Rating: 
Summary: Boredom, thy name is Independence Day
Review: "Internal dialogue" seem to be the buzz words for the positive reviews I have read about this book. However, I fail to see this as a positive endorsement. The internal dialogue in this novel never takes the reader beyond the average and mundane. Maybe that's the point. Maybe this is supposed to be a portrait of an average middle-aged American man going through all too common problems: death, divorce, raising troubled teens, disappointment, boredom, etc. If that is the case, then Ford achieves his goal. The problem is, most of us have enough mundane thoughts running through our heads. Reading someone else's mundane thoughts just leaves you feeling...well, mundane. Yes, Richard Ford has an obvious talent for writing well. His prose is good. Never once in the course of reading his novel did I question his skills as a writer (and that is definitely not something I can say with every book I read). But, writing well isn't always what makes a great novel. Great novels, in my opinion, capture you and take you somewhere new and interesting, not somewhere mundane and average. If you are the type of person who enjoys reading "slice of life" portraits of the obvious and average, then this is your book. If, however, you thrive on characterization and plot, then this book is definitely not worth your time. (I cannot in all good conscience give this book less than three stars because Richard Ford is obviously a good writer. However, if I were to base my rating on the pleasure of the read alone, I would give it only two stars.)
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant internal monologue
Review: I agree with the reviewer (...) who raved about Richard Poe's brilliant reading of an unabridged, audio version of this book. Having read many of the divergent opinions listed here by Amazon readers, and remembering some of my own struggles to read authors like Tim Parks (whose narrators internalize much of the story and who digress often), it occurs to me that perhaps this story is better enjoyed on tape. I couldn't wait to get in my car every day and listen to Poe's witty, heart-felt rendition of Ford's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Independence Day is essentially an internal monologue, set on the long July 4th weekend of 1988. It is a sequel to Ford's earlier novel The Sportswriter, which I have yet to read, but I never got the impression I was missing anything due to lack of familiarity with the earlier novel. The protagonist is Frank Bascombe, a divorced, well-educated former sportswriter who now makes his living selling real estate in the affluent New Jersey town of Haddam, while supplementing his earnings with a couple of rental properties he owns in the town's African American neighborhood. Bascombe is at something of a mid-life crisis. We learn that he has lost a son, and while he has been divorced from his wife for years, he still has feelings for her and secretly hopes for a reconciliation. At the same time, he is seen carrying on a half-hearted affair with a presumed widow whose husband left years earlier and never came back. Bascombe has planned to spend the long weekend with his troubled teenage son Paul, who is apparently battling some sort of mental illness or depression; for some unknown reason Bascombe decides to pick up his son in Connecticut, and drive to the basketball and baseball halls of fame in Springfield, Mass. and Cooperstown, N.Y. Although quite a bit happens over the course of the three days, the novel is not necessarily plot-driven, and after you finish reading it (or better yet listening) you don't remember what happened nearly as much as you remember the characters themselves. In that respect it reminded me a little of a book like Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool, which I loved, although I now remember few details of the story. Frank's uneasy alliance with Paul, his guilt over taking him and not his sister away for the weekend, and his struggles to maintain his sanity over a long, stressful weekend were classic and very richly drawn by Ford. We learn Frank's thoughts at every turn, whenever he confronts another character, and at times the thoughts are brilliant, sad, funny or all of the above. For example, while trying to give his disinterested son a civics lesson on the meaning of Independence Day, Paul feigns confusion and asks a question or two, which the narrator Frank knows were really meant to mock him. Paul delights at ridiculing the hall of fame during the trip, while narrator Frank tries to keep up appearances and generate enthusiasm for displays like "Bob Lanier's shoes" while leafing through the color brochures. There is an undercurrent of sadness and tragedy in the book, including Frank's own lost child and divorce, the earlier murder of another realtor at Bascombe's office, and even the death years earlier of a family pet in an accident, which still troubles Paul. However the novel has an upbeat tone about it, as if Frank has benefitted from therapy and is destined to look on the bright side even as other characters accuse him of being hard and uncaring. There is also plenty of humor in the book, made all the funnier by narrator Poe's excellent renditions of the character voices. Frank tries desperately to sell a house to a picky Vermont couple, and his partner in a strange "birch beer" and hot dog stand remains vigilant with his shotgun, ready to blast some suspicious Mexicans who he believes want to rob him. All in all, the book has a voice which I found refreshing and amazingly true-to-life, with observations and asides that often had me laughing out loud or shaking my head at their poignant truth. I don't know from experience what thoughts abound in the head of a middle aged, divorced father who is estranged from his kids and who desperately wants to connect with them before it is too late, but I suspect Ford, in writing this book, got them exactly right. I recommend it highly, especially the audio version narrated by Richard Poe.
Rating: 
Summary: Booooorrrrrring!
Review: I got on the Pulitzer prize winning book kick after reading the unbelievably wonderful "The Confederacy of Dunces." "Independence Day" has just ended that kick. I managed to get all the way through it - but found "blah blah blah" resounding in my head through much of the narrative. Imagine your most boring relative telling you the same story over and over and over like their opinion on everything is so deep that you should be in awe. Now imagine you paid them to tell it to you...egads...there you have my opinion of this book. Great for insomnia.
Rating: 
Summary: A struggle to read!
