My Father once borrowed this before going on holiday.

He was really looking forward to having some good reading time during his vacation.

However, when he handed it back, he had quite an interesting comment to make.

He said it was a 451-page book where ‘nothing bloody happens until bloody page 218.’

This statement really made me curious about the book.

What could have possibly happened in those first 217 pages that made it seem so uneventful to my father?

Was it a slow build-up to a major plot twist?

Or was it just a case of the author taking their time to set the scene and develop the characters?

I guess I'll never know until I read the book myself.

But for now, my father's words have definitely left an impression on me.

They have made me think about the importance of pacing in a story and how it can either make or break a reader's experience.

Maybe this book will be a good example for me to study when it comes to understanding the art of storytelling.

There are isolated moments of real insight here.

It's truly a shame that they're lost within such a meandering and pointless story.

The book shines brightest when it showcases the impact a realtor has on the lives of his clients, something I hadn't truly considered before.

The story of the Markhams, about how they must make compromises in settling for the home they can afford rather than the one they truly desire, is a powerful metaphor for the lives of these two individuals.

It represents the choices they've made and how they will spend their remaining years.

It's about making difficult decisions and being honest with oneself and about one's life situation.

I would have adored seeing this as a short story.

Regrettably, the novel has little else to offer.

The protagonist's insights into his own life are rather shallow and repetitive.

If I had to read the term "Existence Period" one more time, I was going to put the book down for good.

Pulitzer prize? Seriously?

The second book in the series offers a detailed account of the life and (mis)adventures of Frank Bascombe, a former sportswriter and realtor, during a 4th of July weekend.

It's important to note that this book may not be to everyone's taste. Some might find the writing tedious, as the narrator is a middle-aged white guy with all his flaws. However, I absolutely loved it. I found the writing to be intelligent, poetic, dense, and at times, quite challenging. Perhaps it's because I'm closer in age to his middle-aged angst, but I really related to this New Jersey everyman.

Frank isn't always particularly likeable, but he's incredibly relatable. The book is a bit on the long side, but I was in the perfect mood when I read it. I adored both "The Sportswriter" and "Independence Day." Those who are looking for a lot of action and aren't fans of inner stream of consciousness should probably approach with caution.

I found the book to be both touching and hilariously funny at times. There are no minor characters in this story. Even if a character only appears for 5 pages, Richard Ford manages to create depth and insight, which is often moving. The roadtrip structure works extremely well, and Ford skillfully reveals the geography, flora, and fauna of all the locales, including fictional Haddam, NJ, Deep River, CT, Cooperstown, NY, and the Springfield MA Basketball Hall of Fame.

And yes, stuff does happen during the book, especially towards the end, but it's really more about the journey from Point A to Point B in Frank's life (and in all of our lives) that is so significant and empathetic.

Well, there are times when I truly have to question if I'm inhabiting the right planet.

Never before has a book received such excessive praise - and from the so-called right people - as this one and "The Sportswriter".

So, I decided to give this particular book a try. However, I soon found myself in a sweltering, muggy sauna of smugness, inhaling the deeply self-satisfied ambiance that surrounded this character Bascombe.

Despite his failed marriages and troubled relationship with his son, Bascombe is one of those individuals who exudes an air of profound wisdom, maturity, and has a creased, lived-in face that makes you instinctively trust him.

Sorry, pal, but not in my case. I continuously turned the pages, hoping that at some point, Tony Soprano would come hurtling around the corner like a bat out of hell in a four by four.

In a tragic case of mistaken identity, he and Chris would leap out, seize this guy Bascombe, and stuff him into the boot.

Then, they would drive off like crazy bastards into the nearby woods and bury him, where only wolverines and badgers would pick over his wise old bones.

It's quite a vivid imagination I have while reading this book.

I actually made an attempt to read Independence Day shortly after going through Ford's The Sportswriter.

I faced difficulties in getting a grip on a second encounter with Frank Bascombe. The reason being that I initially thought he was a rather unlikable jerk. However, I'm truly glad that I gave it another shot.

