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The Lay of the Land (Frank Bascombe #3)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 1,830 ratings · 259 reviews

With The Sportswriter, in 1985, Richard Ford began a cycle of novels that ten years later – after Independence Day won both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award – was hailed by The Times of London as “an extraordinary epic [that] is nothing less than the story of the twentieth century itself.”

Frank Bascombe’s story resumes, in the fall of 2000, with the presidenti...more

Paperback, 496 pages

Published July 24th 2007 by Vintage Canada (first published 2006)

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Oct 01, 2009 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

4 1/2 stars, if I could.

I've said many times I don't really believe in the entity called the Great American Novel, but if I did, this book would certainly qualify. It's wonderfully written (though exhausting at times with all the details, but trust the author, they all serve a purpose), chuckle-out loud funny at other times and even heartbreaking in a completely non-sentimental way, while giving such insights into man, a man and the American way of life, warts and all.

I read the first two Bascom...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, part-of-a-set

I'd like to buy Richard Ford a drink. In honor of Frank Bascombe, I'd like to make it an old fashioned.

I first read Richard Ford when I was far too young to appreciate him--I think I stumbled across "Independence Day" in late elementary school. I was glad to revisit him at the beach this summer.

In terms of logistics, "The Lay of the Land" is the third in a set of novels about Frank Bascombe's life (Who is he, you ask? A modern-day self-deprecating Renaissance man of a sort). The first two, "Th...more

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Oct 15, 2007 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who like internal monologues

This was recommended by Lex Runciman, my English professor, in his blog Far Corner Reader, so it's not a huge surprise that it reminds me of the types of books that I often read in college: the kind that I don't get as much out of unless I'm reading it with twenty other people and having thrice-weekly discussions. I'm sure that there's some sort of theme here about growing old, life in America, and stuff like that, but to me, it's just the story of Frank Bascombe, a divorced prostate-cancer-surv...more

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May 01, 2013 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know what took me so long to get around to reading the Frank Bascombe books, but I wish I had earlier. While I was slowly wading through "Lay of the Land" (partly because it's very long and partly because Ford has said that this was the last Bascombe book, so I didn't really want it to end), a number of people asked me what the Bascombe books are about. Well... it's about all that stuff that has been established in the last 50 years as the stuff that you give people literary awards for....more I don't know what took me so long to get around to reading the Frank Bascombe books, but I wish I had earlier. While I was slowly wading through "Lay of the Land" (partly because it's very long and partly because Ford has said that this was the last Bascombe book, so I didn't really want it to end), a number of people asked me what the Bascombe books are about. Well... it's about all that stuff that has been established in the last 50 years as the stuff that you give people literary awards for. It's a book about a white guy who gets married and divorced, raises some delightfully screwed up children, tries to be a novelist and settles for becoming a sportwriter, burns out on that and becomes a real estate agent, and basically navigates a life that's always teetering between perfection and complete disaster. Written over 20 years each book covers a few days of Frank's life when something disastrous is about to happen to him. Over the course of the trilogy Frank seems to confront tragedy after tragedy, yet ultimately seems to land on his feet. Not in the way where everyone learns a lesson and their life is magically fixed, but in the way that real life tends to work out for the better. Frank's marriage implodes, but he manages to handle divorce quite well. He burns through three careers, but ultimately is financially quite stable and in a job that suits him well. His kids are a bit twisted, but in the same ways many of us are twisted. And throughout everything is narrated by Frank's voice, which is funny, world weary, clever and honest.

So why read a bunch of Richard Ford books that seem to be about the same stuff that Philip Roth books and John Updike books are about? The Ford books are phenomenal, for one thing. In turns they're dark and funny. You don't only follow Bascombe, his family, and his career, but also the world that Bascombe lives in: specifically a fictionalized New Jersey that stands in for American suburbia/exurbia. You also get a view of late 20th century American history. Each book is set a few years before it was published which allows Bascombe to experience the affairs of the day ad they happen even though we the readers know the outcomes. In a way, 9/11 and its aftermath hovers as a shadow over The Lay of the Land- set in Thanksgiving week in the year 2000 (but published in 2006), Frank spends a lot of time despairing over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election and Bush's victory over Gore. As a reader you can't help but think "if you only knew what comes next..."

