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marhill31's review against another edition
4.0
Does living through your “existence period” mean you are truly an independent human being?
Richard Ford attempted to answer that question in Independence Day, the second novel in the critically acclaimed Frank Bascombe series. Last year, I reviewed The Sportswriter, the first novel in this series, and came away with the impression of Frank Bascombe as an unlikable but compelling character as he dealt with the loss of a child, the unraveling of his marriage and failed career as a sportswriter. I had decided I was not going to read anymore of the Frank Bascombe books after The Sportswriter. I was wrong.
The story picks up several years later in Independence Day with Frank in his mid 40’s going through his “existence period.” He is a realtor in Haddam, New Jersey and lives in his ex-wife’s house. While, she has remarried and taken the kids to Connecticut to live with her new husband. Independence Day takes place on the fourth of July weekend where Frank decides to pick up his son, Paul, from his ex-wife’s house and takes him to the Basketball and Baseball Hall of Fame Centers on a father-son bonding trip. The bonding trip does not go as expected and Frank comes to terms with some realities as this stage of his life.
The novel takes place in the late 1980s where Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts is running for president and Bascombe expresses his views about the governor’s candidacy. Also, Frank ruminates about real estate, love, family, and what does it all truly mean.
Independence Day meanders quite a bit but Ford is such a thoughtful writer that I did not mind going on the detour of Bascombe’s life throughout the novel. While, I believe that The Sportswriter is a more focused book than Independence Day, I still enjoyed the novel quite a bit and I’m looking forward to reading The Lay of the Land, the third novel in the Bascombe series.
Richard Ford attempted to answer that question in Independence Day, the second novel in the critically acclaimed Frank Bascombe series. Last year, I reviewed The Sportswriter, the first novel in this series, and came away with the impression of Frank Bascombe as an unlikable but compelling character as he dealt with the loss of a child, the unraveling of his marriage and failed career as a sportswriter. I had decided I was not going to read anymore of the Frank Bascombe books after The Sportswriter. I was wrong.
The story picks up several years later in Independence Day with Frank in his mid 40’s going through his “existence period.” He is a realtor in Haddam, New Jersey and lives in his ex-wife’s house. While, she has remarried and taken the kids to Connecticut to live with her new husband. Independence Day takes place on the fourth of July weekend where Frank decides to pick up his son, Paul, from his ex-wife’s house and takes him to the Basketball and Baseball Hall of Fame Centers on a father-son bonding trip. The bonding trip does not go as expected and Frank comes to terms with some realities as this stage of his life.
The novel takes place in the late 1980s where Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts is running for president and Bascombe expresses his views about the governor’s candidacy. Also, Frank ruminates about real estate, love, family, and what does it all truly mean.
Independence Day meanders quite a bit but Ford is such a thoughtful writer that I did not mind going on the detour of Bascombe’s life throughout the novel. While, I believe that The Sportswriter is a more focused book than Independence Day, I still enjoyed the novel quite a bit and I’m looking forward to reading The Lay of the Land, the third novel in the Bascombe series.
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
4.0
Frank Bascombe is no longer The Sportswriter. Independence Day takes place about seven years past the events of that book. Frank and his wife, Ann, divorced in the aftermath of the stresses caused by the death of their first son. Ann subsequently remarried and moved to Connecticut with their remaining two children. Frank bought her old house in Haddam, New Jersey, and, in selling their former family home, leveraged for himself a career in residential real estate. It's a job that he likes and is good at. He has made some wise investments and some would say he is sitting pretty.
But Frank hasn't been able to fully move on with his life. He has a girlfriend but can't completely commit to her because he still sees himself with Ann. Complicating matters is their 15-year-old son who seems to be experiencing an emotional and psychological crisis which threatens prospects for his future. On an Independence Day weekend, Frank plans to take his son on an excursion to the Basketball Hall of Fame and then on to Cooperstown for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He hopes to bond with him and impart his wisdom and set him on the right course in life. An ambitious agenda for one weekend. It is, of course, doomed to failure. Or, maybe, not quite.
In The Sportswriter, I found Frank Bascombe to be a not very appealing character, but he improves on further acquaintance. Richard Ford has written him as a sort of quintessential American, an Everyman searching for meaning in his life, searching for The Meaning of Life, haunted by intimations of mortality, fearful about his children's futures, wondering how everything got so complicated and where his life went off track. He is, in short, a character with whom I and most readers of a certain age can identify and empathize.
Ford is a very talented writer and in Frank Bascombe, he has created a character whom he obviously knows very well. Frank may not be autobiographical exactly, but Ford thoroughly understands the place he came from, the various detours his life has taken, and why he is confused about the course on which he seems to be headed. He understands and he makes the reader understand and want to know more about how it all works out. Good thing there is a third book in this series so maybe we'll get to find out!
But Frank hasn't been able to fully move on with his life. He has a girlfriend but can't completely commit to her because he still sees himself with Ann. Complicating matters is their 15-year-old son who seems to be experiencing an emotional and psychological crisis which threatens prospects for his future. On an Independence Day weekend, Frank plans to take his son on an excursion to the Basketball Hall of Fame and then on to Cooperstown for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He hopes to bond with him and impart his wisdom and set him on the right course in life. An ambitious agenda for one weekend. It is, of course, doomed to failure. Or, maybe, not quite.
In The Sportswriter, I found Frank Bascombe to be a not very appealing character, but he improves on further acquaintance. Richard Ford has written him as a sort of quintessential American, an Everyman searching for meaning in his life, searching for The Meaning of Life, haunted by intimations of mortality, fearful about his children's futures, wondering how everything got so complicated and where his life went off track. He is, in short, a character with whom I and most readers of a certain age can identify and empathize.
Ford is a very talented writer and in Frank Bascombe, he has created a character whom he obviously knows very well. Frank may not be autobiographical exactly, but Ford thoroughly understands the place he came from, the various detours his life has taken, and why he is confused about the course on which he seems to be headed. He understands and he makes the reader understand and want to know more about how it all works out. Good thing there is a third book in this series so maybe we'll get to find out!
jeffs's review against another edition
5.0
I started this book a few days before the fourth, so perhaps it was seasonal, but I found the character of Bascombe and his melodramatic holiday weekend to be captivating.
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