Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Joe's first-person narrative beautifully reveals the melancholy and pain of the spectacle he observed and was compelled to involve himself in...and displays Ford's remarkable ability to capture distinctive voices....[H]is short, bittersweet fourth novel details how family strife is 'nature's way,' and again proves Ford to be a gifted chronicler of the down-and-out." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The narrative structure of Wildlife most closely resembles that of a memoir, yet it lacks a memoir's breadth and scope. Most of the events take place within a three-day period....Although the story is refreshingly direct, Mr. Ford's writing here seems loose, even skimpy, when compared to the densely elegant prose of his earlier works....The reader is left with the distinct impression and the hope that this story has no true end, that it will continue to flow from its author's imagination in infinite variation, its ever-widening circles adding to its dimension with each retelling." Sheila Ballantyne, New York Times
Review
"Ford brings the early Hemingway to mind. Not many writers can survive the comparison. Ford can. Wildlife has a look of permanence about it." Newsweek
Review
"If Wildlife has a problem, it's in the ending. Ford's [previous novels wound] up in violence....[This one] prepares us for a final conflagration. What Richard Ford delivers is both less dramatic and more true than what he has cleverly led us to expect." Raymond A. Schroth, Commonweal
Synopsis
Sparely narrated yet breathtakingly expansive in its vision, Richard Ford's latest novel is sent in the West he depicted so brilliantly in his short story collection, Rock Springs.