In a talk at the Free Library of Philadelphia last year (and probably elsewhere), Ford vehemently insisted that even though he had some more Bascombe notes hiding in his freezer, The Lay of the Land was the last of the Bascombe books. Things change quickly, because last night he read a new Bascombe story at the 92nd St Y- http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2.... I hope that Ford is hiding some more Bascombe ideas in the back of his head. We've known Frank in his 30s, 40s and 50s, I'd love to see Frank in his 70s or 80s, confronting old age and being taken care of by his kids and riding out his most recent marriage while keeping up sociable relations with his first wife, and reflecting on the housing bubble, Hurricane Sandy, and post 9-11 America.(less)

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Feb 15, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A hard book to explain or even recommend in some ways, I actively disliked it for the first 50 pages, but once I settled into the rhythms of it, I came around to the idea that this is the most stylistically over the top naturalistic book I've ever read. Ford details every thought and action of Frank Bascombe for three days and it's often very funny, very acerbic and always stunningly written. The music might sometimes seem convoluted or even grating, but once you settle into it, you realize how...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Pris robichaud rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bittersweet Downshift In Life Expectations , 13 Nov 2006

"This novel showcases many of Mr. Ford's gifts: his ability to capture the nubby, variegated texture of ordinary life; his unerring ear for how ordinary people talk; his talent for conjuring up subsidiary characters with a handful of brilliant brushstrokes.
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times

Frank Bascombe, real estate manager, aka sportswriter and novelist is in the prime of his life. He is on what he describes as ""the permanent phase" of...more
Bittersweet Downshift In Life Expectations , 13 Nov 2006

"This novel showcases many of Mr. Ford's gifts: his ability to capture the nubby, variegated texture of ordinary life; his unerring ear for how ordinary people talk; his talent for conjuring up subsidiary characters with a handful of brilliant brushstrokes.
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times

Frank Bascombe, real estate manager, aka sportswriter and novelist is in the prime of his life. He is on what he describes as ""the permanent phase" of his life, the period when life "starts to look like a destination rather than a journey". He is 55, his second wife has left him for her first husband, he has prostate cancer, his daughter is moving from her lesbian phase to what exactly? His son has a girlfriend and wants a relationship with his father. But Paul, the son is overbearing and what was it that Frank did not give him? His first wife, Anne, calls and wants to start another relationship, But, do they really love each other? These and other life problems all emerge within three days of this 500 page novel.

These three days take place in 2000. I began to see the irony of Frank's thinking his life is going down a permanent road, when the election of Bush has just taken place. There is no peace in America or in Frank's life at this time. We find that events and tragedy's spring up around us at all times. Frank realizes he has fear for 'The Lay of the Land' in 2000, and, as we all know 9/11/2001 is just around the corner. We have the luxury of looking back as Frank tells his story.

Some parts of this novel are too limiting, the explosion in the local hospital and one of the police officers must question him as a suspect but that never occurs. His first wife has but a small part in the novel and it is confusing, but I wonder if her part is to explain that we are all looking for love and may be confused about where we will find it. The next door neighbors are strange and the final chapter leaves no explanation. people come and people go in these three days and we learn allot. Frank is a man that we feel some sympathy for but do we really like him? Yes, he has his faults, and I see some of mine in him. This is a book to ponder and re-read. Frank is wondering what his last days will be like, he wonders as he is ordering a complete Thanksgiving dinner that is organic and elite and is it edible.

I consider this book to be one of the best of the year. Like Cormac McCarthy's book, 'The Road' the other great book of this year. 'Lay of the Land' looks back to look at what has happened while "The Road" looks to the future so we can contemplate where we are.

