Independence day / by Richard Ford.
Record details
- ISBN: 0679492658
- Physical Description: 451 p. ; 25 cm.
- Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : A.A. Knopf, 1995.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Real estate agents > New Jersey > Fiction. Fathers and sons > New Jersey > Fiction. Divorced men > New Jersey > Fiction. |
Genre: | Domestic fiction. |
Topic Heading: | Pulitzer Prize/Fiction - 1996 |
Available copies
- 26 of 26 copies available at Bibliomation.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 26 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ansonia Public Library | FIC FORD, RICHARD (Text) | 34045066887675 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Beekley Community Library - New Hartford | 813 FORD, R. (Text) | 32544063432594 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Bentley Memorial Library - Bolton | FIC FOR (Text)
Note: Pulitzer 1996
|
33160087334119 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Bethel Public Library | F FORD (Text) | 34030067012960 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Burnham Library - Bridgewater | FIC FORD (Text) | 36937000099359 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Chester Public Library | FOR (Text) | 33210000075826 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Deep River Public Library | F Ford (Text) | 36039000049961 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Edith Wheeler Memorial Library - Monroe | FIC FORD,R (Text) | 34026000594544 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Gunn Memorial Library - Washington | FIC FOR (Text) | 34055078484361 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Hall Memorial Library - Ellington | FORD, RICHARD (Text) | 34037067181042 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Electronic resources
- http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=197&titleID=243758
- Click to access digital title.
- http://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=197&titleID=243758
- Click to access digital title.
BookList Review
Independence Day
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
That the best-laid plans of mice and men soon go awry is a generalization made concrete in Ford's latest novel, which picks up the story of Frank Bascombe where it left off in a previous novel, The Sportswriter (1986). The time is now the late 1980s, and Frank, divorced, is no longer sportswriting but selling real estate. Within the time span of preparing and participating in a Fourth of July weekend, Frank tells us in excruciating detail about the Sisyphean boulders he has been forced to push uphill throughout his life: career, kids, ex-wife, current girlfriend, and the unpleasant people occupying his rental property. Frank's plan is to take his teenage son on the road over the Fourth to visit sports halls of fame, but, more significantly, to try to get the troubled youth somewhat straightened out. Fate intervenes in the form of an accident to his son's eye; the boy, as it turns out, will recover, but this is hardly the outing Frank had planned. But, then, as pessimistic Frank says at an earlier point in the book, "In two hours I have been suspected of being a priest, a shithead, and, now, a homo. I am apparently not getting my message across." Are any of us, for that matter? Ford has a large following, so this less-than-satisfying sequel is likely to generate demand (Reviewed May 15, 1995)0679492658Brad Hooper
Kirkus Review
Independence Day
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Ford follows his much-celebrated The Sportswriter (1986), picking up the story about six years later, as Frank Bascombe, now in his 40s, emerges from the midlife crisis depicted in the earlier book. No longer a writer of any kind, Frank sells real estate in Haddam, New Jersey, during the boom period of the `80s. His promise as a fiction writerstill dwelled upon at lengthcan be the only explanation for his compulsive introspection as a realtor, a job he endows with all sorts of metaphysical qualities. Also a landlord and local entrepreneur, Bascombe is proof that the overexamined life may not be worth living. (He can't do anything without chewing it over first in Ford's typically turgid prose.) But Bascombe's suburban existentialism is more pathological than philosophic, an excuse for his failures as father, husband, and lover. But he is quite convinced of his moral and intellectual superiority: He scorns the local country-club Republicans, considers himself a small-scale social engineer of higher purpose, and finds solace in the wisdom of Emerson. Ford punctuates the slow-moving non-events of this overly long narrative with bland recitations of historical bites, valiantly trying to invest this fiction with profound social overtones. In reality, though, for all his ``oracular'' abilities, Frank is mute when it comes to ``the intricate language of Love.'' He nearly blows a fine, post-bimbo relationship with a smart, sultry widow; and his ironic banter with his troubled son, who lives with his remarried mother, seems to hasten the odd teen's decline. Bascombe is part angry white male, and part new sensitive guy, but mostly just a smug fool, who lingers over every detail of his life with Harold Brodkey-style obsession. Humorless and full of sham insight (``We're all free agents''), though fans of the first installment will not be disappointed. (First printing of 50,000)
Library Journal Review
Independence Day
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Ford's PEN/Faulkner Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel makes a successful transition to audiobook format. This sequel to The Sportswriter (1986) continues the story of former sportswriter Frank Bascombe, divorced and now a realtor, who sees himself in the "existence period" of his life. He lacks direction and carries on an ambivalent relationship with his current girlfriend, Sally. Over the 1988 July 4th weekend, with the upcoming Bush-Dukakis presidential contest in the background, Frank takes his troubled son Paul on a trip to the basketball and baseball halls of fame, leading to a serious accident that forces Frank from the "existence period" and into changing his life. This work is richly detailed, witty, and filled with Frank's inner musings; reader Richard Poe's presentation is absolutely wonderful. Perhaps one of the best audio adaptations of a modern novel, this is highly recommended for all collections.ÃStephen L. Hupp, Urbana Univ., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
Independence Day
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Ford is the author now of five novels and a book of short stories, but he is probably best known for The Sportswriter (1988), widely praised as a realistic, compassionate and humorous view of American life as seen through the eyes of a highly intelligent and deeply involved observer. The man was Frank Bascombe of Haddan, N.J., and for those who came to see him as a new kind of American fiction icon, the good news is that he's back. Independence Day is an often poetic, sometimes searing, sometimes hilarious account of a few days around the Fourth of July in Bascombe's new life. Divorced, working with genuine enthusiasm and insight as a real estate salesman (not even John Updike has penetrated the working, commercial life of a contemporary American with such skill and empathy), embarked on a tentative new relationship with Sally, who lives by the sea, narrator Frank struggles through the long weekend with a mixture of courage, self-knowledge and utter foolishness that makes him a kind of 1980s Everyman. He desperately tries to find a new home for some brilliantly observed losers from Vermont, has some resentful exchanges with his former wife, takes a difficult teenage son on what might have been an idyllic pilgrimage to two sports Halls of Fame, bobs and weaves uneasily around Sally and, as the Fourth arrives, achieves a sort of low-key epiphany. This is a long, closely woven novel that, like life itself, is short on drama but dense with almost unconscious observations of the passing scene and reflections on fragmentary human encounters. In fact, if it were possible to write a Great American Novel of this time in our lives, this is what it would look like. Ford achieves astonishing effects on almost every page: atmospheric moments that recall James Agee, a sense of community as strong as those of the great Victorians and an almost Thurberesque grasp of the inanities and silent cruelties between people who are close. Even as a travel writer, evoking journeys through summertime Connecticut and New York, Ford makes his work glow. Perhaps the book's only fault is a technical one: that so many key conversations have to be carried out, in rather improbable length and complexity, on the phone. But it's difficult to imagine a better American novel appearing this year. First printing 50,000; simultaneous Random House Audio; author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved