Independence Day

Richard Ford
Independence Day

Knopf, 1995

Frank Bascombe, the hero of the first book of the trilogy, returns in «Independence Day». Once a sports columnist and writer, he is now a realty agent, owner of three houses in Haddam, New Jersey, divorced and wants his eldest son Paul to live with him.

Paul is 15, he has some mental problems: he still has not recovered from the death of his brother. Paul barks like a dog, not sociable and tried to steal three packs of condoms from the shop, was arrested, had resisted arrest, and now awaits trial. Independence Day is approaching, and Frank plans to take his son with him on a trip to the basketball and baseball halls of fame and on the way to talk with his son and sort out his problems.

But before the start of the weekend, Frank has to solve several problems in Haddam, sell the house to an elderly couple from Vermont and check on hot dog stand, of which he is co-owner.

Frank Bascombe is a storyteller with a truly bloated ego. He is not part of the world, and in fact he’s the creator. For each topic, the narrator has his own opinion that he sees no reason to not share with you. Largely of of such considerations, and this vast novel consists. Frank Bascombe, as one can say, sits on the reader’s ear, you can not break away from his monologue. Ordinary things in the mouth of the narrator becomes extraordinary. Parade in honor of the holiday becomes a reason to speculate about the independence, car ride with the breeze through the state leads to thoughts about the state of small cities and residential areas, his own book, found on the shelf in café, will remind of the old days as a writer.

Ford gave his protagonist a perofession of a realty agent as a symbol of truly American profession. Bascombe sees in this kind of activity nothing distinctive: he in fact does not sell the houses, but only drives people around. People buy houses themselves. This almost freelance profession can free up time for the protagonist: he is free, communicates with people, hears and sees, keeps his nose to the wind - what he has to do, if not comment on life, his own and in general?

Of course, Ford doesn’t deprive us from sneacking into realtor’s kitchen. Although the details are not quite relevant (the action takes place in 1988).

The narrative here is floating aimlessly, geared for small events, usually quite humorous. Black old woman calls the police; Frank and the seller of the hot dog stand discuss the purchase of weapons; Frank flirts with a female chef; robbery and murder at a motel where Frank stops at night; Paul and even injury is described not so much as a tragedy as ironically - now ex-wife for sure will not let my son to live with me. The novel, like life, does not offer a coherent plot.

Ford’s skills of working at the macro and micro levels should be admired. He can talk about the state of real estate in the U.S., but at the same time, with interest can build a whole philosophy around a menu in cafe. One of Ford’s qualities is he knows how to say with the words that, in general, has no verbal equivalent.

Dialogues here also are deep and live, from jokes with his son to tough negotiations with former wife.

The novel is certainly not perfect: after the incident with Paul it loses some tension. The narrative becomes more viscous, the more that all the main points has been said, but you need to listent till the end.

Several plot points, in turn, are not justified. The murder of Bascombe’s colleague and former lover remains unsolved. Shooting at the motel also remains only the reason for conversation with the protagonist witness. But it can also be attributed to the unpredictability of life, something fires, and something don’t.

But it is always interesting to hear a great writer.

The Lay of the Land

Richard Ford
The Lay of the Land

Vintage, 2007

Richard Ford's novel is plotless, and the same is so full of events. The action of the book fits in three days of the life of the protagonist Frank Baskombe, but in those three days Frank manages to tell almost the whole story of his life. «The Lay of the Land» is 500-page monologue, 500 pages of mind of Frank. How one day in the life of man can be ordinary, so ordinary Ford makes it, but adding a few unusual episodes. Everyday life could ruin any book, but just not this one. It would seem that in any book there are moments that you simply browse through, there are lines that you miss, but in «The Lay of the Land» it is impossible to miss a word. This novel is like a song, really, words can’t be erased from here.

The novel takes place in autumn of 2000, Thanksgiving is nearing. Clinton left the White House, the whole world is in anticipation of the Millennium. The life of 55-year-old Frank Baskombe, the owner of real estate agency, is stuck, as he calls it, he is in "the Permanent Period". Ann, Frank's first wife, left him after the death of their son, Ralph, and then Frank married Sally Caldwell and moved to the town Sea-Clift that on the Jersey Shore. But after eight years of marriage, Sally is also moving away from our protagonist. Sally's first husband, Wally, once wandered away from home a few days after the wedding and went missing. He was not found nor alive nor dead, and Sally has long ceased to look for him, but one day Wally’d returned, after, it turned out, life in Scotland, and Sally once again reunited with Wally, leaving Frank.

Frank has two children, 27-year-old Paul, once a problem child who grew up in an eternal rebel and debater, and works in Kansas City as a "writer" of business cards, and 25-year-old Clarissa, bisexual, who is adoring father. Frank is waiting them both on Thanksgiving Day, as well as his first wife, Ann, though later he has regretted that he had called her.

Frank is also in limbo because of his health. He has prostate cancer, and he is being treated with radioactive substances.

From the first pages of the novel we see how Baskombe rides along the coast, carrying out his daily routine affairs. During the three days of life of Frank you’d know about it as much as if you had known him all his life. It seems like you ride with him in the passenger seat, listening to his monologue for three days. Baskombe, despite his position in society, despite his not too successful life, is hardly a type, he does not look like an ordinary Joe, he is a full-fledged character. He is witty, intelligent, kind, closed, decent, tolerant, but by the end of the third day you are not sure that Frank is such a good man, he is beginning to annoy you. He is perhaps too confident in his right, sometimes too cold.

Despite “the americanost” of the novel, the book is absolutely painless passed on to the rails of another country. This is not a universal story, but the universal language, the universality of the Ford’s gife, his hyper-detailed vision of the world. Ford makes a world of his novels not three-dimensional, but even four-dimensional.

The writer, who writes so smoothly and so multifaceted, must create such outstanding books as «The Lay of the Land».