"Yet while the melancholy settles in deeper this time, Bascombe remains what he always has been: a funny, kind and gentle man, a possessor, as one critic observed, of the "mysteriousness of the agreeable, nice person, harder to describe than the rake, miser or snob". Which is to say, he is not merely pleasant. Ford has kept Emerson in mind throughout: "Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none." Bascombe is willing to speak difficult truths and does so; but he doesn't enjoy it and says so. "
BRIAN McCLUSKEY, The Scotsman

Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-13-06
(less)

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Nov 24, 2008 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

OK. At the risk of sounding mawkish or, gasp, even worse, sentimental, I'd describe this book, along with the other two Frank Bascombe novels (less so The Sportswriter, even more so Independence Day) as: wonderful. I often tell people that reading them is like slipping into a warm bath or, more appropriately, a warm parka. They're comforting. Which is not to say they're light or feel-good. They're books you don't ever want to end (though if they didn't they would become quite tiresome, due to th...more OK. At the risk of sounding mawkish or, gasp, even worse, sentimental, I'd describe this book, along with the other two Frank Bascombe novels (less so The Sportswriter, even more so Independence Day) as: wonderful. I often tell people that reading them is like slipping into a warm bath or, more appropriately, a warm parka. They're comforting. Which is not to say they're light or feel-good. They're books you don't ever want to end (though if they didn't they would become quite tiresome, due to the narrator's proclivity for prolix analyzing).

Frank Bascombe is someone in whom you immediately place a lot of trust and respect, someone whose creator you really, really wish you could meet and have dinner with, not only because you assume he is quite similar to his character. (If you find yourself wishing writers like David Foster Wallace et al were your buddies while reading their work, Ford is more the sort of guy you wish were your dad.) Only you start to realize that all his (Frank's) philosophical surety is merely stuff he's concocted to cope with the fact that he can't seem to form any real connection with anyone and to convince himself that it's, in fact, better to just be self-reliant and, ultimately, alone. This doesn't work for anyone, though, and hence the novel(s)'s conflict. There's no real plot per se, aside from the events that take place over the course of three days (which, in the space of 485 pages of small type, is not much time), so the novel is comprised mostly of the informed, intelligent, etc. etc., yet flawed-because-they're-human musings of a man who's experienced whatever he's experienced up to this point.

The novel is suffused quite heavily with death. Someone told me they, after reading The Sportswriter, didn't like Richard Ford because he was "too depressing," which I simply don't buy, but I have found myself thinking twice about suggesting a book so death-obsessed to people like my dad or my soon-to-be father-in-law (who's name is also Frank). For me, the writing is, again, simply wonderful, a warm parka on a chilly night, so I couldn't feel anything but elated while reading it, but that's me.

There aren't any structural or linguistic tricks or gimmicks in this or any of the three novels, which makes them even more spectacular and inspirational (to a writer). It's extremely unpretentious, straightforward, and honest. The words have nothing but nothing to hide behind. I can't really recommend these three novels highly enough. I expected this book to last me through the Thanksgiving holiday (during which, coincidentally, it happened to take place), but I really just couldn't put it down and ended up, in a way unfortunately, reading the whole thing in a week.

If you find yourself dying slowly and painfully, reach for a copy of this or any of the Bascombe novels (if they're all within reach and you don't think you've got enough time to read the three, go for Independence Day). You'll realize (or, actually, you won't realize) about three or four pages in that you've forgotten completely about your imminent death, and instead will just be sitting there rapt and in absolute literary bliss. I'm not really joking.

If you're not dying, though, probably you should read the books anyway, and soon like now, because they're shit-hot good, and why wait. (less)

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Nov 13, 2007 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So we come to the third (and seemingly final) installment of Richard Ford's brilliant portrait of contemporary American adult life, as seen through the eyes of Ford's meditative everyman, Frank Bascombe.

I have spent a great deal of time now with Mr. Bascombe over the past few years, and in book time, we've passed nearly 20 years together. Here, I slipped so easily back into reading Frank's voice, it was like I was passing time with an old college buddy - someone I know, but only see every few y...more So we come to the third (and seemingly final) installment of Richard Ford's brilliant portrait of contemporary American adult life, as seen through the eyes of Ford's meditative everyman, Frank Bascombe.

