Independence Day (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Ford
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1988
- Setting: Suburban New Jersey, Connecticut, and Upstate New York
- Principal Characters: Frank Bascombe, Ann, Paul, Charley O’Dell, Sally Caldwell, Joe and Phyllis Markham, Larry McLeod, Karl Bemish, Irv Ornstein
- Genres: Long fiction, Character study
- Subjects: Family or family life, Self-discovery, Parents and children, Love or romance, Psychology or psychologists, Fathers, Divorce, Death or dying, Bereavement or grief, Men, Suburban life, Real estate, Middle age
- Locales: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey
Independence Day is a lyrically driven though slow-moving sequel to Richard Ford’s highly praised 1986 novel The Sportswriter, a book hailed by fellow sportswriter and novelist Fred Exley as “a grand achievement.” The Sportswriter, Ford’s third novel, was a crossover success, a book that appealed not exclusively to serious readers of literature but also to the elusive general reader and bookstore browser. In Frank Bascombe, the thirty-eight-year-old narrator of The Sportswriter, Ford gave voice to a man grappling with everyday life, a revised 1980’s...
[The entire page is 2164 words long]
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