SAD WHITE MIDDLE-AGED DUDE. HOW UNIQUE AND SPECIAL.

I really enjoyed the initial part of this book. The writing style was engaging, and the story about real estate and our complex desires for a home was quite interesting. However, once the protagonist went to his girlfriend's house, things took a turn for the worse. It seemed as if we were dealing with either an inconsistent and unreliable narrator or a poor writer. In either case, it just wasn't enjoyable anymore. The dialogues were extremely stilted and awful, making it impossible for me to relax and get into the book. Even when the author was doing a decent job of describing things, the way Frank Bascombe interacted with his girlfriend, wife, son, and random people at the hotel was off-putting. I simply couldn't trust a person who talked like that. The relationship with the son, in particular, seemed very strange. We were supposed to understand why a loving father would cover up for what appeared to be a budding psychopath (hiding the bird his son had killed and going on about the smell of the dead bird on his hands, instead of just washing them). But I just didn't get it. It made me want to punch the father rather than empathize with him. That was mostly the feeling I had while reading the book. I skimmed the end in the hope that we would return to the promising beginning, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

An ex-sports journalist tries to find himself in a job, that of a real estate agent, which concerns people's lives. However, Frank Bascombe's situation is a real mess. He has endured a painful separation, a new relationship that struggles to take off, and a problematic son. His approach to the great American holiday becomes almost a starting point for a new, entirely personal independence.

Frank Bascombe, once a sports journalist, now finds himself in the unfamiliar territory of the real estate business. He hopes to find stability and a sense of purpose in this new endeavor. But his personal life is in turmoil. His separation from his wife has been difficult, leaving him with a void that he is trying to fill. His new relationship with a woman named Marguerite is also facing challenges. They have yet to truly connect on a deep level, and their relationship seems to be stagnating.

Adding to Frank's woes is his son, Paul. Paul is going through a difficult phase in his life, and his behavior is causing concern for his father. Frank tries to be there for his son, but he often feels helpless and unsure of how to handle the situation. As the Fourth of July approaches, Frank sees it as an opportunity for a fresh start. He decides to embrace the holiday spirit and use it as a catalyst for change in his life. He hopes that this new beginning will lead him to a place of greater independence and self-discovery.

I listened to this on audible and it was, to be honest, quite a painful experience.

The narrator was actually good, so that wasn't the issue. However, it was extremely long, almost reaching 20 hours.

I had initially thought I would be done with it after just a few hours. But for reasons that are still unknown to me, I persisted.

I wish I could say that I'm glad I did, but unfortunately, that's not the case. Maybe if I had more of an interest in real estate, it might have been different.

This book was yet another recommendation from my "1,000 books to read" list. It was written in 1995 and is set in the mid-1980s.

Surprisingly, it also won a Pulitzer. I'm certain there were intelligent themes regarding the meaning of "independence" that simply went right over my head.

This very long story takes place over just a few days of celebrating Independence Day.

For me, the whole tone of the book was rather negative. While the main character did make a bit of progress in his relationship with his ex-wife and son, it mostly just felt uncomfortable and sad.

It was a long read that I stuck with in the hope that "it would get better," but in the end, I'm not sure if that hope was fully realized.

Genial is such a wonderful word. It describes a person or an atmosphere that is warm, friendly, and pleasant.

A genial person has a kind and gentle disposition, always ready with a smile and a kind word. They make others feel welcome and at ease in their presence.

Their genial nature spreads joy and happiness, brightening up the lives of those around them.

Genial can also describe an environment or a place. For example, a genial climate is one that is mild and comfortable, inviting people to spend time outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature.

A genial gathering is a social event where people come together in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, sharing stories, laughter, and good times.

In conclusion, genial is a quality that we should all strive to possess. By being genial, we can make the world a better place, one smile and one kind word at a time.

I read this a long time ago.

The main character was truly annoying. As I vividly recall, he was a spoiled boy who seemed to have no regard for others. His actions and attitude throughout the story were rather frustrating.

What I most remember about this novel is the profound sense of disappointment that it left me with. I had such high hopes when I started reading it, but unfortunately, it failed to meet my expectations.

