The Sportswiter by Richard Ford, and lay of the land

The Sportswiter by Richard Ford, and lay of the land

Postby jasperjoffe » Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:27 am

Reread. Always thought something of the poor mans Rabbit/Updike. The search for the American horny everyman, the joy in suburban/small town living, the existential detail. Somehow Ford's universal is less convincing, the ex-writer turned sportwriter turned real estate agent doesn't always seems much more than a convenient fiction for the writer's enormously readable digressions on 20th C life. And both writers relish the un-PC, the little bit of illiberabity, but in Ford you feel the strain of provocation. Ain't the ordinary prejudiced life great!

However, caveats aside, Rabbit and Frank Bascombe, on our rereads provide a measure of mortality and aging against these self-obsessed white American males raging and aging and dying against the dying of their century, and great pleasure in that too. I must dig up Independence Day and live in Frank's head for a little longer in the joyous way that most good lit provides.
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