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Columba 29 Apr 6:52pm, 29 Apr 2024 22,490 posts	0 Columba Another one here struggling with ID. About half-way through, but I do intend to finish it. However, it may take me until the end of May.
westmoors 30 Apr 9:30am, 30 Apr 2024 8,733 posts	0 westmoors I'm probably 2/3 through ID. I will finish it.
McGoohan 30 Apr 10:14am, 30 Apr 2024 54,048 posts	0 McGoohan A result: the Zevin book is in Reigate library and Liebling is on her way to collect it for me
Chrisull 30 Apr 10:19am, 30 Apr 2024 21,359 posts	0 Chrisull I've finished it, albeit a few years back. I think the whole American literary regionalism as discussed on Backlisted recently, shines a light on it. I think it's harder to read and make sense of without the context of the opening book "The sportswriter" which is the most focused of them all. The Sportswriter is firmly in post Updike territory and not far removed from the Rabbit books, but whereas Rabbit is quite consistent in tone, the Bascombe saga is notable for how each book changes in nature, as the stakes get smaller. I think it kind of mirrors life, where we are when we're young and we have this driving purpose and ambition, that children and/or middle age kind of takes away from us and just being becomes more important. By the third book, "Lay of the land", Frank is "just" living, the incidents described are smaller, the whole landscape looms large, the coastal setting. Does it colour him, the people around him? Living in East Cornwall I definitely think the landscape has a strong determinant on people's characters (and not necessarily in a good way). Independence day has a haunting/disturbing incident near/at the end of the book which "colours" how you see the rest of the book, and it's necessary to read the whole thing. But it's kind of wordy, rambling, overly discursive at times so I appreciate many might not have the patience. And yeah it's not as good as "Canada" Ford's late career highlight, which starts with the line: ""First, I'll tell you about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later." and perhaps because Canada is set away from a familiar landscape, the landscape cannot dominate the writing in the same way.
Diogenes 30 Apr 10:35am, 30 Apr 2024 85,771 posts	0 Diogenes Although Ford takes great care to set Independence Day in firmly the Eastern seaboard where the action takes place, I didn't feel that the landscape dominated in anyway. I felt that it was more about what it is to be American and how that is changing. I found strong echoes of the Simon & Garfunkel song, America, the idea of the interstates and turnpikes being full of travellers looking for America and looking for themselves. Frank is travelling old routes and seeing them afresh. There's something about the rootlessness of American people, people restlessly searching for a new home and a new start that seems key to the story. That's what Frank is doing, countered by the appearance of his long-lost brother who has developed an obsession about the importance of continuity in life.
Chrisull 30 Apr 11:14am, 30 Apr 2024 21,360 posts	0 Chrisull I'm thinking more of "Lay of the land" and "Let me be frank with you" - but it's years since I read them. "Let me be Frank with you" deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Independence Day deals with his "existence period" and Lay of the Land with the "permanent period" and he ends up at his "default period". Maybe it's because the last one deals with the hurricane more and that's how I remember it.
Chrisull 30 Apr 12:01pm, 30 Apr 2024 21,363 posts	0 Chrisull Perceptive review here of Ford's fourth Bascombe book (referencing ones before): oregonlive.com
LindsD 30 Apr 1:09pm, 30 Apr 2024 67,706 posts	0 LindsD I am intending to read it, but waiting for the library to have it.
LindsD 30 Apr 1:11pm, 30 Apr 2024 67,707 posts	0 LindsD Damn! It is in the library and I cycled past today. That's annoying.
Night-owl 1 May 8:43pm, 1 May 2024 45,476 posts	0 Night-owl Just read about Paul Auster 😢 Rip google.com I had been thinking of reading one of his books anyone read him. Any you recommend