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Independence Day: Bascombe Trilogy (Frank Bascombe #2)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 7,049 ratings · 389 reviews

The Pulitzer-Prize Winning novel for 1996.In this visionary sequel to The Sportswriter, Richard Ford deepens his portrait of one of the most unforgettable characters in American fiction, and in so doing gives us an indelible portrait of America.Frank Bascombe, in the aftermath of his divorce and the ruin of his career, has entered an "Existence Period," selling real estate...more

ebook, 464 pages

Published September 1st 2010 by Vintage (first published January 1st 1995)

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Nov 30, 2007 Paul rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Well, sometimes I have to wonder if I'm on the right planet. Never has a book been so praised - and by the right people - as this one and The Sportswriter - so I gave this one a go and found myself in a hot muggy sauna of smugness, breathing in the profoundly self-satisfied atmosphere of this guy Bascombe - self-satisfied in spite of failed marriages, bad relationship with son and all that, one of those deeply wise, mature, creased lived-in face type guys who you instinctively trust - sorry pal,...more

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Apr 19, 2011 Jonathan Francisco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first saw this book during one of my religion classes in college. My seatmate, who is now a good friend of mine, brought it with him. I asked him if a certain movie was adapted from the book, and he firmly answered "no". This was also the first time I got interested with books that have won the Pulitzer. Now Ford is, no doubt, a good writer. I love every minute Bascombe spent with his son. I can feel the tension between them, and Bascombe's want to make it work, the relationship. It saddened m...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Lauren Cartwright rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Glutten for punishment that I am, after reading (and strongly disliking!) Ford's first Bascombe novel I soldiered on with the hope that "Independence Day" was, indeed, worthy of the Pulitzer Prize. After just a few chapters I realized that Ford had a formula: several chapters of Bascombe's narcissistic ramblings coupled with (surprise!) a life-changing event that shocks Bascombe into engaging with his family and the world around him about 60 pages from the end. I'm not on the Pulitzer panel, but...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Devon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eh. I'm torn about this book. There's no denying Ford is a good writer but I never really connected to the story. I just didn't feel much of anything for any of the characters, they all felt flat and one dimensional despite the overwhelming amount of detail he writes about them. This novel is like a song that is technically perfect but fails to inspire any real feeling.

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Aug 04, 2011 Angus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-and-blogged, pulitzer-prize

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Intro

Back in my college freshman years, I brought my copy of this book to one of my classes. Our instructor arrived earlier than usual. We had a little chitchat, and he made a little comment on the book that was on my armchair. He said that the movie was great. I looked at him with utter confusion. Then he mentioned Will Smith.

So he was talking about a different movie. I explained that they were different. The animation in his face flushed out. And my seatmate a...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Abraham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of Moby Dick, Don Delillo, Realism

Shelves: fiction

Really a Virtuoso performance. Ford, in this book does right what I have always felt that Delillo fails at, which is the endless and minute description of events exactly as they unfold from within the subjective consciousness of the protagonist. It's a technique which, in this case, renders the main character overwhelmingly human by virtue of the flood of details corresponding, in quality, quantity, and pace, with my own experience of how events unfold. Ford's artifice disappears under the flood...more

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Jan 29, 2008 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: realtors

Shelves: pulitzer, books-about-boring-assholes

So, I bought this book in California at the Westlake Village Library's "Book Nook", where my Grandmother has been a loyal volunteer for decades and takes me every time I visit --I think because she never remembers that she's already taken me there a million times before. And, believe it or not, I made it all the way to the end of the book only to realize that someone (probably the previous asshole owner) has ripped out the very last page. Who would do that?!!

You might think the suspense of not...more

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Jun 22, 2007 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

one of the few novels out there with academic cred that i really love, pulitzer winner independence day is technically a sequel to ford's the sportswriter, which i actually haven't read. our hero now a willy-lomanesque real estate agent, the story takes place over a poignant fourth of july weekend, as he and his son attempt to visit every sports hall of fame in their region, while fending off constant calls from ennui-riddled clients and angry ex-wives. sad, funny, thought-provoking, it's the ty...more

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May 13, 2007 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzerprizewinners

I received this book as a bday gift and really wondered if I would like it. I was heartened by the fact that it was a Pulitzer Prize winner, but I still wasn't sure how much I would enjoy reading about a divorced man starting a second career as a real estate agent!

