Independence Day (Frank Bascombe Series #2)

Amazing

I loved this book. It is extremely intellectually stimulating and truly relateable.

Boring, dense, incoherent and humorless.

Another Pulitzer Prize-winning disappointment. I forced myself through this book 25 pages at a time thinking that at some point it would become less jabbery and irritating. Wrong. I have never read a book where virtually all of the characters had such rambling, bizarre conversations with each other. That might have been tolerable had the book been spiced with a little action, but at most five things of any consequence happened over 450 pages. A little humor also would have helped, but if there was any of that, it was so dark I missed it. At least it was less depressing than Edgar Sawtelle.

Love the book.

I just discovered this book, it was recommended by our local used book store owner. Sometimes laugh out loud funny, sharp, witty but with heart. Perhaps I too am in my existence period, no matter, this was a joy to read.

Plain-speakingly brilliant

In always compelling and refreshingly straightforward and plain-speaking prose, Richard Ford 'via Frank Bascombe' gives his readers some of the most insightful and sharply observed commentary on late-twentieth-century American man 'and suburban America -- and America! -- in general' that I've ever read. I'm mystified by the readers who didn't like this book, except to note that one is a high school student and another doesn't know how to spell . . . That Ford successfully sustains an engaging first-person narrative for an entire novel is nothing short of brilliant. Highly recommended.

A weekend you may forget

Richard Ford's Independance Day is a powerful and interesting novel with compelling characters and interesting settings, thrilling plot, and connections can be made on almost every page. Independance Day is the sequel to Sportswriter, another one of Ford's novels. Frank Boscombe used to be a sports writer but now works in the real estate business. Frank is divorced from his wife, who now has, married another guy named Charley O'Dell. He has also been apart from his son Paul, a bad, juvenile kid. Paul gets in mroe trouble so Frank decides to schedule a father-son trip to the Baseball and Basketball Hall of Fames. Ford does not use alot of dialogue, but he focuses more on description. He also uses chapters but in each chapter there is a bunch of pages. This book was very slow moving and was very boring at times but I would recommend this book to people that have alot of patience and time on their hands.

Ford is no Mark Twain

Independence Day began as a somewhat philosophical, interesting, and humorous book. It soon went downhill. Although I felt it held a great deal of promise, I was eventually let down by the aimlessness of Ford¿s writing. The well-timed humor which I had quickly grown accustomed to seemed to erode that or the pretentiousness of the author procured a strong dislike which led me to feeling I wished that the book would miraculously end. I say this from the self-described perspective of an average reader. Perhaps the strongest criticism I can offer is one which (to a degree) confirms a quote from a review included on the back cover. If memory serves, it was from ¿The (London) Times¿ and deemed that ¿Independence Day¿ essentially characterizes America in the twentieth century. Although this may be accurate in some respects, it hardly made for good reading. To his credit, Ford was exceptional at articulating an image ¿ his detail was fantastic. It did, however, tend to appear pointless not in its description but rather in its developing a story. Of the number of books which I have read over the past few years, I have been able to attain at least something worthwhile from each. From Ford¿s work, I felt utter dejection in having devoted time to this book and a sense of animosity for the author because of it. Similar to the garbage which Hollywood has tended to dole out, it seems quite sad that ¿Independence Day¿ was worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.

Bore Fest

The book was boring and pointless, unless you were going through the 'existence period' yourself. Ford pressed his own philosphies on you at every possible moment, and is very democratic.

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