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Book Review of "The Lay of the Land" |
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Written by WAPYB Staff
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Sunday, 29 October 2006 |
IN SUNDAY'S NEW YORK TIMES BOOK
REVIEW
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Erik T.
Johnson |
'The
Lay of the Land,' by Richard Ford
Review by A. O. SCOTT
"I
wish I could tell you I had a formula for changing the character of big into
small." Thus Frank Bascombe at 55, halfway through "The Lay of the Land" and
past the actuarial midpoint of his existence, sighing in the midst of some
overwhelming facts: prostate cancer; the departure of his second wife, Sally;
the imminence of a Thanksgiving dinner with his first wife, Ann, and their
surviving children, Paul and Clarissa; the indeterminacy of the Bush-Gore
presidential election. (It's November of 2000, and you get the feeling that
Frank, a committed if less than zealous Democrat, has resigned himself to what
the rest of us know will be the outcome.)
Illness, politics, family - big stuff indeed. And Frank can sometimes
perceive his own experience in portentous terms, speaking of this stage of his
life as the "Permanent Period" (which turns out not to be so permanent, but
rather a way station en route to the Next Level). But the genius of Frank's
creator, Richard Ford, lies in reversing the imaginary formula Frank wishes he
had; Ford enlarges what might otherwise appear tiny, and Frank himself is the
crucial factor in the equation. Continue
reading...
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