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Title: The Sportswriter by Richard Ford ISBN: 0-679-76210-8 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 June, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (79 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A Clever Novel?
Comment: Frank, the narrator of The Sportswriter, frequently alludes to his contentment with his lot and yet his story is all about his apprehensive disconnection with anything that could be potentially meaningful to him. Frank is adrift in life, presumably from the loss of a child and subsequent failed marriage, yet he is only half-willing to admit this to himself. He is ambiguous about the chronic bouts of "dreaminess" he has suffered in the past and will not tolerate the notion that the events in his life are of any consequence to his current situation or whether those events have any affect on his happiness. We get the sense that Frank is undergoing a crisis but doesn't realize it or does realize it but is unwilling to face up to it.
The themes of emptiness and disconnection are frequent in Richard Ford's short fiction and I have admired his handling of them. In the stories I have read, Ford does not dwell on sadness or tragedy but on the painful reality of life and the inevitable disconnect people feel. Mother-son estrangement and the missing father are often part of the subject matter in Ford's writing and both appear in this novel. In The Sportswriter we learn Frank's mother was distant but otherwise irreproachable and that the father died when Frank was still a boy. Frank was sent to boarding school at an early age and had little contact with his mother thereafter. She died when Frank was in college. Although Frank has no complaints about his childhood and considers it normal (and not the least remarkable, he stridently insists) we can't help but feel that this is the underlying drama of his life and the reason for his failures as a family man.
In addition to sports writing Frank is a failed literary writer - although he did publish a successful book of short stories after college before becoming a sportswriter - and this makes him wary of making dramatic analogies to his life and cynical about the "lies of literature". He is distinctly insouciant and introspective at the same time, which could be expected from a real-writer-turned-sportswriter ("real" being Frank's word). This dichotomy is the basis for the novel, and what we get is life filtered though the eyes of a sportswriter along with the expected observations and words of wisdom. The great irony of this book for me is that in Frank's narrative he is often unconsciously railing against the very things he claims to value. Frank is generally disapproving of cynicism yet his views and observations are often quite cynical; he is unquestionably a good father yet being a father was not reason to fight to save his marriage; he is always reminding us how content he is and yet the whole novel seems to be about his discontent; he is a straight-talking Everyman who is smarter than everyone by not being smarter than anyone; he sees life in simple terms, not unlike a good sports metaphor, but is quite literary and expressive; he wants love and meaning but is cynical about all the potential manifestations of a meaning in life.
Structurally the novel centers on Frank's love life and two relationships in particular, both of which I found very unconvincing. The first is with his ex-wife (designated "X", for some reason) and is heartbreaking in that Frank and she seem to still be in love and the things Frank did, or neglected to do, to prevent the divorce are inexplicable and highly implausible. For instance, while still married and after the death of one of their three children, Frank assuages his grief by embarking, with tacit wifely approval, on a two-year-18-partner womanizing spree - yet this is NOT the cause of the divorce! The cause of the divorce is an innocuous correspondence X uncovers which Frank could have easily explained but chose not to. The other relationship is between Frank and Vicki. Vicki is a Texan with no patience for deep thinking who speaks in short, canned southern expressions. Frank and Vicki seem to have nothing in common other than being single and attractive, yet they both readily entertain the notion they love each other and could spend their lives together in a happy marriage. What is painfully obvious to the reader, but for some reason not the narrator, is that this relationship is phony and a farce and doomed to fail, exactly as it does.
What this novel amounts to for me is a mass of contradictions, some probably intentional on Ford's part but others clearly not. I cannot give Ford credit for writing a clever novel that lets the reader see faults in the narrator that the narrator cannot see for himself. The faults of the novel cannot be to its credit and still be faults at the same time. Frank is too smart to be unaware of his shortcomings and in the gaping wholes in his worldview. If, and this is quite possible, we are really getting Richard Ford's worldview vetted though his Everyman Frank the sportswriter, then I am very disappointed because I have really enjoyed Ford's short stories and had much higher expectations of him than what is presented here.
Rating: 5
Summary: Want to peek inside the head of the modern American male?
Comment: Okay, ladies: in spite of the title, go right out and buy this book. If you've ever complained that you just don't understand what makes men tick, The Sportswriter was meant exactly for you.
Frank Bascombe's young son has just died, his marriage has crumbled, and his promising career as a novelist has failed - and the guy's only in his late 30s. Depressing, right? Right. For sure. Sooooo, why bother, you might ask? Answer: Frank has a rich inner life that makes you want to stick with him. This is where his problems originate. We know he is sensitive (these days, we'd say he has a well-developed feminine side) and cares about the pleasures of life's small moments - but he's got a typical male problem: He can't express this side of himself to those closest to him, resorting to moral dishonesty rather than expose himself as a caring human.
Read it, ladies. Then read the sequel, Independence Day, which won the Pulitzer in 1996. But read this one first. It's important.
Rating: 3
Summary: Tries to hard to be profound
Comment: I enjoyed reading The Sportswriter, it has great pace and engaging characters who are believable and real, and he describes New Jersey, my home state, perfectly and with affection instead of snide stereotypes. Frank Bascombe is someone we pass in traffic and see on the train and on the streets: he's many of us. However, Ford, goes too far with the first-person narrative that brings Bascombe to the reader, forcing profundity that isn' that profound; and too often it seems like he's writing a story around his epigrams instead of interpolating the epigrams into the story, in places that are becoming of their stature. In the end it's a story of a man trying to make the best of life and his dismal choices. Bascombe is a good man, Ford is good writer, but both have their flaws - like all of us. I preferred Independance Day.
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Title: Independence Day by Richard Ford ISBN: 0679735186 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Women with Men : Three Stories by Richard Ford ISBN: 0679776680 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: A Multitude of Sins by Richard Ford ISBN: 037572656X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Ultimate Good Luck by Richard Ford ISBN: 0394750896 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 May, 1987 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: A Piece of My Heart by Richard Ford ISBN: 0394729145 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 May, 1985 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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