The Lay of the Land
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Review
'A masterful writer.' Raymond Carver 'Ford's mature prose style, with its long, sinuous, lavishly articulate sentences, is now one of the glories of modern American writing.' Jonathan Raban 'The best novel out of America in many years...Simply a masterpiece.' John Banville on Independence Day 'A devastating chronicle of contemporary alienation.' New York Times on Sportswriter
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A masterful writer.' Raymond Carver 'Ford's mature prose style, with its long, sinuous, lavishly articulate sentences, is now one of the glories of modern American writing.' Jonathan Raban 'The best novel out of America in many years Simply a masterpiece.' John Banville on Independence Day 'With a mastery second to none, Richard Ford has created a character we know as well as our next-door neighbors. Frank Bascombe has earned himself a place beside Willy Loman and Harry Angstrom in our literary landscape, but he has done so with a wry wit and a fin de siecle wisdom that is very much his own'. The New York Times Book Review
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Lay of the Land is the third novel in which Richard Ford charts the life of Frank Bascombe. Frank is now in his fifties, and is a realtor (an estate agent) on the coast of New Jersey. He is in his second marriage and in the throes of what he calls the "Permanent Period", that stage of life where most things that can go wrong have already gone wrong, and where generally speaking things don't get messed up any more - at least in the catastrophic way that earlier stages are subject too.
Needless to say, the Permanent Period turns out to be no protection from family squalls and rifts, and even second marriages, seemingly so settled can go badly and unexpectedly wrong. And then there's always prostate cancer, to make sure that Frank has to make adjustments to those areas of his life so far unaffected.
The charm of this novel, like its predecessors, is that nothing much happens. Frank is allowed to tell his story in his usual meandering way. A trip into town can give rise to pages of observations and reflections, somewhat in the way of W G Sebald, or even Marcel Proust. What makes this work is that Frank has a wondrously philosophical attitude to life, not one that insulates him from problems, but one which enables him to interpret them and live through them in an almost Buddhist way, where trouble is rarely confronted full on, but rather side-stepped and averted by Frank's huge tolerance and patience. The reader finds him/herself drifting along with Frank, and can find himself saying, hey, this approach might work with me too, if only I wasn't so uptight and frantic. Richard Ford has cast Frank's real-estate assistant as a Tibetan Buddhist immigrant, called (unusually) Mike Mahoney. It is interesting to see as the book develops, that maybe Frank is the better Buddhist than this disciple of the Dalai Llama.
Frank is a completely believable character, and although the book only covers a period of a few days, it is full of incidents that show how Frank deals with his family and friends. By the end, readers will have learned a lot about what makes him tick, and maybe like me, they will think that Frank may be quite a good guy to know, and maybe they could learn something about dealing with the huge amounts of stuff that has to be dealt with in the course of a fairly routine life. Highly recommended - if you like this kind of thing, and I do.
Needless to say, the Permanent Period turns out to be no protection from family squalls and rifts, and even second marriages, seemingly so settled can go badly and unexpectedly wrong. And then there's always prostate cancer, to make sure that Frank has to make adjustments to those areas of his life so far unaffected.
The charm of this novel, like its predecessors, is that nothing much happens. Frank is allowed to tell his story in his usual meandering way. A trip into town can give rise to pages of observations and reflections, somewhat in the way of W G Sebald, or even Marcel Proust. What makes this work is that Frank has a wondrously philosophical attitude to life, not one that insulates him from problems, but one which enables him to interpret them and live through them in an almost Buddhist way, where trouble is rarely confronted full on, but rather side-stepped and averted by Frank's huge tolerance and patience. The reader finds him/herself drifting along with Frank, and can find himself saying, hey, this approach might work with me too, if only I wasn't so uptight and frantic. Richard Ford has cast Frank's real-estate assistant as a Tibetan Buddhist immigrant, called (unusually) Mike Mahoney. It is interesting to see as the book develops, that maybe Frank is the better Buddhist than this disciple of the Dalai Llama.
Frank is a completely believable character, and although the book only covers a period of a few days, it is full of incidents that show how Frank deals with his family and friends. By the end, readers will have learned a lot about what makes him tick, and maybe like me, they will think that Frank may be quite a good guy to know, and maybe they could learn something about dealing with the huge amounts of stuff that has to be dealt with in the course of a fairly routine life. Highly recommended - if you like this kind of thing, and I do.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Proof (if proof were needed) that Ford can be bracketed with Roth, Bellow and Updike as exponents of the extended 20th century Great American Novel. On meeting, Ford's southern charm is evident, but his famously prickly hubris and hauteur has made him less prolific than his forebears and contemporaries. Though his recent 'Women with Men' garnered deservedly mixed reviews, here, with the effort evident on each page, Ford delivers one of the most enjoyable and insightful books of the last decade. There is an original use of language and phraseology, a modernity which to some extent alienates us from his 60ish narrator but distances Ford from his competition.
