubbermaids 19: Big Rock Candy Mountain

The on-going discoveries of priceless books and comics found in a stack of Rubbermaid containers previously stored and forgotten at my parent's house and untouched for almost 20 years. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths.

Francis Phelan is living the romantic life of a hobo during the Great Depression. Drifting from town to town by hopping trains and with no responsibilities to tie him down, Francis enjoys the company of his fellow bums as they share cans of beans and jugs of wine.

OK, that's bullshit. Any notions of the hobo lifestyle having some kind of appeal are dealt with quickly and brutally here. Francis's existence is a daily grind of trying to avoid freezing or starving to death, and a hobo's corpse quickly becomes food for wild dogs. With few teeth left in his head and a simple shoestring being beyond his means, Francis dispels the myth of the carefree hobo. Particularly cringe worthy is a scene in which he is trying to take advantage of a visit to a friend's apartment by cleaning himself up and his underwear falls to pieces when he tries to wash them in the sink. Think about how skeevy those drawers had to be and tell me you want to hang out by the campfire under the bridge.

Francis is also dealing with a fair amount of guilt. He hit the rails the first time after killing a scab during a strike, and while he eventually came home after that incident, another tragic turn sent him on the bum for good when Francis dropped his infant son who broke his neck in the fall. (Way to go, butterfingers!) His life as a hobo added to his regrets as the rough existence of a drifter forced him to kill others along the way. As a wise man once sang:

Nothing beats the hobo life
Stabbing folks with my hobo knife

Back in his old home town of Albany, Francis is stuck trying to work off a debt to a lawyer and dealing with the many ghosts that his past has haunted him with. He's also trying to look out for his hobo girlfriend Helen and his buddy Rudy. Running into his grown sons provides the shocking realization that his family doesn't hold a grudge for him abandoning them, but can Francis ever forgive himself?

Francis story is sad and compelling, and he's an interesting character. He makes no excuses for the things he's done or how he lives. Despite his capacity for violence, he doesn't look for trouble. He's generous with what little he has as well as compassionate. He's got a kind of cheerful pragmatism despite the regrets he has.

The story of Francis makes this worth checking out, and it's certainly well written, but I'm a little shocked that it won a Pulitzer. It seems very good, but not at a level of greatness that kind of prize would indicate.