I read this novel back in 1996, and based on that experience, I made the decision never to read his work again. It was a rather decisive choice, but I just couldn't bring myself to give his writing another chance after being so let down by this particular novel.

Perhaps my perception might have changed over the years, but as of now, that initial disappointment still lingers in my mind.

Independence Day by Richard Ford is a remarkable piece of literature that I completed on 12th April during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ellerslie.

The story picks up the thread of Ford's character Frank Bascombe ten years after we last saw him in the novel 'The Sportswriter'. Now, he is living separately from his ex-wife and children, working in real estate and excitedly planning a highly anticipated Fourth of July weekend with his wayward son.

I had been eager to read this book for a while, and it did not disappoint me. The author's excellent portrayal of characters, through their actions, conversations, thoughts, and stories, made it a real page turner. You simply couldn't put it down because you were so curious to know what would happen to them. Isn't that the ultimate achievement in this style of writing?

I also found myself wondering where Ford gets his amazing insights into characters. He describes them as if he has lived their lives himself. Some of the characterizations stayed with me long after I finished reading the book, and I even found myself repeating and agreeing with some of them in my mind.

When I finally finished the book, I felt a warm glow of satisfaction. Looking at the pages, I had the sense that I had gone on a journey along with the characters. Is it better than 'The Sportswriter'? Well, I like them both. It takes truly superior writing skills and intelligence to create a series of books that deal with the intimate lives of its characters. To put them together in a coherent chronology, ensuring that they agree with previous books, don't repeat or contradict anything, and are both meaningful and interesting is no easy feat. Richard Ford has done an outstanding job with 'Independence Day'.

- Konstantin, what is approximately the subject matter?

- The drama of existence and death.

- Sorry, Konstantin, what did you suffer, why don't you speak?

- It's atmospheric...

- HEY! HEY, THESE PEOPLE ARE CALLING!

- Shut up, one is shaking, for God's sake he can speak, he'll drive us crazy now.

- Stop, I told you the drama is existential...

This short dialogue seems to be taking place in a somewhat tense or strange situation. Konstantin is being asked about the subject matter of a drama, which he describes as being about existence and death. There is an air of mystery and perhaps unease, as the other person is curious about Konstantin's silence and the atmosphere is described as being "atmospheric." Then there is a sudden outburst of someone shouting "HEY! HEY, THESE PEOPLE ARE CALLING!" which causes one of the speakers to tell the other to shut up, fearing that the person who is shaking will start speaking and drive them crazy. Finally, Konstantin tries to calm the situation by repeating that the drama is existential. Overall, the dialogue leaves the reader with a sense of unfinished business and a desire to know more about what is really going on.

Sólo le falta el sentido del humor de Philip Roth. This statement seems to suggest that there is something lacking in a particular person or situation, and that the sense of humor possessed by Philip Roth could potentially fill that void. Philip Roth was a renowned American author known for his incisive and often humorous portrayals of American life and culture. His works were characterized by their wit, irony, and satirical edge. The idea that someone or something is missing his sense of humor implies that there is a certain lightness or playfulness that is absent, perhaps making the situation or person seem a bit more serious or stodgy. It could also suggest that the addition of Roth's sense of humor might bring a new perspective or a touch of levity to the otherwise somber or uninteresting circumstances.

The three-day period of Independence Day in the life of the permanent protagonist of the author Frank Bascombe. Here he is at 44, divorced, in a free relationship and working as a real estate agent. In the book, he tries to sell a house to a difficult couple of clients, attempts to collect a rent, sees his girlfriend and goes on a short trip with his teenage stepson. These few things are described in exhaustive detail in 700 pages exclusively through the thoughts of the protagonist.

I can understand why many people consider the book that puts us in the mind of a modern forty-year-old as important, but I admit that I found it tiring and dull and the protagonist annoying, selfish, thin and ultimately indifferent.

The story seems to drag on with endless internal monologues that don't really lead to anything significant. While some may appreciate the in-depth exploration of the protagonist's psyche, for me it just felt like a waste of time.

Perhaps if the book had been more concise and focused on more interesting events or character development, I might have had a different opinion. But as it stands, it failed to engage me and left me with a sense of dissatisfaction.