In the end, I found the writing incredibly captivating. The uses of internal dialogue and everyday situations made each of the characters come to life. I found myself never really connecting to the main character, but still being fasc...more

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

I guess this 'dude lit.' (as opposed to 'chick lit.'. I think he nailed it with this book. Not as haunting (depressing?) as his other books. There are somepassages that made me laugh out loud.

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Jan 04, 2008 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More morose than his previous incarnation in the "Sportswriter," Frank Bascombe returns as the amazingly well-drawn protagonist with the incredibly compelling inner voice. He never quite connects with the people around him and is always to a degree dissembling to his friends and family. Only the reader understands his rich philosophies and the complex reactions he has to events as they unfold in his life. Kudos to Richard Ford for creating a character so real that I feel as if I've gained an int...more

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Sep 05, 2007 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'm already getting ready for the brickbats on this one, but after reading more than one glowing review of Richard Ford's work, I tackled this one first, and I found that I disliked the main character so much that no amount of storytelling finesse about real estate in New Jersey and other exigencies of modern life could change my mind. And in this case, I had the feeling that Ford is a lot like his central character, so that gave me the kind of bad taste that has just put me off him permanently....more

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Apr 14, 2013 Gina Rheault rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

A depressed REALTOR describes a modern, old roots New England town -- eerily similar to my own. Frank, a lost, self-absorbed, white guy going through the motions of life, walks us through three days on a holiday weekend. Independence Day is a very good book technically, in that it conveys a slice of life. I do get it. I feel it, a vapid suburban existence with all the trappings of 'success" but none of the soul. I get it, yes, thank you for reproducing it with words - wow that's craft, art, what...more A depressed REALTOR describes a modern, old roots New England town -- eerily similar to my own. Frank, a lost, self-absorbed, white guy going through the motions of life, walks us through three days on a holiday weekend. Independence Day is a very good book technically, in that it conveys a slice of life. I do get it. I feel it, a vapid suburban existence with all the trappings of 'success" but none of the soul. I get it, yes, thank you for reproducing it with words - wow that's craft, art, whatever. But I don't want it.

I want mystery and comedy, characters who transcend or who succumb to their problems both profound and trivial, rather than mire in them. I am interested in stories of true desperation and struggle, and not in the whining of a white guy living a straitened life, whose moment of passion arrives during his son’s medical emergency – a hit to the eye by a fast pitch baseball machine in a batting cage. Oh god. Even that is not a crisis of major proportions, though it become so in this book.

Depression sucks, and Frank is depressed, and thus a pain in the ass to be around. He has more than the rest of the world -- a roof over his head, lots of clean, cheap water, heat, electricity; kids he COULD love, talents he COULD use, a stable society in which he CAN do whatever the hell he pleases without fear of prison, torture, harassment. Depression is a waste of time, and so, no matter how good this book might be technically, I dumped Frank as a depressed fiction who I don't need or want in my life. No time to waste on Frank, sorry.

I don't accept that Frank represents suburban life or that Independence day is an accurate social portrait. To me, Frank represents Frank. And if he is more common than I believe it should be no wonder that religion has had such a revival; religion has feeling, and passion and depth compared to this guy's desperate, robotic, salesman success formulas. To me he is Willy Loman without the grave sin, without the passion. He is neither Everyman, nor a "typical" suburban guy. (less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Misha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, here are some more of my musings on fiction. It is probably
misdirected since your stated lack of interest. So, please excuse me.

I have finished listening to "Independence Day" by Richard Ford in the
car and on the run. The novel got the Pulitzer and a couple of other
awards in 1996 when it came out.

The novel is long, does not have that much action, as it covers about
four days of the protagonist, Frank Bascombe, before and on the
Independence Day of 1988. However, it moves at a steady
pace. Lis...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found The Sportswriter compelling, but found myself growing weary of Frank Bascombe in this continuation of his story. I suspect part of my response is that I am personally less interested in the real estate life than I am in the writing and university careers explored in the first novel. I do like Ford's use of careers as metaphors - in this novel, how a real estate agent helps people find places to rest their heads. Even though Bascombe feels disconnected from life, he is a kind of Holden Ca...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Max rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading The Sportswriter, I was beginning to tire of Frank Bascombe’s endless narcissistic pontifications. By the end of Independence Day I was thoroughly bored by them and him. Ford’s style makes you work a bit. The sentence structure is complex enough to make you read a number of the passages twice to get his point. Unfortunately the point is often repetitive and not worth much in the first place. Many reviewers commented that they could not like Frank Bascombe or that he was one dimensi...more After reading The Sportswriter, I was beginning to tire of Frank Bascombe’s endless narcissistic pontifications. By the end of Independence Day I was thoroughly bored by them and him. Ford’s style makes you work a bit. The sentence structure is complex enough to make you read a number of the passages twice to get his point. Unfortunately the point is often repetitive and not worth much in the first place. Many reviewers commented that they could not like Frank Bascombe or that he was one dimensional. Either would be OK if he had a thought provoking idea or at least a new twist you could take away, but that would be way beyond Frank’s plodding mind.