This second installment in the Bascombe series (of which there are 5) presents us with Frank, four or six (?) years down the line. He is now an established real estate agent in Haddam, New Jersey (the setting of the previous novel).

This is a transformed Frank, seemingly more grounded and quite proficient at his job. The earlier Frank was a character深陷于中年危机的自由落体之中. Now, he is divorced, and has been for several years. His ex-wife Ann is currently married to a Republican architect in Connecticut (while Frank is a Democrat). He endeavors to be a good father and frequently takes weekend trips to visit his kids.

Just like the previous novel, Independence Day is somewhat of an exhausting road-trip. It's the eve of the Fourth of July, and Frank's objective is to take his troubled 15-year-old son Paul on a journey to both the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Before he even commences, he has to show some houses to a hard-to-please couple from Vermont, check in on some even more challenging renters, and then top it off with a difficult lover at her beach house on the shore.

The framework of the novel is there, but what truly makes this work is Frank's never-ending (and endlessly amusing) ruminations (often incorrect) on the characters he meets and the situations he witnesses.

It's also a rather good satire of the useless and empty tourist traps of the two Halls, yet Frank doesn't place much emphasis on that anyway. His creed is more firmly rooted in experience and memory. Locations, famous or otherwise, are secondary to a good memory.

Strangely, towards the end, after his son endures an accident, he is befriended and assisted by his Jewish half-brother, Irv. What the heck. That's a late curveball, but upon further reflection, it kind of emphasizes, after countless Frank ruminations, just how little we truly know about Frank.

He remains an enigma, but one who can grow on you and keep growing, which I would have deemed impossible based on the Frank of The Sportswriter. Richard Ford has something profound to convey about life, and Frank is his spokesperson. I eagerly anticipate the remainder of the series.

This was a book that was initially rather difficult to read, but as I delved deeper, it gradually grew on me.

Frank, now a real estate agent, is living in a phase of his life where he is constantly striving to figure out his direction.

A road trip he takes with his wayward son starts off as a complete disaster. However, as they persevere, there begins to be a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.

His philosophy of attempting to be an integral part of the community and give back something is showing some signs of success.

It all reaches a climax on Independence Day, and it seems possible that Frank is about to enter a new and perhaps even happier period of his life.

Overall, the story is a captivating exploration of a man's journey of self-discovery and growth, filled with both challenges and moments of redemption.

Richard Ford's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Independence Day is a remarkable work that cements his status as a significant literary figure. In my view, it officially marks him as the last and perhaps greatest GMN of the twentieth century.

The first novel in his trilogy, The Sportswriter, introduced us to Frank Bascombe, a complex and hard-to-define character. After the tragic loss of his son and subsequent divorce, he turned to sportswriting. This novel was influenced by Updike's Rabbit series, particularly in its elevation of the ordinary suburban American life. Frank, like Updike's heroes, is manly and solipsistic but also open-minded and introspective. He is a liberal who refuses to censor his thoughts or conform to political correctness.

Independence Day departs from The Sportswriter in many ways. It delves into the complexities of a changing United States as it approaches the millennium. Frank's interaction with this change, including race and class tensions, divorce, and the fear of a housing-market correction, is at times awkward but adds depth to the story. Ford evades Franzen's criticism of Updike by dealing with the "bigger picture."

The first half of Independence Day focuses on Frank the realtor and his efforts to "give back" to the community. Realty serves as a metaphor for Frank's examination of America and his own community. The novel also explores themes of independence and self-reliance, both on an individual and historical level.

Despite its overt themes, Independence Day is a work of great aesthetic beauty. Ford, a poet at heart, captures the nuances of life with precision and psychological acuity. His language is almost musical, painting vivid pictures of the world around Frank. The narrative, delivered in the first-person present, allows us to follow Frank's thoughts and experiences.

Throughout the novel, Frank is in a new life phase he calls "the existence period." He is learning to accept the things he cannot control and focus on simply being. In the end, we see that Frank is becoming an adult, looking both inward and outward and making a sincere effort to influence the things he can. Independence Day gives us a snapshot of Frank's life, but there is still a mystery about his inner self that remains intact, adding to the novel's allure.

