The Lay of the Land
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
It is fall, 2000 and Frank Bascombe has arrived at a state of optimistic pragmatism that he calls the Permanent Period of life. Epic mistakes have already been made, dreams downsized, and Frank reflects that now at least there are fewer opportunities left in life to get things wrong. But the tranquillity he anticipated is not to be. In fact, as Thanksgiving dinner with his children and first wife nears, the Permanent Period proves as full of possibility as life had ever been. In his third Frank Bascombe novel Richard Ford contemplates the human character with wry precision. Graceful, expansive, filled with pathos but irresistibly funny, The Lay of the Land is a modern American masterpiece.
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I'd like to buy Richard Ford a drink. In honor of Frank Bascombe, I'd like to make it an old fashioned.
I first read Richard Ford when I was far too young to appreciate him–I think I stumbled across “Independence Day” in late elementary school. I was glad to revisit him at the beach this summer.
In terms of logistics, “The Lay of the Land” is the third in a set of novels about Frank Bascombe's life (Who is he, you ask? A modern-day self-deprecating Renaissance man of a sort). The first two, “The Sportswriter” and “Independence Day” (which won a Pulitzer), will go down in family history as the only two works of fiction that both of my parents have read in my entire years of being cognizant of their reading habits. So Ford's got pretty wide appeal.
The end of the trilogy is...sweeping in its attention to the minutiae of life, and our idiosyncratic and fumbling reactions to said minutiae. Which I mean in a completely excellent way. Easy description of the book's many & subtle virtues is escaping me at this point, but suffice it to say that I really, really liked it.
Maybe 3-3.5 stars.
This is the third, and final book, by Ford about the same character. It isn't some Lord of the Rings type trilogy. Rather, Ford wrote a successful book (the Sportswriter), followed it up years later with a Pulitzer prize winner (Independence Day), and then decided to finalize the tale with The Lay of the Land many years later. Similar to what John Updike did. The character ages with the author, which is interesting. However, this book takes place during the unclear 2000 presidential election period, so while written recently, feels a little older.
It is interesting reading about an aging man's take on life and the prospect of death, and like the first two books, it is filled with a fair amount of humor. However, while well written (there is a reason he won the Pulitzer earlier in his career), at times it is a little too long winded for me.
Overall, while this book started weak (I wouldn't have continued reading if I hadn't read the other books about this character), it improved, and I liked it a lot more by the end. Overall, I think that Independence Day is the weakest strangely, given that it won the award. The Sportswriter was the best, and is strongly recommended.
