This is another book about Frank Bascombe (3 previous novels), who at age 68 is starting to mellow (less annoying than in previous novels) but just a bit. Ford is a rare writer who makes me slow down my reading, to savour his wonderful writing.
Tag: Richard Ford
Best of 2012
- Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern): magic and reality are integrated
- The Informationist (Taylor Stevens): excellent adventure/mystery; intriguing central character; set in Africa
- 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami): outstanding; real imagination
- Dancing Lessons (Olive Senior): really excellent; introspection into roles as woman/wife/mother; failure to communicate; perception/reality
- Something Fierce (Carmen Aguirre): Giller winner; emotional cost of being a child of revolutionary parents in South America
- The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach): baseball as a metaphor for guy relationships and the pursuit of perfection
- Canada (Richard Ford): excellent
- By Blood (Ellen Ullman): really interesting book about identity, adoption, Jewish heritage
- Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn): really excellent psychological who-dunnit; best book in 2012
- Hanging Hill (Mo Hayder): excellent murder mystery set in Bath and SW England
- Defending Jacob (William Landay): legal thriller, about the possibility that a son is evil; really excellent
What David Read 