Ford in his introduction to the Everyman’s Library version of the Frank Bascombe novels refers to E. M. Forster’s proposition that fictional characters eschew “the incalculability of life”, which Ford interprets to mean that they should be, “as hard to predict and make generalizations about as the people we actually meet every day”. Yet in Frank Bascombe he has created a character as easy to predict and make generalizations about as any I have ever come across. Frank blandly accepts that the most mundane elements of life are his life, that this is good and the way it should be.

Frank repeatedly reflects on the impermanence of relationships and situations, which seems to be put forward as some deep insight. It is a common theme in literature and unremarkably presented here. Some reviewers made the comparison to Updike’s Harry Rabbit Angstrom. I read the four Rabbit novels and while I am not the hugest Updike fan, Harry was a far more genuine and “incalculable” character than Frank Bascombe. Harry had what I could actually imagine as a real life, experiencing and reacting in unpredictable ways to the ups and downs most of us go through. To those reviewers that find Frank Bascombe to be the kind of person they would like to know, I’d just say as the characters in the book found out – you could do better. Frank made no real friends in the book and he didn’t make a friend of me either.
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Aug 13, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this novel when I was about the same age as Ford's character, so it resonated with me maybe more so than anyone in a different stage of their life. His take on the New Jersey real estate market was spot on. He had obviously done some good research on that and had some knowledgeable sources to create a convincing backdrop for his narrative. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for my "Independence Day," that is, trying to create it, but parts of the process can be slow going. I have the sheer...more

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Mar 11, 2011 wally rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ford, richard, as there is the ole maddox or whatever his name is. no relation to chevy, i'm sure. ha! see, after signing up for goodreads back in sept of '10...or is that ought-ten?...or will that bring out the waco killers?...boggling over leggo-guns and a cheerleader w/a hunting rifle in the trunk of her car? call swat.

ha! because though i remember reading this book, and saying, right-on, bro! i couldn't for the life of me remember the title, much less the author of the piece, ford, richard.....more

