I refuse to read this article by Richard Ford on the genesis of his character Frank Bascombe . . . because I’ve never read a word of Ford’s stuff! Congrats on being my latest 0-fer!
Someone told me that I should read The Sportswriter
A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
never owned a Ford? your grandfather would be very proud of you!
(of course, I’d never have purchased my Taurus while he was still living)
Sad to say, I’ve read all three. Good – even excellent in spots – writing. Still, the trilogy comes across as an unintentional parody. Frank Bascombe is a middle-aged man who is an effortless success at whatever he does (journalism, selling real estate) and inexplicably has dozens of nubile young women falling into bed with him. So, with no worries about money or sex, he spents most of his time driving about northern New Jersey, desperately trying to fill the hours until death, about which he vaguely worries from time to time.
Not that this wouldn’t be sort of nirvania for me but it gets a little tiresome in book form after a while.