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Published Nov 2014
256 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In his trio of world-acclaimed novels portraying the life of an entire American generation, Richard Ford has imagined one of the most indelible and widely discussed characters in modern literature, Frank Bascombe. Through Bascombe - protean, funny, profane, wise, often inappropriate - we've witnessed the aspirations, sorrows, longings, achievements and failings of an American life in the twilight of the twentieth century.
Now, in Let Me Be Frank with You, Ford reinvents Bascombe in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. In four richly luminous narratives, Bascombe (and Ford) attempts to reconcile, interpret and console a world undone by calamity. It is a moving and wondrous and extremely funny odyssey through the America we live in at this moment. Ford is here again working with the maturity and brilliance of a writer at the absolute height of his powers.
"Starred Review. Like Frank, Ford, certainly is incisively frank, forensically observant, and covertly tender." - Booklist
"Readers who met Frank in Ford's earlier novels will quickly reconnect with his indelible personality." - Publishers Weekly
"Another Bascombe novel would be a surprise, but so is this - a welcome one. " - Kirkus
"Ford is celebrated for his Frank Bascombe novels - stories swirling around the life of a middle-aged real estate agent. His profession lends itself to Ford's rich descriptions of natural land." - Huffington Post, Best Books for Fall 2014
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo © Robert Yager
Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1944, the only child of a traveling salesman for a starch company, and was raised in Mississippi and in Arkansas. He went to college at Michigan State University, where he met Kristina Hensley, to whom he has been married since 1968. Ford attended law school very briefly before entering the University of California at Irvine, where he received his M.F.A. in writing in 1970.
After publishing two novels, A Piece of My Heart (1976) and The Ultimate Good Luck (1981), Ford took a job writing for Inside Sports Magazine. When the magazine was sold, he decided to write a book about a sportswriter; the resulting novel, published in 1986, received widespread acclaim: it was named one of five best books of 1986 by Time magazine. The Sportswriter ...
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