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Oct 21, 2010 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Independence Day, written by Richard Ford, is a truly exceptional book that masterfully mimics a typical American’s lifestyle. In Independence Day, the main character, Frank Bascombe, is on a personal journey to discover his own identity after a painful divorce ended his previous marriage. Frank also faces the daunting task of trying to reconnect with his belligerent and mentally unstable son, Paul. Throughout the book, Richard Ford keeps readers hanging on the edge, by frustrating them through...more Independence Day, written by Richard Ford, is a truly exceptional book that masterfully mimics a typical American’s lifestyle. In Independence Day, the main character, Frank Bascombe, is on a personal journey to discover his own identity after a painful divorce ended his previous marriage. Frank also faces the daunting task of trying to reconnect with his belligerent and mentally unstable son, Paul. Throughout the book, Richard Ford keeps readers hanging on the edge, by frustrating them through Frank’s failure to recognize a crucial message, or by satisfying them through Frank’s step forward in his journey towards self-realization. Ford also adeptly uses cause and effect relationships to effectively illustrate the consequences of Frank Bascombe’s numerous decisions. These elements, along with many others, allow us readers to empathize with Frank, and also provide us with an opportunity to examine and develop insights in our own lives as well.
One of Richard Ford’s most powerful elements is the exact pace he uses to steer the plot. The plot moves forward in a slow, yet relentless tempo as Frank Bascombe searches for a way fill the void in his son’s life and remedy their relationship, while searching for his own identity in his chaotic life as well. This mellow pace effectively shows Frank Bascombe’s reluctance to abandon his sheltered lifestyle and adopt a more decisive attitude, because he fears that another event can ruin his life a second time. This pace also makes the story tremendously powerful by providing a steady pulsation fast enough to keep the plot moving, yet broad in such a manner that the reader agonizes at each of Frank Bascombe’s missed opportunities, and rejoices at each of his accomplishments. Richard Ford’s prose is so versatile that he is able use the pace of the novel to represent a building excitement, sorrow, and even the normalcy of life throughout the novel. His mastery of this technique truly makes Independence Day an especially powerful work.
Another brilliant element is the plot’s ability to captivate readers. Set in the late 1900’s, Frank Bascombe is on a journey to discover his own identity while attempting to reconcile differences with his son during their travels to the Hall of Fame. Frank was seeking to fill a void in his life, which was caused by a divorce, the death of his first son, and the distance growing between him and his second son. He was able to distance himself from his anguish by living life (which he dubbed the “Existence Period”) according to certain rules, and by working as a realtor, where he would lose himself in market trends rather than worry about his own personal trauma. However he soon realizes that he is still unhappy, and strives to find the reason for his discontent. Frank slowly learns more and more about himself through contacts with other characters, and on the Fourth of July, Independence Day, he is finally able to understand himself, and knows how to correct his faults. In the process, he was able to connect with his seemingly mentally unstable son, and was also able to secure a future in his romantic life. He transforms from a reserved, self-preserving individual to a confident, caring individual.
This story is so powerful because it allows one to empathize closely with Frank Bascombe. We can relate to the disasters that befell Frank, but the numerous events, piled one on top of the other, that plagued him cause us to truly sympathize and connect with him. We are able to sense Frank’s pain, when he is uncertain whether his remaining son is mentally ill or not. We can understand why Frank is always so careful in his decisions. Everything is so realistic that we feel that this could have happened to any one of us. Thus, being able to see Frank Bascombe set off on this personal journey, and seeing him evolve into a confident figure is very satisfying. Part of the joy in reading the book lies in how the book ties in so closely with our lifestyle, and how it can be understood as a lesson against a reserved and conservative outlook on life. Richard Ford rekindles the spark of hope inside all of us in this magnificent book, Independence Day. It is absolutely breathtaking to see such a story unfold.
Although this book was exceptionally well written, it still has some minor flaws. Richard Ford tends to be somewhat repetitive in his messages, which could cause some readers to feel bored throughout the book. It also condensed a plethora of events and realizations into a four-day span, which made some sections extremely dense and difficult to understand. However, these elements did not affect the overall plot of the story, nor did it lessen the strength and clarity of the message it addresses. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in literature in general.
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Apr 12, 2010 William rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, ye socks, yours truly has finally finished reading Richard Ford's prize-winning novel Independence Day.

Kinda appropriate given the recent holiday, no?

Well, as alluded to in a previous post, it took a lot of effort on my part to get thru this one.

Ford's writing is often disjointed. The best dialogues . . . even monologues . . . are delivered over the phone or answering machines.

It's very hard to like any of these characters.

What's harder to like is Ford's fawning over Ralph Waldo Emerson (1...more

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Aug 13, 2009 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Goodreads' rating scale is odd. Five stars denotes, "it was amazing," while four stars means I "really liked it." I didn't especially like this book at all, but it was amazing. The book covers three days, but it does so in what it is meant to feel like "real time." Virtually every thought the main character could have (and far more, realistically) is shared with us the reader. It's like going through events in slow motion with the luxury of near-hindsight.

The book is not enjoyable in that the m...more

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May 10, 2009 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Frank Bascombe realizes, living in his “Existence Period,” that “equilibrium is not progress.” I loved that. We are all always moving—are we not?—yet equilibrium is not progress.

Ford’s voice, through Bascombe’s narration, takes some getting used to; the gritty, disillusioned mid-aged man, coming to terms with an unfulfilling career, failed marriage, and a troubled son on the brink of estrangement. Bascombe calls to mind Updike’s Rabbit, and Phillip Roth’s arrogant, ultimately compromised “Swede....more