I have spent a great deal of time now with Mr. Bascombe over the past few years, and in book time, we've passed nearly 20 years together. Here, I slipped so easily back into reading Frank's voice, it was like I was passing time with an old college buddy - someone I know, but only see every few years now. As in all three of the Bascombe novels, Frank's voice is just so damn absorbing, it's hard to imagine seeing the ever-expanding New Jersey suburban landscape through another set of eyes. Frank knows this place, and you never for a moment question his authority. Sometimes, he knows his surroundings so well, you find yourself saying, "ok, Frank, get on with it. We know that cafeteria serves some good meatloaf, but there's more story to tell..." He's also a great observer of character; Frank has the ability to pinpoint what makes someone unique in a recognizable, American-sounding way ('he looked like an old Division III linebacker' e.g.). If Frank Bascombe were a character in every single book I read, I would be happy. He's someone who, despite his propensity for pervasive self-analysis, is comforting. He's sure of himself and aware of the influence he has on the people around him.

Now, my criticisms have a lot to do with putting "The Lay of the Land" in the context of the other novels in this trilogy. The story here is the least engaging of the three, in my mind. Frank has entered what he dubs the "Permanent Period" of his life (which is a little restrictive, since we've already spent 450 pages with him undergoing his "Existence Period" in Independence Day.) He defines the Permanent Period rather broadly as life running a steady course until death intervenes. But Frank undergoes such enormous upheaval in these pages, it was hard for me to reconcile him having a "permanent" view of himself - his second wife leaves him, he develops cancer, his first wife expresses a desire to rekindle their decades old marriage and all the while he is trying to understand the strange adults that his two children are turning into. At points, Frank recognizes the tenuousness of the Permanent Period, but he never renounces it. In the end, I didn't buy into it the way I did the Existence Period.

My other big issue is that Frank is still plying his trade as a New Jersey real estate jockey. Sure, he's moved out to the Shore, away from the staid suburban life of Haddam, so the climate's a little different, but the volume of observations on real estate, housing, finance etc. etc., didn't stray far enough from the realm of the previous book to keep my interest from flagging at times. The book is structured around Frank driving all over the state, so there are times when he just doesn't get places fast enough. This was especially true at the beginning of the novel, which I thought was a real snoozer. The story gains a lot of speed when he hits on his family (esp. when wife 1 reappears, and we enter the backstory of wife 2's disappearance), and for the most part carries through to the end. The pacing, in places, felt off. The Bascombe novels have successively gained weight, which may reflect real life complexities, but does not serve the fictional purpose ideally, in my mind.

All in all, though, I love spending time with this character, hearing his commentary on contemporary American family life. He is wise without being overbearing, he is emotional without being false, and he is aware of his place in history, in league with so many of his fellow Americans, trying to hold it together in the face of life's continual adversity, waiting for those bursts of happiness along the way that make it worthwhile. (less)

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Sep 09, 2007 Alicia rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hate it when I read a book and can appreciate the good points of it but not really be able to identify with the characters or lose myself in the book. Richard Ford is a technically gifted author with a huge following of appreciative readers but I have never been that enamoured of his writing. Perhaps it is because he so often explores "boomer angst" and I cannot really relate to it.

In this novel, realtor Frank Bascombe, previously appearing in Independence Day and The Sportswriter, finds that...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Lauren Cartwright added it · review of another edition

Horrible. Utterly and completely horrible. Some context for why I read all three books: I packed Ford's trilogy for a week-long trip to Paris - the only books in my bag, which were the only non-French books to be found. Aside from Ford's now very obvious formula of chapter after chapter of Bascombe's narcissistic ramblings combined with (no surprise!) yet another life-changing event about 60 pages from the end, what I disliked most about this book is a toss up between statements that could only...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Patrick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Note to authors: Please don't have a book with pages of introspective character thought, discussing the calm post-cancer mind, ruminating on relationship, and even name dropping philosophers alongside the WTF actions of somebody who has silly old-man brawls with fellow bar patrons, drops profanity in incogruous circumstances, and pretty much makes some of the most inane decisions of any "thoughtful" character in my reading experience. Lots of pages - lots of disconnect.

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Oct 30, 2009 Tim Boole added it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-good-list

Heebie Jeebies in the Permanent Period: This novel is about what it's like to be staring down the last third of your life when you're an upper-middle class, white, male American living on the east coast. You might be thinking that's a crowded piece of real estate, what with Philip Roth's [[ASIN:0307277712 Everyman]] and other works. Ford defends the property well and has a lot to say. My one complaint with the book is that he takes more room than he needs to say it. It's a thick book, and some p...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Phil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Richard Ford, and the Frank Bascombe trilogy should be required reading for anyone, particularly any man, born from 1940-1980. It hits home in a most recognizable way. It hits -- and pulls a punch -- in the exact same way our fathers and brothers, uncles and friends of the several-generations-older-than-Generation-Y probably do: emotionally, professionally, romantically, and parentally.

