The Sportswriter

THE SPORTSWRITER
by Richard Ford

Nomination: PEN/Faulkner 1987

Date Read: July 3, 2020

Frank Bascombe, while insightful and with a robust inner dialogue, is comfortable in his divorced bachelorhood. He enjoys his home, his small New Jersey town, his sportswriting career and women. Yet, a lot of loss travels in his wake, particularly the death of his young son Ralph and his divorce from X, who he still respects and confides in.

Perhaps Ford intended his Bascombe character to be the Everyman, living out a rapidly diminishing American Dream. For all his seeming self-awareness, though, I found him to be a jerk. He seems unable to be alone with himself, as he constantly seeks to define himself through the eyes of others. Every relationship he encounters- X, Vicki, Walter, Catherine - is purely driven by his own bottomless needs. 

All of this aside, Ford is such a rich storyteller, making me long to live in Haddam with its quaint central square and a neighborliness that is hard to find these days. He can paint just about any scene in such vivid detail that I can smell the overcooked lamb at Vicki's parent's house. I can feel the ache in his knee from the broken telephone booth/shopping cart incident. I can see the shabby bachelor pad of Walter's apartment. I am continually in awe of Ford and his gift.

Looking Forward: Canada, Independence Day, The Lay Of The Land

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