The Lay of the Land: A Novel by Richard Ford Reviewed by James Campbell
Times Literary Supplement
"As he meanders towards the end of Part One of The Lay of the Land, Frank Bascombe asks, 'Why do so many things happen in cars? Are they the only interior life left?'. It is late at night, November 21, 2000, two days before Thanksgiving, and the narrator, like the reader, is coming to a halt after 200 pages of rumination, much of it hosted by Frank's spacious Chevrolet Suburban ? a vehicle that excites both admiration and resentment in his fellow citizens ? all of it conducted in the now familiar orchestration of list-making, back-pedalled self-contradiction, nudged cliché..." Read the entire Times Literary Supplement review.