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.

Canada by Richard Ford

Richard Ford is one of those writers that does not have a middle ground for his readers. There are many folks who find him to be one of the best writers of his generation and others who feel a consistent desire as I read one reviewer say " to slap his main character for 300 pages"

Those reviews of course are usually for the Bascombe stories that started with The Sportswriter.

I have enjoyed the Bascombe stories. Some times in reading those stories I feel very connected to the author and his character. Ford's characters think much of the time and we learn to like that about them....or put the books away.

So I was of course interested in the new book. This book tells the story of Dell and Berner fraternal twins growing up in Grand Falls, Idaho. Their father is an optimist always believing things will work out. Dad, a Captain in the Air Force, somehow gets in trouble in some kind of embezzling scheme involving stolen cows and the local Indian tribes and gets demoted. He soon retires and finds that his skills do not transfer that well to the civilian world. The children's Mom Neeva is a small, ethnic looking, city girl who is ill suited for life on the prairie.

As their Father drifts from job to job we learn about the twins. Dell, the narrator of the story is a 15 year old who is small for his age, with no real friends, who nonetheless looks forward to starting high school in the fall. He plans to join the chess club and yearns to become part of a group of friends. Dell taller, physically stronger than her brother has a darker, more impatient soul.

Life comes crashing down when his father still drifting from job to job gets himself in a pinch with the local Indian tribe on another low grade criminal enterprise he is working. Threats are made and inexplicably their father decides the way out of this is to cross the border into North Dakota and rob a bank.

Ever the optimist Dad thinks he will blend into the scenery. Of course, he cannot, eventually police come and arrest the kids parents. What happens next is the larger part of the story.

The truth is, not much does. Dell goes to Canada, becomes involved peripherally with a small town criminal who himself is on the run from America.

To be clear this is not a good book. About 200 pages in I had a strong sense nothing of import was going to happen. While the characters occasionally have good lines that make you remember what Ford's special skill is for the most part this book still has the annoying self centered characters but lacks much of the thinking material found in his earlier work.

The plot of the book, the whole story of the young man's first summer and fall in Canada, is weak and frankly no better than a B grade pulp plot.

This book if written by a no name author would have gotten no positive spin and would soon be in the bargain bin. The book's jacket says that this book will be a classic, that is not the case unless it becomes a classic of how an author can disappoint. Ford's characters are often pretentious and annoying, this book does not even have the redeemable qualities that bring them into the level of interest and compassion.

Poor. Poor. A waste of time.

Independence Day by Richard Ford

This 1995 book by Richard Ford won the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/Faulkner award. The only book ever to win both. Knowing this and having read the first book in this series, The Sportswriter, one expects a great deal from the book. Fortunately the reader is well rewarded.

In this book a few years have passed since we last saw Frank Bascombe of Haddam,New Jersey. His first wife has now remarried, she, her her husband and his children live in suburban Connecticut. Frank now sells real estate and is successful doing so.

The book takes place over the titled holiday weekend. Frank is trying to collect rent from some tenants that seem not to find him as charming as he thinks they should while at the same time he is trying to get a middle aged Vermont club with confusion and doubt about every move they make into a home they both can afford and desire.

He spends time with his the owner operator of a hotdog/root-beer stand he is the silent partner owner of, tries to make sense of his newest relationship, with Frank no relationship is easy. He is happy and accepting of things as they are and wonders why women always worry about what comes next rather than enjoying what is.

The largest storyline however is Frank's relationship with his now teenage son Paul. Paul has had a couple brushes with the law, is exhibiting some nervous habits that could be considered mental stresses and altogether concerning his Mother. In short Paul is obsessed with his pet dog who died years ago and well....Paul barks at times. It seems to be a stress release and Frank is not that shook up over it but knows that some under it all cause is looming.

Doubting his parenting and influence both in the past and presently Frank as he does in The Sportswriter seems to have the longest, deepest, most abstract internal conversations with himself. Like no one I think I know. Certainly more than me.

It is no wonder Frank has trouble talking in real facts and not as " he wishes they would be", his ex wife's opinion, he is having such a constant internal dialogue he cannot speak an external word.

Still trying to be Updike and awards or no this is not Updike. Rabbit Angstrom was more likable and easier to relate to, at least for me. A great book none the less and I do look forward to the last in the series. Still Frank Bascombe is not someone you would want to spend time with each day. We all have the friend who has a deep thought everyday, and sometimes, sometimes you just want to talk about the ball game last night.