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Jun 30, 2009 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Frank Bascomb narrates one week-end in his life, as he pegs his "growing independence" and faces the realities of his life and his beliefs. The premise is revealed on page 5: "life is really what you have waiting for 'your life' to begin...." The second book of a trilogy, it stands independent of the others, and moves Frank out of his "existance" period where he accepted what life dealt, and into the possibility of now being able to shape, mold, change, and be "independent." If you are a believe...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Jacob rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I rarely find myself thinking "wow, I hated that book." Often times the last few sentences of a book I've struggled through make me seriously reconsider whether or not I actually disliked it at all. But I can confidently say that this is by far the most aggravating, pretentious and boring book I've ever read. The entire book is essentially monologue and inner-workings, which I'm typically more than happy with, but the stuff Ford presents fells absolutely contrived and ridiculous. The main charac...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Bill Eberle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are isolated moments of real insight here and it's a shame they're lost in such a meandering, pointless story. The book is strongest when it shows the impact that a realtor has on the lives of his clients -- something I hadn't really considered previously. The story of the Markhams, how the compromises they must make in settling for the home they can afford instead of the one they really want is a powerful metaphor for the lives of these two people, for the choices they've made and how the...more

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Jul 13, 2012 LB rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was not good. The core story is decent - Frank Bascombe, man in them middle of a life something tries to sell a house, visits his girlfriend, then drives to CT to pick his trouble making son up to spend the 4th of July weekend going to sports halls of fames. The front cover states that "Frank's Independence Day turns to not as he'd planned." That is what kept me reading the book - Unfortunately, that happens on page 361 of a 451 page book!!!

What goes on in the first 360 pages? Lots and...more

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Apr 24, 2009 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, pulitzer-prize-novel-fiction

Since 1997 or 1998, I have been reading all of the Pulitzer Prize winners in Novels or Fiction (they changed the name of the category in 1948, to allow for collections of short stories), in order. The last one I read was The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, which won the prize in 1995, and I read that book in May 2006; so I am way, way overdue for reading the 1996 winner, which is the present book. And, it took me a long, long time to read this book, as I started it back in January, or thereabout...more Since 1997 or 1998, I have been reading all of the Pulitzer Prize winners in Novels or Fiction (they changed the name of the category in 1948, to allow for collections of short stories), in order. The last one I read was The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, which won the prize in 1995, and I read that book in May 2006; so I am way, way overdue for reading the 1996 winner, which is the present book. And, it took me a long, long time to read this book, as I started it back in January, or thereabouts, and would only read a few pages at a time before going to do something else. However, on Saturday I re-started reading it, and ended up finishing the book today after lunch, after reaching a part I almost literally could not put down while reading while Richard was driving us home from work. (For those not wishing to go further, I did enjoy the book; not to say I loved it, but I enjoyed it.)

As the story opens, it is 6:00 am on Friday, July 1st, 1988, in Haddam, New Jersey, on Cleveland Street, where Frank Bascombe, once sportwriter but now realty agent, once married but now divorced (with his wife remarried, to an older, richer man), once with three kids but now with only two (and those two living with their mother), is contemplating his plans for the next few days; he plans to pick up the rent at one of the properties he owns, to show a house to a couple from Vermont (to whom he has shown some forty-five houses already), to make sure all is well at the hot-dog stand he manages, then to spend a few hours with his girlfriend (widowed; she had her husband declared dead after he returned from Vietnam and then disappeared) if not the night; and then to appear at his ex-wife’s new home in Connecticut to pick up his fifteen-year-old problem son (who has a court date on Tuesday, relative to shoplifting a box of Magnum prophylactics from a drugstore) to take him to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, then to spend Saturday night in Coopersville, New York, and to see the Baseball Hall of Fame there on Sunday before taking his son to meet his train in New York City on Sunday evening and returning home to greet the 4th of July back home in Haddam, New Jersey; and (since this is before the days of ubiquitious cell phones) to check his phone messages at every full stop.

With an exquisite use of detail (one could quite easily retrace every step that Frank takes, or drives, during the weekend, so as to be not only where he was, but when he was there at the same time, as he goes through four states in three days), the weekend turns out to be less, and yet more, than he had planned. We learn as he goes about his activities (and his phone calls, or attempted phone calls) about his ex-wife and their marriage, about her re-marriage three years after their divorce, about his son, about his girlfriend - in fact, about everything and everyone in his life with the significant exception of his dead son.

