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Finding John Irving: The Powells.com Interview

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:

rgippin, May 21, 2009 (view all comments by rgippin)
It deserves all the accolades and I intend to dive right into Independence Day and Lay of the Land, but I couldn't disagree more with the reviews that call Bascombe "heroic." And if I have any understanding of what Ford intended with the character, he must be grinning with ironic satisfaction at that characterization. Bascombe abandons everybody and everything to which he owes any obligation for the sake of his own equilibrium. That sort of narcissism definitely HAS passed for heroism in America, especially in the quarter-century of Reaganism in which the novels are set. Especially looking back from our new Obamist perch, I hope people will see the Bascombe of Sportswriter as a model of how NOT to live life.

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Mary Moore, June 6, 2007 (view all comments by Mary Moore)
This has been on my list to read for years, and now I wonder why I waited so long. So beautiful, but so sad as we watch as it all just turns to dust on our narrator. Made all the sadder by his continued insistence, that's he's OK, you're OK, we're all OK. Even when no one is.

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Sheera, April 5, 2006 (view all comments by Sheera)
One of my top ten favorite books.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780679762102

Publisher:

Vintage Books USA

Copyright:

1986