And Ford's writing is as fluid as a poet's, as ever.

Some people compare him to Raymond Carver, or John...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the third in a series, and I felt the precise same way about the first two books. I was reading an essay in conjunction to making my way through this book, and some of the quotes rang absolutely true and applicable to this sequence--from David Foster Wallace's essay on John Updike (in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays):

- "as his characters seemed to become more and more repllent, and without any corresponding sign that the author understood that they were repellent--I've continued to...more This is the third in a series, and I felt the precise same way about the first two books. I was reading an essay in conjunction to making my way through this book, and some of the quotes rang absolutely true and applicable to this sequence--from David Foster Wallace's essay on John Updike (in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays):

- "as his characters seemed to become more and more repllent, and without any corresponding sign that the author understood that they were repellent--I've continued to read Updike's novels and to admire the sheer gorgeousness of the descriptive prose."

- "It never occurs to [the protagonist], though, that the reason he's so unhappy is that he's an asshole."

Indeed, Frank Bascombe is one of the most asshole-ish of characters I've ever encountered. He's got that testosterone bombast that makes me constantly cringe, particularly his swings--for example, he celebrates his daughter's relationship with a woman, but then oogles her in the worst ways and uses the word "fag" frequently. Here's a passage that got me:

"In my view, there's at least one ideal person for all of us, and probably several. For men, these are the women who make you feel especially smart, that you're uniquely handsome in a way you yourself always believed you were, who bring out the best in you and, by some generosity or need in themselves, cause YOU to feel generous, clever, intuitive as hell about all sorts of things and successful in the world exactly the way you'd like to be. Pity the man who marries such a woman, since she'll eventually drive him crazy with undeserved approval and excessive, unwanted validations." (427)

This, from a man pining away at missing his wife Sally, who has possibly permanently left him for an ex who appeared from the swamps of the past and missing-considered-deadness, but also desiring every woman and trying to manipulate affairs at the most inopportune times.

This kind of incredible character is interesting, though for 500-ish pages, quite tiring, particularly when those pages really only cover two-and-a-half days of action (with divergences a-plenty, both into his past and his imagined future). If I remember correctly, and it's been a little while, the previous two, The Sportswriter and Independence Day, operated in a similar manner. And in many ways, it works. I didn't feel bored as a reader; I found myself actually wanting to return to the book to see how certain situations and relationships turned out. Ford's good at his writing, that is for certain. And I can't say if Ford--or Updike--themselves are actually as obnoxious as their characters (I have yet to read any Updike, though I have the Rabbit trilogy and Centaur a-waiting their turn in the queue), but I can say the quirky, fickle, pomposity of Bascombe is enough. In many ways, I feel hooked, as I've committed myself to three books, so if any more ever come, I'll probably read them. But this, along with the other two, are not remaining as permanent members of my personal library, and that's OK. I need the space for my feminist novelists.(less)

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May 07, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Richard Ford is an established, skilled, and prestigious writer who has won everything up to and including a Pulitzer, so I probably don’t have any business complaining about him. However, I’d like to kvetch a little anyway before I launch into my highly positive assessment of The Lay of the Land.

Ford is one of those writers (like, for example, McEwen and Ishiguro) who turns out books that modern literati love to dub “voice-driven” or “character-driven.” To me, out of step as I am, that often s...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard to give a novel packed with so much excellent prose less than four stars, so maybe three and a half is a better rating. My issue with this novel is not the trees, but the forest. Richard Ford's writing is compelling, lucid, and picturesque in a way few contemporary novelists achieve, and he's certainly painted a full panorama of the life of Frank Bascombe across three novels (I've read the last two), the sportswriter turned real estate agent, who endures post-middle age life in what he...more