Frank (ex-'Sportswriter') Bascombe is not - as Ford rightly denies - an alter ego, though both live on the East Coast and are comfortably late middle-aged. Frank now is seriously wealthy, rocketing property prices inflating the value of both his NJ shore real estate business and his own ocean view mansion. Counterpointing this are continuing unresolved issues, this novel being set (like the Faulkner / Pulitzer winning 'Independence Day') around a traditional holiday where Frank's age and sentimentalism augurs a crisis.
Frank's prolonged internal soliloquy takes up most of the wordage. It contains some of the most sublime self-consciousness, and self-deception. He is successful, gung-ho and energetic. Money is made and lost almost carelessly. But while he has a peripatetic business partner, his life partners are estranged, and his children distant and bewildering. His failing health is a critical subtext: Frank has prostate cancer (treatable). But there are references to heart murmurs and palpitations, which are less evidence of coronary disease, rather unacknowledged stress and incipient nervous disorder and potential breakdown.
All considered, it is a better novel than 'Independence Day'. The odd denouement detracts a little from this wonderful book; but one reads to the end, which is Ford's stated invocation of success as a writer. In part because the end is unsatisfying, tetralogy beckons: Merry Christmas Mr Bascombe? Bascombe at Rest?
Frank (ex-'Sportswriter') Bascombe is not - as Ford rightly denies - an alter ego, though both live on the East Coast and are comfortably late middle-aged. Frank now is seriously wealthy, rocketing property prices inflating the value of both his NJ shore real estate business and his own ocean view mansion. Counterpointing this are continuing unresolved issues, this novel being set (like the Faulkner / Pulitzer winning 'Independence Day') around a traditional holiday where Frank's age and sentimentalism augurs a crisis.
Frank's prolonged internal soliloquy takes up most of the wordage. It contains some of the most sublime self-consciousness, and self-deception. He is successful, gung-ho and energetic. Money is made and lost almost carelessly. But while he has a peripatetic business partner, his life partners are estranged, and his children distant and bewildering. His failing health is a critical subtext: Frank has prostate cancer (treatable). But there are references to heart murmurs and palpitations, which are less evidence of coronary disease, rather unacknowledged stress and incipient nervous disorder and potential breakdown.
All considered, it is a better novel than 'Independence Day'. The odd denouement detracts a little from this wonderful book; but one reads to the end, which is Ford's stated invocation of success as a writer. In part because the end is unsatisfying, tetralogy beckons: Merry Christmas Mr Bascombe? Bascombe at Rest?
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"This novel showcases many of Mr. Ford's gifts: his ability to capture the nubby, variegated texture of ordinary life; his unerring ear for how ordinary people talk; his talent for conjuring up subsidiary characters with a handful of brilliant brushstrokes.
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times
Frank Bascombe, real estate manager, aka sportswriter and novelist is in the prime of his life. He is on what he describes as ""the permanent phase" of his life, the period when life "starts to look like a destination rather than a journey". He is 55, his second wife has left him for her first husband, he has prostate cancer, his daughter is moving from her lesbian phase to what exactly? His son has a girlfriend and wants a relationship with his father. But Paul, the son is overbearing and what was it that Frank did not give him? His first wife, Anne, calls and wants to start another relationship, But, do they really love each other? These and other life problems all emerge within three days of this 500 page novel.
These three days take place in 2000. I began to see the irony of Frank's thinking his life is going down a permanent road, when the election of Bush has just taken place. There is no peace in America or in Frank's life at this time. We find that events and tragedy's spring up around us at all times. Frank realizes he has fear for 'The Lay of the Land' in 2000, and, as we all know 9/11/2001 is just around the corner. We have the luxury of looking back as Frank tells his story.
Some parts of this novel are too limiting, the explosion in the local hospital and one of the police officers must question him as a suspect but that never occurs. His first wife has but a small part in the novel and it is confusing, but I wonder if her part is to explain that we are all looking for love and may be confused about where we will find it. The next door neighbors are strange and the final chapter leaves no explanation. people come and people go in these three days and we learn allot. Frank is a man that we feel some sympathy for but do we really like him? Yes, he has his faults, and I see some of mine in him. This is a book to ponder and re-read. Frank is wondering what his last days will be like, he wonders as he is ordering a complete Thanksgiving dinner that is organic and elite and is it edible.
I consider this book to be one of the best of the year. Like Cormac McCarthy's book, 'The Road' the other great book of this year. 'Lay of the Land' looks back to look at what has happened while "The Road" looks to the future so we can contemplate where we are.