So a great book yes, is the third book on my list, absolutely. Do I need a break from Frank first. Yes, most definitely.

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

Richard Ford has written three books that tell the tale of Frank Bascombe. The first of these books is The Sportswriter. Written in 1986 the book was hailed as one of the best books of the year and still often appears in many top lists. Later books in the series, including the nineties entry Independence Day were also very well reviewed. In fact Independence Day won both the Penn-Faulkner award and The Pulitzer.

Therefore going in one has to know they are getting into some books that are certainly supposed to be strong. With the first in the series The Sportswriter the case is well proven.


Easy comparisons to Updike's once a decade look at Rabbit Angstrom soon fall flat however. Having not yet read the second and third books in the Bascombe trilogy it might well be true that the action picks up a bit. However in The Sportswriter we meet a man who is surely suffering with a crisis of life, a crisis of faith, or at least a turning point in his life. Unlike Rabbit Angstrom for whom introspection is a word not understood the character of Frank Bascombe knows full well what is going on in his internal person.

At 39, recently divorced with two young children and a son who died a couple of years earlier, of Reye Syndrome no less, Frank is a man who could easily be at war with the world. The fact is, introspection or not, he is not. He likes his life, he does not like to think too deeply. He has discovered some things along the way. He wishes people did not share so much, he feels quite comfortable with that manly quality of swallowing your disapointments in life and painting on contentment.

Frank would like it if people did not need to have a pained explanation for each mistake. In short if you love someone give them some room, forgive mistakes without a hearing and move on. His infidelity period after the death of his son is something he feels bad about, but only in that it hurts his wife. When called for an explanation he has none, cannot bring himself to offer one, and accepts the divorce that follows with equal amounts of calm and wishing for an explanation that could reverse it.

This book takes place over three days, Easter weekend. Frank takes his new girlfriend on a work trip to Detroit, meets her family on Easter and tries in his own, don't show me too much of your inner self way, to help an acquaintance in his Divorced Men's Club through his weekend. All through the weekend we see what Frank sees and see him retreating from feeling too much. It is as if he has been given the gift of seperation from his own experiences and can see them all with a wryness from the outside.

It is not really a gift to do so, we all think about being a fly on the wall at our own funeral but no one should really live their life as an observer of his own experiences. Frank seems to do this and to be watching a split screen at these times.

In the end the book serves as a good vehicle for examination of your own life, failures and misgivings included, unless of course you are like Frank and prefer to not read the chapters but just look at the titles and make assumptions.

Frank observes in the end that life is like a film that sticks to you. Your experiences good and bad over the course of time stick to you. This is like a protective coating, it also however means that nothing is new and shiny. Nothing can through to give great joy or great sadness. It is as sadness accumulates over life, with failed relationships, career trouble, health issues, that we have this protective coating. The coating also however stops the joy and sensation of wonder from slipping into your life as well. He tells that occasionally the sheen slips off and you find yourself filled with wonder.

I am familiar with the feeling. For me, sad as it is to say, it often seems to come from being outdoors and seeing and feeling the sun or the wind on my face. Feeling what I must have felt forty years ago in my childhood before my film had been applied. Frank Bascombe tells us each time we have that feeling of not having been here before, of something new, to embrace it because soon we will be protected again from the new and dangerous expression of feelings and we might never be this alive again.

It is a feeling one can relate too. As your children go older, mine now being teenagers and certainly in that stage of life where sincere, heartfelt emotion seems to be something that is to be avoided it is easy to see that the film of life is already building on them.

It is sad, Ford's Bascombe however, knows he does not allow those feelings in, does not want to let them in. Unlike for mamy of us though he knows it is a choice that he is making. He is a very self aware fellow.

The book is well worth your time. Be prepared to have to think over your own middle aged life.

An interesting side note. Ford, writing in 1986, has his sportswriter say that at times you have to the ability in sports to go with your guts. That it cannot all be numbers. When that happens says Bascombe Sports will become just another place where the numbers geeks rule. Little does he know that now, here, twenty five years later we are well in that time. I look forward to seeing what other changes in life after this book was written Frank Bascombe and Richard Ford address in the next two books.