After reading The Sportswriter, I started to feel weary of Frank Bascombe's never-ending narcissistic rants. By the conclusion of Independence Day, I was completely bored with both his tirades and himself. Ford's writing style requires a bit of effort on the reader's part. The sentence structure is complex enough that one often has to read many passages twice to grasp his point. Sadly, the point is frequently repetitive and not very valuable to begin with. Many reviewers have noted that they couldn't warm to Frank Bascombe or that he was one-dimensional. Either of these would be acceptable if he had a thought-provoking idea or at least a new perspective that one could take away, but that is far beyond Frank's sluggish mind.

Ford, in his introduction to the Everyman's Library version of the Frank Bascombe novels, refers to E. M. Forster's assertion that fictional characters avoid "the incalculability of life". Ford interprets this to mean that they should be "as difficult to predict and generalize about as the people we encounter in our daily lives". However, in creating Frank Bascombe, he has crafted a character who is as easy to predict and generalize about as any I have ever encountered. Frank passively accepts that the most ordinary aspects of life are his life, and that this is good and the way it should be.

Frank repeatedly contemplates the impermanence of relationships and situations, which is presented as some profound insight. This is a common theme in literature and is unremarkably presented here. Some reviewers have drawn a comparison to Updike's Harry Rabbit Angstrom. I have read the four Rabbit novels, and while I'm not the biggest fan of Updike, Harry was a far more genuine and "incalculable" character than Frank Bascombe. Harry had what I could envision as a real life, experiencing and reacting in unpredictable ways to the ups and downs that most of us go through. To those reviewers who find Frank Bascombe to be the kind of person they would like to know, I would simply say, as the characters in the book discovered – you could do better. Frank didn't make any real friends in the book, and he didn't win me over either.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER: 1996
===
My emotions regarding this book are rather complex.

It is the second installment of a trilogy. Although there are numerous references to past events, some or all of which I assume were detailed in the first book, I never felt overly confused and do believe it can be read independently. I'm certain that with more context, I would have gained more from it and had a better understanding of the characters. However, I never felt that I truly needed it. To be honest, I have no inclination to read further in this series.

While it is significantly more tolerable than the Rabbit, Run books (which I despise), it still has that general atmosphere of a white middle-class suburban man experiencing a sense of boredom and dissatisfaction with life, and I simply don't give a damn. I thought the writing here was, of course, quite excellent and witty, with several amusing observations and thoughts. But it also has that quality that I detest and that ~literature~ adores when it comes to the Great American Novel, where everything is just sort of vaguely depressing and happiness seems unattainable while everyone just sort of drifts around with discontent as all of life's dreams turn out to be fruitless. It's just not enjoyable at all, and in my opinion, it's not all that reflective of real life. The dialogue in this book seemed so strange to me - who talks like this?! Maybe people did in the mid-1990s, but every conversation here was so vague and nonsensical, with no one actually saying anything directly or of significance, and we're just supposed to somehow understand through osmosis what is actually going on. It made for an extremely frustrating reading experience, as I wanted to shake every single character to get them to have real conversations instead of these faux-metaphysical musings related to their character and relationship.

Basically, this is precisely the kind of book I was afraid it would be, except (thankfully) it is slightly more palatable as the protagonist wasn't a complete racist, misogynist jerk (only a bit of one).

I read this book when I was 14 and despised it. Perhaps it was because I related more to his teenage son than the main character, Frank Bascombe. However, after reading and adoring the other two Frank Bascombe books - The Lay of the Land and The Sportswriter - this year, I made the decision to reread this one.

And to my great surprise, I loved it. (This serves as further evidence that my 14-year-old self was rather foolish.) The back of my edition was adorned with numerous quotes lauding it as a 'genius' work, a'masterpiece', and so on. And for once, those descriptions were completely accurate. One quote described this book as truly being about the grace present in everyday life, and that couldn't be more true.

I have never come across another series of books that so vividly showcases the beauty within day-to-day existence. It also strikes the perfect balance between melancholy and those moments of feeling fortunate.

I also have a great appreciation for how Richard Ford realistically描绘s the landscapes of American small towns and suburbs. It's not in the overly idealized 'American Beauty' style, but rather it presents them as places filled with ordinary people doing their utmost, seeing that as something noble, yet not something to become overly excited about.

Highly recommended!