The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

The third book in the Bascombe trilogy follows the pattern of the first two books. Earlier we have spent Easter and Independence Day with his character, this time we spend Thanksgiving weekend with Frank.

In the year 2000 as the disputed Presidential Election hangs in the balance Frank Bascombe has moved from Haddam, New Jersey to the shore in Sea Clift. He owns his own real estate office where, he admits, he has a cash machine that he does not have to work to hard at. Frank has a Tibetan American sales agent named Mike Mahoney, his daughter is home for the week after deciding that she is not a lesbian after all, and his son Paul,who we last saw struggling with emotional problems and occasionally barking like a dog, has moved to Kansas City where he writes greeting cards for Hallmark.

Franks second wife Sally who he married in the interim between books two and three has left him for her first husband, the same husband that she had declared dead after he disappeared when her children were young. Frank's first wife Anne is making noises about a reconciliation and the kids are coming to his house for a Thanksgiving feast he has arranged with an organic caterer.

Like all the books in this series we learn more about Frank's inner thoughts than perhaps any character we will ever meet in literature. It seems that Frank has the strongest internal dialogue of anyone ever met. What seemed odd in book one, and sometimes overbearing in book two ( which was the best received winning both the Penn Faulkner and the Pulitzer ) in this book seems of a perfect tone. Perhaps it is because the character has become like an old friend, one whose idiosyncrasies are not those that you would pick out but now embrace as part of the person you care about. One wonders if we have seen the end of Frank, looking at the arc of the stories and the obvious comparisons to the Updike Rabbit series it seems at least likely that we will see Frank as he moves on to the next world. I look forward to it.

This book, as Frank is older, shows him dealing in his mid fifties with prostate cancer and thus leads to many ruminations on death and acceptance of the changes in life that come with age. For me, perhaps, I see myself in Frank. He tries to be a straight up guy, he rarely if ever has any motive other than what is spoken and often wonders why people do not understand that. At the same time Frank has been around, he is a good judge of character and has been known to upset his loved ones by observations they ask for but would rather not hear. Of particular interest in this book is his relationship with his son Paul. Paul has found some level of success but the jury is still out on happiness. In the end Frank has to admit to himself that he loves his son, he wants him to prosper, but for whatever reason despite his best attempts he does not really understand his son. Not a day any parent wants to have but one many of us will have to come to grips with.

Like all parts of the " permanent period" as he calls it, this too involves realizing you have to let go of things that you cannot change so that those things do not consume you and your happiness.

The set of books in the series is now available in a Everyman's library addition. If you have three months of reading to spare and consider yourself a connoisseur of late twentieth century American literature you could perhaps find no series more relevant than the Bascombe books.

For me I see myself in Frank. I think the gift of Richard Ford is that perhaps we all can.