"Yet while the melancholy settles in deeper this time, Bascombe remains what he always has been: a funny, kind and gentle man, a possessor, as one critic observed, of the "mysteriousness of the agreeable, nice person, harder to describe than the rake, miser or snob". Which is to say, he is not merely pleasant. Ford has kept Emerson in mind throughout: "Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none." Bascombe is willing to speak difficult truths and does so; but he doesn't enjoy it and says so. "
BRIAN McCLUSKEY, The Scotsman
Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-13-06
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times
Frank Bascombe, real estate manager, aka sportswriter and novelist is in the prime of his life. He is on what he describes as ""the permanent phase" of his life, the period when life "starts to look like a destination rather than a journey". He is 55, his second wife has left him for her first husband, he has prostate cancer, his daughter is moving from her lesbian phase to what exactly? His son has a girlfriend and wants a relationship with his father. But Paul, the son is overbearing and what was it that Frank did not give him? His first wife, Anne, calls and wants to start another relationship, But, do they really love each other? These and other life problems all emerge within three days of this 500 page novel.
These three days take place in 2000. I began to see the irony of Frank's thinking his life is going down a permanent road, when the election of Bush has just taken place. There is no peace in America or in Frank's life at this time. We find that events and tragedy's spring up around us at all times. Frank realizes he has fear for 'The Lay of the Land' in 2000, and, as we all know 9/11/2001 is just around the corner. We have the luxury of looking back as Frank tells his story.
Some parts of this novel are too limiting, the explosion in the local hospital and one of the police officers must question him as a suspect but that never occurs. His first wife has but a small part in the novel and it is confusing, but I wonder if her part is to explain that we are all looking for love and may be confused about where we will find it. The next door neighbors are strange and the final chapter leaves no explanation. people come and people go in these three days and we learn allot. Frank is a man that we feel some sympathy for but do we really like him? Yes, he has his faults, and I see some of mine in him. This is a book to ponder and re-read. Frank is wondering what his last days will be like, he wonders as he is ordering a complete Thanksgiving dinner that is organic and elite and is it edible.
I consider this book to be one of the best of the year. Like Cormac McCarthy's book, 'The Road' the other great book of this year. 'Lay of the Land' looks back to look at what has happened while "The Road" looks to the future so we can contemplate where we are.
"Yet while the melancholy settles in deeper this time, Bascombe remains what he always has been: a funny, kind and gentle man, a possessor, as one critic observed, of the "mysteriousness of the agreeable, nice person, harder to describe than the rake, miser or snob". Which is to say, he is not merely pleasant. Ford has kept Emerson in mind throughout: "Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none." Bascombe is willing to speak difficult truths and does so; but he doesn't enjoy it and says so. "
BRIAN McCLUSKEY, The Scotsman
Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-13-06
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Lay of the Land
Another stunning bit of writing from Richard Ford. You suspect that this trilogy has become his life's work. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Dave Gilmour's cat
last and best
The third and final instalment in the life of Frank Bascombe - and much the most enjoyable. Frank's moral shortcomings as husband (first instalment) and father (second instalment)... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2009 by William Jordan
Elegant, funny, poignant, and highly recommended
Frank Bascombe, the narrator of THE LAY OF THE LAND is a successful residential real estate agent who finds the experience of selling real estate both empowering and beneficent. Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2009 by Ethan Cooper
Oh no, more middle-aged American Angst
Another dreary, depressing and predictable depiction of the middle-aged American male mind. It's all been done before by Mailer, Roth, Updike, Heller, Bellow etc. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2009 by John Fitzpatrick
The Human Condition
I've just spent a most engrossing, amusing and rewarding week in the company of Richard Ford and this novel. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2009 by Gargoyle
Too much realty
I had been treasuring the idea of this novel for some time - but while Ford can't be dismissed, there is a dull disappointment about The Lay Of The Land , a disappointment beyond... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2009 by Vicomte de Print
The Lay of Middle Age
The Lay of the Land is the third and final in the Frank Bascombe trilogy by Richard Ford. Frank is now 55 but still as introspective and self indulgent as ever. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2008 by Leyla Sanai
My kind of guy
I wasn't always sure what was going on for Frank Bascombe in this book and sometimes I stopped to ask myself why I was enjoying these 700+ pages so much. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2008 by Iain Clark
Lay of the Land is hopefully final chapter of Bascombe.
Highly uninspiring and hopefully end of story for Frank Bascombe. This book hits the laws of diminishing returns -- originally out of the 'dirty realism' school, Ford was... Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2007 by Sam Son
Now I lay me down to sleep...
Richard Ford has impeccable taste in fiction, as we know from his introductions to UK editions of James Salter's Light Years and Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road. Read more
Published on 16 July 2007 by John Self
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