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May 05, 2011 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of my dearest friends fell sick about a year ago just before we were scheduled to go up for our yearly Memorial Day visit. Since he wasn't feeling well, we decided to hold off for a bit and maybe come up later in the summer, but by later in the summer, he had discovered that he had cancer and decided it would be best to wait until he had gone through chemo. He got through chemo and after a bit got the prognosis, which was that he had mabye two years left if he went throught another round of...more One of my dearest friends fell sick about a year ago just before we were scheduled to go up for our yearly Memorial Day visit. Since he wasn't feeling well, we decided to hold off for a bit and maybe come up later in the summer, but by later in the summer, he had discovered that he had cancer and decided it would be best to wait until he had gone through chemo. He got through chemo and after a bit got the prognosis, which was that he had mabye two years left if he went throught another round of chemo--about a year if not. This was around late March or early April and we were still discussing us maybe coming up Memorial Day this year. Michael said that he sas tired, but woulld probably be up to a visit, but "lets wait a few weeks and see how I'm doing".

During March-April, I was reading this book, in which the main character has just disovered he has prostate cancer, has had the little radioactive pellets inserted, but doesnt know yet if they "took". Much of the book deals with his observations about his feelings of his current situation, including many of the expected comments on our mortality etc. I kept wanting to ask Michael if he had read the book, but wasnt sure if I wanted to spend too mcuh time on that subject as our conversations were pretty infrequent and he seemed to want to focus on lighter issues so I let hime take the lead most of the time and reveal to me as much or as little as he wanted about his cancer.

Two or three weeks went by after that conversation about maybe coming up, when I got a call from Diana, his ex. She was calling from Michael's phone, so I naturally thought it was him, but instead it was news that Michael had died about a week before--apparently just after we talked, he plummeted and was gone in a couple of weeks.

We went to his place for a memorial obvservation this last weekend (it's on Vancouver Island, so it was a very rushed and tiring trip which we made up and back in jsut over 48 hours--a trip I''ll always be grateful we made.

While in his living room I perused his bookshelvees as I always have done, and, sure enough, there was this book. His name and the date Jan 2010; about the time he first started feeling ill. I don't know if he ever readd it, but I suspect he did and wish I had brought up the subject so we could have had one last bit of book-talk.

So, on top of being a really good book, I have this other attachment to it...(less)

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Dec 15, 2009 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: serious-fiction, disappointment

Richard Ford is a victim of his own success. This book needed the hand of a good editor, and I suspect no one in Ford's orbit had the courage to tell him to cut mercilessly and just "get on with it." The slow pace is encumbered by excessive detail, long clause-upon-clause paragraphs, and repetitive musings by a tedious Frank Bascombe. Ford does an excellent job of fleshing out the time and place (roughly the last quarter of the 20th century, wherein New Jersey capitulated to suburban sprawl and...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Joe Fraser rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When you foolishly make a New Year’s resolution to read fifty-two books in fifty-two weeks, a pledge I foolishly made, Lay of the Land is so not the way to begin the marathon. This is not a book to race through, nor is it a book that will grab you by the lapels and pull you headlong from start to finish. No. It’s a book to be savored and enjoyed for what it is -- a character study and compelling portrait of America through one man’s eyes.

Lay of the Land is the third book in a trilogy about novel...more

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Dec 17, 2009 Ellie Desprez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love this book almost as much as I liked THE SPORTSWRITER, the first of Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe trilogy. Frank Bascombe is a grown-up Holden Caulfield--just as wry, humane, perceptive, funny and sad, just as bereft (or, if possible, more bereft, having lost, shortly before the first of the books, not a brother but a child). By the time we meet Frank again in THE LAY OF THE LAND, he is in his mid-fifties, selling houses instead of sportswriting, and is reckoning with the departure of his...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

I enjoyed this more the first time through, though it feels good to have read the trilogy in the right order and get a better understanding of things as a whole. Sure, the writing here is incredible, Ford is obviously top-notch and I'd say at the top of his game; after spending two novels with Bascombe he knows him incredibly well and can pretty much do and say/write anything. Which, the problem is, he basically does. Where Independence Day dragged a bit, it was in the service of really getting...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Not all of Richard Ford's readers share his fondness for monologues, introspection, and the mundane details of everyday life. To be sure, some found them fascinating and insightful, but others were decidedly turned off. Most felt Ford had gone slightly overboard with his decision to follow Frank from car to bar to bathroom. Also, critics regarded the series of mounting unfortunate circumstances as ranging from those hopelessly contrived to those luminously metaphorical. The book seems most appea

