- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; Reprint edition (April 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679735186
- ISBN-13: 978-0679735182
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.4 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 889,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Independence Day
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More About the Author
Product Description
John Banville, Guardian
‘The best novel out of America in many years…Simply a masterpiece’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Times
‘Eloquently, with awkward grace, in his two novels about an ordinary man, Ford has created an extraordinary epic’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The sequel to The Sportwriter, Indepenence Day is better still and a worthy Pulitzer Prize winner. Frank Bascombe's story continues with his teenage son experiencing some psychological problems due probably to the trauma of his brother's death and his parent's marriage breakup. This however is not a downtrodden situation, but one luminous with hope and tenderness. Frank shows that you don't have to be a winner to contribute to humanity and that some failure may be valuable in trying to achieve a state of grace. This book will become a classic.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an extraordinary book, about what it is to be alive. Ford's sheer level of skill in using the language is a delight; reading "Independence Day" will make you love words for themselves and where they can take you. The action occupies little more than a weekend, but encompasses an epic spiritual journey, told with pace, humour, and the razor-sharp observations of people, places and emotions. Everything about the narrator, Frank, his interior life and his external world, is touchably, touchingly real, and draws you inexorably into the novel from the very first page. The suburban setting and the ordinariness of [most of] the events makes Ford's handling of abstract ideas and huge issues of life, love and belief, utterly compelling and deeply moving.
Ford's most striking - and unusual - achievement in "Independence Day" is the astonishing compassion with which he treats characters, story and theme. There are no grotesques, no stereotypes, no over-simplifications; the author takes no intellectual, emotional or linguistic shortcuts. This is a rich book, honest, entertaining, satisfying, and ultimately profoundly optimistic. Don't be put off by the length!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ford is in many ways a wiser, sharper and more profound version of Nick Hornby, and someone who writes like a poet not a journalist. This novel captures the balance of a characters' life as, in his 40's, he realises it is not what he asked for. A book about men but not strictly a men's book; a book about fatherhood, responsibility, irresponsibility and the desire to be the best you can while realising you'll never be what you should. Poignant, sharp, beautiful.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
disappointing sequel
Sportswriter was excellent, a 4 not quite 5 star novel which actually depicted sports stars quite originally, accurately and un-dramatically. Read more
Published 10 months ago by mc
Independence Day
A sort of sequel to The Sportswriter (although you don't need to read that to enjoy this), Independence Day could be Ford's greatest book of all. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Dave Gilmour's cat
more of the same
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the sequel to The Sportswriter, Independence Day is more of the same, only more so. Read more
Published on 7 Jun 2009 by William Jordan
`Realty' and realism: the inner life of Frank Bascombe
I've just completed Richard Ford's Pulitzer Prize-winning `Independence Day', and I have to admit it left me a bit cold. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2009 by Demob Happy
You feel for the guy, but don't understand him
I read the Sportswriter, and thought it was a 4-star book. The sequel tells about the Independence Day weekend a few years later, when Frank Bascombe has settled more into his... Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2005 by Charles Deckers
Ford's lyrical sequel to 'The Sportswriter'
Check your pulse if you fail to surrender to the evocative opening to this novel. Frank Bascombe, ex-"Sportswriter", now a middling success at real estate agency in New Jersey,... Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2004 by Mr. W. James Mcateer
I must be in a minority here...
Reading all these glowing reviews made me wonder whether I'd read the same book. I bought this on the strength of a few reviews, and good things that I'd heard about The... Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2003
Ford's lyrical sequel to "The Sportswriter"
Check your pulse if you fail to surrender to the evocative opening to this novel. Frank Bascombe, ex-"Sportswriter", now a middling success at real estate agency in New... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2000
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