Let Me Be Frank With You: A Frank Bascombe Book (Frank Bascombe Stories) - Softcover

Ford, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408853493 ISBN 13: 9781408853498

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

In his trio of bestselling novels - The Sportswriter, Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner-winning Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land - Richard Ford set out the zeitgeist of an entire generation, through the divining and wit of his now-famous literary chronicler, Frank Bascombe, one of the most indelible, provocative and anticipated characters in modern American literature. In Let Me Be Frank With You, Ford returns with four deftly linked Christmas stories narrated by the iconic Bascombe. Now sixty-eight, Frank resides again in the New Jersey suburb of Haddam, and has thrived - seemingly but not utterly - amidst the devastations of Hurricane Sandy. The desolations of Sandy, which left houses, shorelines and countless lives unmoored and flattened, are the perfect backdrop and touchstone for Ford - and Bascombe. With a flawless comedic sensibility and unblinking intelligence, these stories range over the full complement of universal subjects: ageing, race, loss, faith, marriage, the real estate debacle - the tumult of the world we live in. Through Bascombe - funny, profane, touching, wise, often inappropriate - we share the aspirations and sorrows, longings, achievements and failings of American life in the morning of the new century. With his trademark candour and brimming wit, Richard Ford brings Bascombe back in all his imperfect glory to say (often hilariously) what all of us are thinking but few will voice aloud.

About this title

Review:

Frank Bascombe, the protagonist of The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land, continues to reflect on the meaning of existence in these four absorbing, funny, and often profound novellas. The collection is set in New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, in the weeks leading up to Christmas 2012. Frank considers the evanescence of life as he travels to the site of his former home on the shore; has an unsettling experience with a black woman whose family once lived in his present home in fictional Haddam; visits his prickly ex-wife, who is suffering from Parkinson's, in an extended-care institution; and meets a dying former friend. At 68, Frank feels "old"; his bout with prostate cancer has convinced him that he's in the "Default Period of life." Intimations of mortality ("the bad closing in") permeate his musings, recounted in an unadorned, profane, vernacular that conveys his witty, cynical voice. Frank's cranky comments and free-flowing meditations about current social and political events are slyly juxtaposed with references to Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Trollope, Emerson, Milton, and others. Despite Frank's dyspeptic outlook, Ford packs in a surprising amount of affirmation and redemption. Readers who met Frank in Ford's earlier novels will quickly reconnect with his indelible personality. Source: Publishers Weekly Published On: 2014-08-18

From the Author:

Richard Ford is the author of the Bascombe novels, which include The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Daythe first novel to win the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Awardand The Lay of the Land, as well as the short story collections Rock Springs and A Multitude of Sins, which contain many widely anthologized stories. He lives in Boothbay, Maine, with his wife, Kristina Ford.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1408853493
• ISBN 13: 9781408853498
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256