...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Joan Colby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did not like The Sportswriter, the first of the trilogy starring Frank Bascombe as it seemed forced and self-conscious, but I really liked this final novel which focuses on Frank at age 58, suffering from prostate cancer and running a real estate business while separated from his second wife, Sally. Either Ford matured as a writer or Frank did! What makes this book so good are the acute observations on every conceivable topic. Also, Frank, who in The Sportswriter seemed self-involved and morbi...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I decided to read Ford's trilogy because every male close to me loves Ford and I thought I had better get to know his work. I began The Sportswriter in August, 2012, and liked it very much, since the setting was familiar--central NJ, where I live, and, briefly, Detroit, MI, where I was born. The main character, Frank Bascombe, struggles with a dead son, a failed marriage, and trying to connect with his two surviving children, all during a few days surrounding Easter. Independence Day follows Fra...more I decided to read Ford's trilogy because every male close to me loves Ford and I thought I had better get to know his work. I began The Sportswriter in August, 2012, and liked it very much, since the setting was familiar--central NJ, where I live, and, briefly, Detroit, MI, where I was born. The main character, Frank Bascombe, struggles with a dead son, a failed marriage, and trying to connect with his two surviving children, all during a few days surrounding Easter. Independence Day follows Frank and his attempts to sell a house to a neurotic couple in Haddam, NJ, before spending a day with his troubled son visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame (a disappointment) and the Baseball Hall of Fame (disastrous). Frank's interior monologue revisiting the past tries to uncover some sort of meaning to his life, while he faces joys and obstacles facing him over a short period of days before a holiday.
In The Lay of the Land Frank has sold his house in Haddam (Princeton) and moved to Sea-Clift (Seaside Heights) to a house on the ocean. He bought a real estate agency and spends his time showing and selling shore properties. He has married his girlfriend from Independence Day, but she has recently left him after a bizarre discovery. So Frank is about to celebrate Thanksgiving, 2000, at his shore house with his Harvard-educated daughter and her new love interest, Thom, and his son Paul and his one-handed girlfriend who have driven in from Kansas City. Frank's passive, introspective nature are an interesting filter for the craziness that surrounds him in his suburban setting. His neighbors, angry at him for selling them a house they see as a mistake, suffer from lottery-winner syndrome. His favorite bar haunt during his post-divorce single days is now a lesbian fave. His Tibetan assistant makes an offer to buy him out. His ex-wife has moved into his former house in Haddam. All of these events conspire to upset his equilibrium.
It was difficult to read the descriptions of the barrier island which is so familiar to many of us in NJ, and which now is in tatters. I would love to read another Frank Bascombe novel where he deals with post G. W. Bush presidency, post Jersey Shore/Snookie, post-Hurricane Sandy, post-Newtown shootings in Sea-Clift, NJ.
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May 28, 2009 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this, the last in the trilogy, Frank is still the ever-thinking everyman, now age 55. He recently returned from the Mayo Clinic with less than full assurances, has seen his second wife leave him under odd circumstances, and has taken two steps forward and one step back (or is it one forward and two back?) with his first wife and their two grown kids. Frank has plenty to mull over. But then Ford offers up quite an assortment for readers to chew on, too.

1) Is there such a thing as a life too-w...more In this, the last in the trilogy, Frank is still the ever-thinking everyman, now age 55. He recently returned from the Mayo Clinic with less than full assurances, has seen his second wife leave him under odd circumstances, and has taken two steps forward and one step back (or is it one forward and two back?) with his first wife and their two grown kids. Frank has plenty to mull over. But then Ford offers up quite an assortment for readers to chew on, too.

1) Is there such a thing as a life too-well-examined? (Frank is as reflective as they come, but his insights are so interesting, we rarely begrudge him his self focus.)

