Rating: 
Summary: Richard Ford Has Friends in High Places!
Review: This was a Pulitzer Prize winner? It only goes to show you that in the world of books as in other fields it's not whether one is able to write, but who one knows in the world of book critics. This Richard Ford must have a lot of influential friends in all the right places.
Anyway, this first person account of three days in the life of Frank Bascombe of Haddam, NJ, details his thoughts.or observations of the people he encounters or has contact with during the 1986 Fourth of July long weekend. His examination of his former wife, her current marriage, his current girlfriend, his teenaged son, his daughter, and his stepbrother, and clients is a morass of tedium with only a few insightful universal truths, or humorous anecdotes. He reminisces occasionally and gives us glimpses of his boring past too.. What a dishrag of a character! I kept with the book because it had been awarded a Pulitzer and the book reviewers raved. I skipped and skimmed through descriptions... ad nauseum. It was work to finish this book. This guy, Frank, was such a passionless guy. He has been saddened by the death of a son and the break-up of his marriage. He can't seem to let go of his emotional attachment to his former wife, and if we are to believe it she likes to talk to him on the phone. Frank must be deliriously happy in 2001 with the advent of cellular phones. He could call and talk to hundreds of people that he doesn't really want to spend time with. A former sportswriter, Frank now meanders through his life selling and buying real estate. I found the fact that he was a Democrat a plus. Poor Richard Ford, if this long and tedious book about three days in July, 1986, was autobiographical. Simon Jackson's review made me laugh out loud, and was right on target as far as I am concerned. It took me a month to read Independence Day because I kept falling asleep in mid-sentence. I should have not wasted my time.
Rating: 
Summary: A suburban classic
Review: For those of you who have read Rand Johnson's wonderful Arcadia Falls, this equally entertaining book offers an interesting parallel. Both feature a direct writing style, middle-aged male protagonists, and suburban New Jersey settings. However, compared to Arcadia Falls, Independence Day offers a less sharply dramatic resolution to the problem of survival in the shadow of the millenium, one where resigned equanimity replaces active retreat into the fantasy of an idealized past. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: My fifth "reading"...eek
Review: I am on my fifth "reading" of Independence Day. To clarify:
I keep getting the Recorded Books, Inc. version out of the
library, read spectacularly, artfully, sympathetically,
sensitively by the great reader, Richard Poe. I identify with the reviewer below who said that his writing was influenced by this book. I keep wanting to hear Ford's
words, his rhythms, because they give rise to my own
"voice" and they are so natural.
I think I love books like this because they have a sort ofintimacy you don't get anywhere else. It's as if Frank Bascombe is confiding in you, and that is so charming.
Charming is the word for this book, and I am a sucker for
it. Can't get enough of it. It's my "book of choice" for life,
along with a handful of others. Thanks, Richard Ford, for
the gift I can only repay by striving to become a writer of integrity - and charm - myself.
Rating:
Summary: Boring.
Review: Yes, Richard Ford can construct a nice sentence and he has a fine command of the English language. However, if this book is an example of his story-telling abilities, he's missing the boat. Other reviewers have gone into depth, describing the plot and characters, why they liked or disliked them. I'm not interested enough to do that. Basically, this book was boring. I cared nothing about any of the characters and there was NO plot. So, unless you enjoy reading about a 40-something year-old-man who analyzes everything from the state of the real estate market, to a bus load of Canadians in a truck stop, don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: THIS FORD'S TOP OF THE LINE VEHICLE
Review: As an author with my first novel in initial release, I found myself influenced enough by Richard Ford's INDEPENDENCE DAY to set my first book to open on the Fourth of July. In my opinion, Ford's INDEPENDENCE DAY is the finest American novel of the nineties. In this work, Ford brings back his everyman, Frank Bascombe. As with Updike's Rabbit in RABBIT IS RICH, Frank has acquired wealth. He has quit sportswriting, and he is currently peddling real estate. Of course, his ex-wife is now married to a richer man, and Frank is still struggling to cope with his contemporary life. His friends, his lover, his business associates all play their parts in his life. As the holiday weekend approaches, Frank plans a trip with his son to the Hall of Fame, in the hope of helping his troubled boy straighten out. Events intervene, and Frank again finds himself fighting to cope with his role in this world. INDEPENDENCE DAY is Richard Ford's masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: You feel for the guy, but you don't understand him
Review: I read the Sportswriter, and thought it was a 4-star book. The sequel tells about the Independence Day weekend a few years later, when Frank Bascombe has settled more into his divorced life and has become a real estate agent. He is taking his son, who has been showing some troubling behavior, out for the weekend. But first you have to read a large bit where he tries to sell a house to an unhappy couple. Then about his relationship which he hasn't made up his mind up about. When the weekend with his son gets underway, Frank tries to get through to his son, but does not seem too bothered when things don't go smoothly. Although his thoughts are not, his actions are quite unlogical. I have had trouble with some other American writers more often, and maybe this is because they do not write in a captivating way (for me).
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: Ford's masterpiece. The life and times of one of the best characters in American fiction, written by a master. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Book for Grownups about a Grownup
Review: Richard Ford's INDEPENDENCE DAY, is a rich, leisurely, cool but generous book about a struggling, well-meaning man with a conscience. He's somebody we might actually know, as opposed to the really nasty, totally (to me) unrecognizable people who populate most modern novels.
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: Critic of my age
Review: This book was reminiscent of Saul Bellow's Herzog in terms of the amount of analytics. I doubt I would have finished Herzog if I hadn't read Humboldt's Gift first. I felt that Humboldt's Gift did a better job of with some of the same issues that Herzog dealt with. This book was much more accessible than Herzog. I particularly enjoyed the battle of wits with the Markham's. It spoke volumes on the way we manipulate and allow others to manipulate us. Frank knows that he's detached and overly analytical, but it's what makes him successful at his job. One part did not ring true for me. It's when the son asks his father if he remembers when he used to invent friends and have conversations with them. He seems to be having a problem with it all of a sudden. It gives the father the chance to tell his kid not to be a critic of his age. One should learn to accept things, and if you don't like the way things are, move on. Ironic, yes? --HAPS
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