Okay, here are some more of my musings on fiction. It is probably misdirected since your stated lack of interest. So, please excuse me.

I have finished listening to "Independence Day" by Richard Ford in the car and on the run. The novel got the Pulitzer and a couple of other awards in 1996 when it came out.

The novel is long and doesn't have that much action as it covers about four days of the protagonist, Frank Bascombe, before and on the Independence Day of 1988. However, it moves at a steady pace. Listening to it while commuting had a regular TV series effect: it felt like I was spending time with familiar characters day in and day out.

Frank Bascombe, like the author, was born in the South, grew up in Michigan, worked as a sports newspaper writer and dabbled in literature on the east coast. His first wife divorced him, he then quit his job and sort-of floated back and forth between continents and in-and-out of different professions. Presently, he settled in real-estate sales, a profession he somewhat enjoys, even though a lot of people, including his ex-family, consider him a failure. His divorce and feelings for his ex-wife are still raw, even after a number of years. He misses his children, sees them grow apart from him and slip away. He had a tragic interracial romance and, after everything, is wary of commitment. In short, there is a lot to relate to.

Frank is affable, professionally courteous, and bland with his customers and other people he comes in contact with. Yet, in his continuous internal narrative, he produces sharp, precise, often less than flattering observations about these people. That was a bit scary. One would wonder if _I_ ever met somebody like that and never noticed.

Frank is a modern-day Moses Herzog (of Bellow's "Herzog"), only significantly less self-absorbed and shallow, and thus a lot more sympathetic. Also, his constant inner monologue and his slight disengagement from even his own day-to-day events sound Hemingwayan.

These multiple levels of analysis and communication make the scenes of his interaction with the customers amusing: from the facial and verbal clues of his customers, Frank tries to analyze the mental state of his customers; and, with his spare comments, tries to move them towards the sale; all this while trying to help the customers while these customers are sometimes less than helpful.

This multi-level narrative becomes especially artful when Frank talks to his girlfriend, praises her wonderfully cooked dinner, meanwhile realizing that she is expecting some further sincerity and frankness from him. He deflects this expectation, half-consciously half-instinctively. He is sorry he does that. The deflection is in part carefully worded and in part clumsy. Moreover, to a degree Frank himself does not realize what is happening. This last level is left for the reader to find and appreciate. All this is happening as the first-level communication is still ongoing.

Another memorable scene is a phone talk with his ex-wife. Both of them have feelings for each other, but the conversation turns into a fight where his ex, knowing that he was a writer, accuses him of treating her like a character in his book, even writing her lines for her, this phone conversation included.

Certain things are still mildly irritating about Frank's character. The novel is set at the time of 1988 presidential elections. Frank professes to be a democrat and a progressive, considers Dukakis to be a bumbler yet could not name, and not even seem to care which military engagement the US was then involved in. His jealousy towards boyfriends and husbands of his ex-es is petty. On the other hand, these qualities possibly make him human.

Frank loses some of the reader's sympathy about mid-way when, in the scope of about half-a-day, he claims his love to his ex-wife, his girlfriend and then nearly jumps in bed with a chance-encounter waitress. Worse yet, he picks up the waitress because he is hungry and he does not do the deed, not because he conscientiously decides to be true to whatever feelings he has, but because his mood has changed.

Frank, as no doubt the author, is a leg-man. The thighs, knees and ankles of major female characters all get a description. This includes a doctor at the hospital where Frank brought his severely injured son and where, you would think, women's legs would not be the focus of Frank's attention.

The book's treatment of race is a bit grating. Frank uses racial labels nonchalantly. I think it might be that the book is somewhat dated and American society has come a long way since the mid-nineties of the last century.

Frank's idea of parenting is broadcasting platitudes at his alienated 15-year-old son. Yet somehow this, by his own admission, mixture of love, hatred and frustration that he feels sounds endearing.

Anyhow, like Junot Diaz and Jhumpa Lahiri's is a retelling of immigrant American experience, Richard Ford's "Independence Day" is an artful reflection of East Coast Americana.