Frank is also living through what he calls “the Existence Period”, where one just drifts along doing whatever, in all areas of one’s life. (He apparently started selling real estate and showing houses to keep from going nuts, as he evidently does not need the money.) However, he has connections - his ex-wife, whom he is still deeply attached to, even though she indicated in the most positive way that she is no longer attached to him by getting re-married - his son - his girlfriend - and throughout most of the book, he seems to deal with them at one remove; that is, he is thinking about what he’s saying while he’s saying it, or even at two removes, in that he’s thinking about what he’s thinking about what he’s saying while he’s saying it. Unsurprisingly, this means that his relations with his ex, his girlfriend, and his son (not to mention with just about everyone else) is in trouble at the beginning of the book.

Eventually Frank and his problem fifteen-year-old son make it to Cooperstown on Sunday, July 3, 1988; and that’s where I couldn’t put the book down. So I think this is a worthy Pulitzer Prize book, and I did enjoy reading it; it gives a whole new meaning to the concept of Independence Day.(less)

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Nov 15, 2009 Lauren added it · review of another edition

I wouldn't recommend this book. I found it at a used-book store and picked it up because it won the Pulitzer Prize. Although I found a few things in it that will stay with me, overall I wish I had spent that time reading something else.

Frank, a middle-aged divorced real estate agent, spends a long Fourth of July weekend showing houses and taking his mentally/emotionally troubled 15-year old son on a road trip to the basketball and baseball halls of fame. If the book were actually distilled down...more I wouldn't recommend this book. I found it at a used-book store and picked it up because it won the Pulitzer Prize. Although I found a few things in it that will stay with me, overall I wish I had spent that time reading something else.

Frank, a middle-aged divorced real estate agent, spends a long Fourth of July weekend showing houses and taking his mentally/emotionally troubled 15-year old son on a road trip to the basketball and baseball halls of fame. If the book were actually distilled down to this plot, in action, I would have liked it a lot (and it would also be about 200 pages instead of 450.)

But instead we spend the vast majority of the book inside Frank's head as he drives around, for days, contemplating, philosophizing, ruminating, musing, reminiscing, pondering and brooding about his life and relationships so far. For some reason he also likes to provide us with all the intricate details of his journey, such as the names of every road, highway, turnpike and off-ramp he encounters along the way.

You may be thinking, "ruminations on life and relationships- but that sounds kind of interesting..."

No. Even the New York Times tells us that there are a lot of "unnecessary sides and digressions" in these books (this book is the second in a trilogy), and that the narrator can be "long winded" and "irritating".

But obviously they gave the book stellar reviews anyway, and it won the Pulitzer Prize and everything, so joking aside I would say it just depends on your affinity/tolerance for this kind of writing style, your patience level, and your willingness to skim if bored (I hate skimming. It causes me too much anxiety).

If you have all those qualities in greater amounts than I do, there are aspects of the book I really liked: there some very humorous moments, and all of the interactions between Frank and his son Paul and daughter Clarissa were great. I just spent too much of the book waiting for the good stuff to start and thinking about how much the book was annoying me.

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Jun 16, 2013 Kirsten rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, fiction, pulitzer

Sort of reads like the American Murakami to me, minus the magical realism stuff, in that the substance of the male character's life is deeply boring. Everything about Bascombe's 'Existence Period' smacks to me of the typical Murakami protagonist - hands in pocket, an emotional blank check, taking things as they come without much, if any, surprise. The only difference between protagonists is Ford's man is far less game.

Ford's Bascombe series is mundane, suburban, and (at the mention of my friend)...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Tuckova rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer

Short version: SAD WHITE MIDDLE-AGED DUDE. HOW UNIQUE AND SPECIAL.
Long version: I enjoyed the first part of this book. I liked the writing and the story he was telling about real estate and our complicated desires for home. Then he went to his girlfriend's house and it was pretty much downhill from there, because that is an inconsistent and unreliable narrator or a poor writer, and either way it wasn't fun anymore. The dialogues were so stilted and so awful that I couldn't relax into the book a...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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Trivia About Indépendance

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Quotes from Independence Day

“...the worst thing about regret is that it makes you duck the chance of new regret, just as you get a glimmer that nothing is worth doing unless it has the potential to fuck up your whole life.
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“Some idiotic things are well worth doing.” — 14 people liked it

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title link	preview: Independence Day: Bascombe Trilogy
avg rating	preview: Independence Day: Bascombe Trilogy Goodreads rating: 3.83 (7049 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9340403-independence-day?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360570877l/9340403.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9340403-independence-day?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Independence Day: Bascombe Trilogy by Richard Ford[/url]

Independence Day: Bascombe Trilogy (Frank Bascombe #2)

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