Independence Day

Rating:
Summary: This won a Pulitzer?
Review: With 100 pages to go, I was thinking, "how's this guy going to pull a Pulitzer out of this one?". Having made the arduous trek through those pages, I still can't figure it out. How can this work stack up with past winners such as Breathing Lessons, Beloved, Ironweed, and many more? After finishing the book my immediate thought was that the award committee must be stacked with middle-aged, divorced white men with delusions of their physical attractiveness, and sexual prowess. I won't belabor the point. I think most of the reviews in the under 5 category summarize my feelings. Except for some college text books, I've never read a novel that disinterested me more

Rating:
Summary: A writer at the top of his craft
Review: Ford is an artist whose observations of life are so rich, deep and full that every page overflows with incredible ideas, humor, and warmth. Who can fail to identify with the protagonist Frank Bascombe during his period of existence. Beware - this book is thick and you will read every sentence - the perfect book for a long trip. Slow down and read something that will reward you on every page. Ford has been writing for 30 years and deserves the Putlizer he won

Rating:
Summary: I want to see a Michigan State grad do well, but . . . .
Review: I remember not caring much for The Sportswriter, but I committed to reading Independence Day largely because of its awards and many good reviews. What's the problem? Mainly, the book exhibits a sluggishness, probably resulting from Ford's interminable description of rather mundane places and events. And yes, the book does have a consistent tone, but for the reader the awful presence of that tone throughout makes each paragraph a renewed bout with depression and headache. Just learn to be brief, Richard. (E.Hara)

Rating:
Summary: Rings true
Review: I just finished reading "Independence Day" this morning, and my impression is that it rings very true to its locale and the people in it. Ford's description of the Markhams, mooning their way down the Taconic as they make their way toward Haddam, was brilliant. Their personal journey ends in a MOST surprising way! Day, place, and season were drawn so well that I found myself in the middle of East Coast summer whenever I dove back into the book. This is a very engaging portrait of one character, who offers his own portraits of many other characters throughout the book; the end result is an overview of modern America. I think I'll read this one again

Rating:
Summary: Baby-Boomer dross
Review: Ford's book falls in line with Updike's similar works about anaverage, pathetic man's noneventful journey through this everchanging,unfair life (of course, Updike's books were unusually focused on sex). Ford's book is self-absorbed and is written with a voice that is irrelevant to the vast majority of the American public. I began the book searching for the point, and I finished the book wondering why I wasted my time. No one cares anymore about the average boomer's midlife crisis, a man's ethno-centric observations, or the search for the meaning of life in this changing world. The book is out of touch and does not speak to the true problems of the day. Even if it were an insightful observation of modern living, which it is not, it misses the mark. The only explanation I can offer for this book receiving the Pulitzer is that the judges, like the author, are still seeking the meaning of life and self. Can we get better judges?!? For whatever reason, most people today are able to express their feelings. People today realize that their parents didn't "screw them up." Accept the past, and focus on the future. Live, enjoy life, observe, and thank God for the journey. Anthony G. Buzbee

Rating:
Summary: An accurate insight into middle-aged American males.
Review: Frank Bascombe is not a hero. He is a typical middle-aged American male, and Ford's ability to convey the thoughts and feelings of such men is uncanny. In my opinion, the only other writer to come this close to describing the thoughts of males experiencing "mid-life crisis" is John Updike in his prize winning "Rabbit Is Rich." The prose of Ford is gentle, his style easy, and his story line a joy to read. However, this book is a wonderful psychological study of middle age, American males, and the questions of mid-life. Read this book, but take your time. Frank Bascombe is not a great man, but he is a real man worth understanding

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly bad excuse for a sequel
Review: After reading the authors first book, I just could not read this one. I was very dissapointed. One character dominates the whole story line whereas the other characters are just nobody's. I would not really recommend this book for anyone to read unless you are going of somewhere and have nothing to do

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally threadbare account of a non-pivotal moment.
Review: The book lacks any of the richness we associate with fine novels.One character dominates the book, and everyone else is filtered through his self deluded know-all understand- all sensibility. The great moment which is supposed to signal the end of Frank's existence period is underwhelming. Some good descriptions of small-town ambience may be the best part of what is otherwise the portrait of a remarkably passive and uninteresting person. There had better be a better novel on contemporary life being written out there

Rating:
Summary: The Art of Being O.K.
Review: In Independence Day, Richard Ford chronicles with consummate skill a few days in the life of a New Jersey sportswriter turned real estate agent, Frank Bascombe. With keen observations, outstanding descriptive power and dialogue more real than "The Real World," Ford pulls the strings of this great book masterfully. Frank is in the midst of what he calls "The Existence Period," a time when he has come to terms with his life to date and moved on to the more uncharted waters of vaguely contented middle-agedom. He has arrived at a crossroads where he has plenty of past but still a lot of future left ahead. The novel's narrative flows like life itself - forward, back, sideways - in a way that is so natural and consuming that you would swear the character is you and his thoughts are yours. There is not a book that I have read that does better justice to the realities of being human and adult in today's world. At its heart, Independence Day is the recording of two worlds- the one we sense through our bodies and the one that exists in our heads - and how these two interact in a way that is sometimes painful, sometimes beautiful, and most times just O.K. To read it is to see yourself, and in many ways, all of us. A must.

Rating:
Summary: Ford & other modern Southerners
Review: As a student of Southern literature and an avid connoisseur of contemporary fiction in general, I get really frustrated with the neo-Gothic cliches that recur in my beloved native voice -- faux-Faulknerian tomes dealing with faux-Faulknerian themes. (Or bad Flannery O'Connor, which, believe it or not, is worse.) Richard Ford, whom I discovered at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi (the SECOND greatest bookstore in the world :), is a clear and graceful antidote for all that doomed-family drama most writers seem content to keep recycling down here. Ford and his generation (Bobbie Ann Mason, Jayne Ann Phillips, Vicki Covington, Madison Smartt Bell, Larry Brown, Harry Crews, Kaye Gibbons, & others) will be the salvation of Southern literature. That old dog has some life in him yet.