2) Is the Permanent Period that Frank described himself to be in, "when few contrarian voices mutter doubts in your head, when the past seems more generic than specific, when life's a destination more than a journey and when who you feel yourself to be is pretty much how people will remember you once you've croaked -- in other words, when personal integration . . . is finally achieved," de rigueur around that age?

3) Is awareness of one’s own foibles a helpful step in dealing with them? (Frank is full of admissions like the following to fuel the debate: “It’s loony, of course, to think that by lowering expectations and keeping ambitions to a minimum we can ever avert the surprising and unwanted. Though the worst part, as I said, is that I’ve cluttered my immediate future with new-blooming dilemmas exactly like young people do when they’re feckless and thirty-three and too inexperienced to know better.”)

4) Are great writers like Ford just naturally better at dealing with deep, personal issues—things like Frank’s suppressed despair from a loss years ago? (This was a very effective scene made all the better by a rare show of emotion that Frank himself, in the first person account, didn’t see coming.)

5) Speaking of great writing, could this be Ford at the height of his powers? (All the prizes went to Independence Day, the second in the series, but I think the prose in this one is even better—-long and lush sentences, words flowing like music, acoustically pure.)

While I wouldn’t consider Frank a role model, he comes by his opinions honestly. Did I pay more attention because I’m getting close to his age? Is his search for meaning less clichéd for its lack of a spiritual basis? Does his contemplative inner life make him an island? He’s a complex character; these are questions to weigh with him in mind.

About two-thirds of the way into the book, it occurred to me that there was a lot Frank needed to wrap up before the trilogy’s end. I consciously slowed down so I wouldn’t miss any bit of how he did it. Five-star books like this give us data we should measure well to include in our eclectic samples.
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Sep 25, 2011 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Richard Ford returns to the story of Frank Bascombe, here of The Sportswriter and Independence Day, here in The Lay of the Land. Although there is more action than in the previous two, this is still primary a stream of consciousness rumination straight from Frank's brain to the page.

Frank is 55 now, in the part of life he refers to as "The Permanent Period," where you are sailing into the sunset, if not smoothly, then at least somewhat secure in the knowledge that you cannot mess everything up a...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Theresa Macphail rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Ford is one of the best writers of his - or any - generation. As the third in the Frank Bascombe series, The Lay of the Land is a wonderful bookend for the character. It is also a terrific examination of the transition from middle to "old" age and the various crises that one must pass through to reach some kind of tenuous "acceptance" of the facts of any particular life lived. I laughed out loud on practically every 5th page - a rare feat for any writer to accomplish. And I often found myself wo...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Hubert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: new-jersey, real-estate, fiction, sprawling-fiction-books, suburbia, cambridge-book-club

What a huge sprawling novel; I must say I have never read anything like this before. Frank Bascombe is a realtor at age 55 going through what he deems the "Permanent Period" of his life - diagnosed with cancer, on the verge of his second divorce, haunted by the memory of his deceased child (who passed away at age 9). On the way the reader acquires a detailed, often overwrought glimpse of contemporary American life during the recount election of 2000 (Bush v. Gore). At times, Ford uses contempora...more

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May 02, 2009 Trina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As I read this extremely long novel about two days in the life of a 55-year old man with health and marital problems, what kept me going was not the story, which is contorted like all our everydays are contorted, but the writing, which is masterful and as a result effortless and luminous. I am in awe of Richard Ford's skill. Still, I wouldn't recommend this to too many people, because I don't know how much my friends want to read musings on the late periods of one's life, chronic illness, death...more

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Feb 08, 2010 Jake Forbes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first read the Sportswriter at my dad's recommendation when he was the age that Frank is in The Lay of the Land. When I read the third book, I was the same age as Frank was in the first. Okay, those two sentences aren't exactly profound, but this amazing trilogy did help me understand my father's life perspective and gave context my own journey from youth into adulthood like nothing else I've ever read. Sometimes when I panic and worry about how important the decisions of the "now" are, these...more

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About Richard Ford

Richard Ford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories.
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“Our ex-wifes always harbour secrets about us that make them irresistable. Until, of course, we remember who we are and what we did and why we are not married anymore.” — 15 people liked it

“Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. Yor rareley miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences.” — 8 people liked it

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The Lay of the Land (Frank Bascombe #3)

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