Read for the 2019 PopSugar reading challenge. This is "Read a book during the season it is set in," and I went even more specific by reading Independence Day over the Fourth of July. 451 pages is a whole lot of pages to be following an aimless divorced middle-aged white guy in the late 1980s. That must have been catnip for the Pulitzer people in 1996 when this was the winner, though. This is what he calls his Existence Period, where he is trying to go through life not caring too much about stuff. One might suspect, from this description, a book that tries to mine meaning out of a lot of banal little things in life, and that's most of what you are going to get.

There's a lot of solo driving with commentary on assorted New England towns he passes through, or at least how they apparently were in 1988. He tries to sell some annoying Vermonters a house, tries to collect rent from some tenants, ponders the relatively recent death of a younger work colleague and former lover, and sets off on a Hall of Fame (basketball, baseball) trip with his 14-year-old son who lives with mom and stepdad, who may or may not be starting to head down a dark path in his adolescence. Also he owns a hot dog stand, and has a lady friend who lives down on the Jersey shore.

The main character, Frank Bascombe, is an entertaining enough narrator of these events to keep this book from being totally boring. This is the second book featuring Bascombe, with a previous one, The Sportswriter, taking place earlier in the 1980s but still after his divorce. It is not essential reading here, since I remembered very little from reading it a while ago and could drop in on Bascombe's "current" life just fine. He is basically just having a mid-life crisis, only it's not the sort of crisis that manifests in the purchase of a motorcycle or convertible.

I was alive in 1988 and thus it can't have been THAT long ago, yet here is Bascombe (a Dukakis supporter who has political disappointment in his near future) referring to the African-Americans who live in the neighborhood where he owns and rents two houses as "Negroes." So actually it was a long time ago. Another character also in his mid-40s who is overtly racist actually refers to them as "coloreds." And outside of the racist stuff, Bascombe's daughter tells this joke: "A horse walked into a bar and the bartender said, 'Why the long face?'" and Bascombe has never heard the joke before.

This is a small town America that is in decline (several Main Street storefronts are closed) but not yet as far down as it is today, so in that sense it was interesting as kind of a recent history reference point. Just not interesting enough that I am going to remember a whole lot about it several years and dozens of other books down the road, much like I don't remember much about The Sportswriter.

Eh. I'm truly torn about this book.

There's simply no denying that Ford is a highly proficient writer. His command of language and the way he crafts sentences are quite remarkable.

However, I must admit that I never really managed to establish a genuine connection with the story.

I found myself rather indifferent towards all of the characters. Despite the copious amount of detail that he lavishes upon them, they all seemed to lack depth and felt rather flat and one-dimensional.

This novel, in many ways, is analogous to a song that is technically flawless. Every note is in its proper place, and the composition is executed with precision.

Yet, for all its technical perfection, it fails to stir any real emotions or inspire a profound sense of feeling within me.

It's a bit of a disappointment, really, considering the potential that was there.

I initially found the opening part of the book quite engaging, but unfortunately, it has now come to a standstill for me.

"Independence Day" centers around a middle-aged divorced man named Frank. He resides in a suburb of New Jersey and earns his living as a realtor. He has a son who is going through a difficult phase and a daughter who lives with his ex-wife and her husband.

Originally, I was drawn to Frank's self-deprecating sense of humor. Additionally, since I was in the process of house-hunting, I took a liking to his perspectives on real estate, despite them being rather cynical. However, as the story progressed, it became overly burdened with excessive detail and aimless rambling. My eyes began to glaze over, and I lost interest.

It's now time for me to seek out a new book. (I stopped reading at page 170.)

*Note: The novel had the honor of winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1996.

I guess this 'dude lit.' (as opposed to 'chick lit.') is really something special.

I think the author nailed it with this book. It's not as haunting (or perhaps depressing?) as his other works.

In fact, there are several passages within it that made me laugh out loud.

The writing style is engaging and accessible, making it a quick and enjoyable read.

The characters are well-developed and relatable, which adds to the overall charm of the story.

It's refreshing to read a book that can make you both laugh and think at the same time.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a lighthearted and entertaining read.

Whether you're a fan of the 'dude lit.' genre or just looking for something new to try, this book is definitely worth checking out.