Synopses & Reviews
A brilliant new work that returns Richard Ford to the hallowed territory that sealed his reputation as an American master: the world of Frank Bascombe, and the landscape of his celebrated novels
The Sportswriter, the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner winning
Independence Day, and
The Lay of the Land.In his trio of world-acclaimed novels portraying the life of an entire American generation, Richard Ford has imagined one of the most indelible and widely discussed characters in modern literature, Frank Bascombe. Through Bascombe — protean, funny, profane, wise, often inappropriate — we've witnessed the aspirations, sorrows, longings, achievements and failings of an American life in the twilight of the twentieth century.
Now, in Let Me Be Frank with You, Ford reinvents Bascombe in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. In four richly luminous narratives, Bascombe (and Ford) attempts to reconcile, interpret and console a world undone by calamity. It is a moving and wondrous and extremely funny odyssey through the America we live in at this moment. Ford is here again working with the maturity and brilliance of a writer at the absolute height of his powers.
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....Readers who met Frank in Fords earlier novels will quickly reconnect with his indelible personality.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Ford is celebrated for his Frank Bascombe novels — stories swirling around the life of a middle-aged real estate agent. His profession lends itself to Ford's rich descriptions of natural land. Here, Ford places Bascombe in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.” Huffington Post, Best Books for Fall 2014
Review
“The American master returns with another dispatch from Frank Bascombe.” San Antonio Express-News
Review
“… caustically hilarious, warmly philosophical, and emotionally lush.…In each neatly linked tale, Frank ruminates misanthropically, wittily, and wisely about love, family, friendship, race, politics, and the mystery of the self.…Like Frank, Ford, certainly is incisively frank, forensically observant, and covertly tender.” Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
Richard Ford is the author of the Bascombe novels, which include The Sportswriter and its sequels — Independence Day, the first novel to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and The Lay of the Land — as well as the New York Times bestselling novel Canada and 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.