Review: I have no doubt that Richard Ford is a writer of talent, indeed the skill of the storyteller emerges at intervals throughout this novel, but that was not enough to either engage me as a reader or ultimately to convince me to like the book, it's characters or it's plot. Independence Day won the 1995 Pultizer Prize for fiction and although most of the reviews listed on Amazon would suggest that the award is justified, I do struggle to agree with that analysis. The plot, although I would contest that definition, is contained within three days of the life of Frank Bascombe, a forty something, divorced real estate agent as he attempts to take his son on a holiday. To fill in some of the spaces Ford gives us a great many philosophical ramblings. Herein lies my problem with Independence Day. I have no objection to philosophy, indeed I was confused by it on a regular basis while at University. However, my main motivation for reading a novel, any novel is to be entertained. That can be through sheer enjoyment, through struggling with the challenge of the ideas (including philosophical ideas) through humour, through frustration and anger and so on. Independence Day provided no trigger at all to stimulate an emotion on any level barring that of boredom. Consequently the book for me, and I'm aware that here I am in the minority, is contrived, repetitive, at times shallow with the pretence of a deep and meaningful statement. I was unable to invest in any of the characters and thus did not care what happened to them during the course of the novel. Ford has the reputation of a good writer but I feel with this novel he goes to great lengths to convince us that he deserves that title.
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd installment of the life and times of Frank Bascombe.
Review: I liked this book, which is written in the first person, despite not liking the main character. This book is a sequel to `The Sportswriter' which was a breakthrough for Richard Ford. I haven't read the first book yet, but this one takes up with Frank planning a 4th July trip with his son, who lives with his ex-wife and her new husband in another state.
The book works through a series of thoughts, reminiscences and rather mundane activities which Frank goes through before and during the weekend. Through his preparations we get a view of Franks life being an " Existence Perid", neither particularly happy nor sad, without a clear purpose. His relationship with his colleagues and clients - he is now a realtor - is, in my view, the best part of the book. The dialogue with his ex-wife and new girlfriend is extremely good, and the general craft of the book - to sustain a descriptive novel, which details ordinary events, in a monologue - is excellent. The story takes many different turns, some related, some incidental but somehow never lags. Strangely, as Frank's major purpose is to spend some time with his son, I felt the son's character and the dialogue between Father and Son, were brittle, hollow, superficial. Perhaps this was intentional, but I got no great feeling of any credible relationship between the characters.
Overall an excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: 2nd installment of the life and times of Frank Bascombe.
Review: I liked this book, which is written in the first person, despite not liking the main character. This book is a sequel to 'The Sportswriter' which was a breakthrough for Richard Ford. I haven't read the first book yet, but this one takes up with Frank planning a 4th July trip with his son, who lives with his ex-wife and her new husband in another state.
The book works through a series of thoughts, reminiscences and rather mundane activities which Frank goes through before and during the weekend. Through his preparations we get a view of Franks life being an " Existence Perid", neither particularly happy nor sad, without a clear purpose. His relationship with his colleagues and clients - he is now a realtor - is, in my view, the best part of the book. The dialogue with his ex-wife and new girlfriend is extremely good, and the general craft of the book - to sustain a descriptive novel, which details ordinary events, in a monologue - is excellent. The story takes many different turns, some related, some incidental but somehow never lags. Strangely, as Frank's major purpose is to spend some time with his son, I felt the son's character and the dialogue between Father and Son, were brittle, hollow, superficial. Perhaps this was intentional, but I got no great feeling of any credible relationship between the characters.
Overall an excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: An infuriating writing style
Review: I once had a plan to read every novel that has received the Pulitzer. After reading a few, I now realize what kind of book the Board loves: stories about American men past their prime and dealing with it. Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest. American Pastoral. And now Independence Day. I can't take it anymore. Plus, my goodness, the detail. Ford spends 50 pages on showing a house to a indecisive couple. Some masochists, ahem, readers, enjoy this writing style (e.g., Virginia Woolf), but I like stories that actually GO SOMEWHERE. So if you hated "Mrs. Dalloway", you'll hate Independence Day the way I did.
Rating:
Summary: Really good
Review: I read this book first in spanish, in Chile. I really enjoyed the story and the sense of humor. No doubt about it, one of the best writers today.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful mid life slice of America
Review: I read this book right after Rabbit at Rest and thought Ford did a better job inside the head of Frank Bascombe than Updike did. Frank is a middle aged Divorcee coming out of his "existence" period of keeping his head down and not making waves until independence day weekend pits him against his real estate clients, his kids, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, truckers and everyone else under the sun. Frank is a gem, wise, funny and just trying to get by until all of the above convince his that there may be more to living than just staying alive. A wonderful book and for a 30 something guy to look into a 40 something guys head.
Rating:
Summary: a huge bundle of literary cliches
Review: I really wanted to like this book, but I had to force myself through it, probably just because I paid for it. It is dreadful. It is massively overrated: the book is a bundle of literary cliches. Are we this desperate for good literature that we have to make believe this is acceptable? The dialogue is horrendous, no one, and I mean no one, speaks like these characters. Worst of all is that this book is like a first draft, there are so many stupid errors it is insulting. Very, very sloppy. And the plot, and nearly every line, is utterly predictable; I was left with the sense that I've seen all of this someplace before, and done much better the first time. You would be best not to waste time reading it.
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