Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
About This Guide
The questions, discussion topics, suggested
reading list, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your
group's reading and discussion of Richard Ford's Pulitzer Prize-winning
Independence Day. We hope they will aid your understanding of a novel that
is at once casual and lyric, hilarious and poignant, irreverent and inspiring.
Like its ordinary (and extraordinary) hero,
Independence Day is not
always what it seems— though its themes ring as clear as the carillon that wakes
the opening day. A narrative celebration of the "hum of the human spirit,"
illuminated by tacit affirmation of the faith of mankind, this novel is as
"bright and chancy" a spectacle as the Fourth of July festivities it portrays.
About This Book
Frank Bascombe, who made his first appearance in Ford's 1986 novel
The
Sportswriter, continues his narrative five years later. Frank-- now
forty-four, divorced, "residential specialist," former sportswriter, parent,
Democrat, and occasional Presbyterian with a fear of "disappearing"-- finds his
life at a "turning or at least a curving point" on the Fourth of July weekend,
1988. After showing clients their forty-sixth potential home and passing an
intimate, though problematic, evening with his lady friend at her beach house,
he travels from Haddam, New Jersey, to Deep River, Connecticut, home of his
remarried former wife. Here he collects his troubled teenage son, Paul, for a
weekend trip to several sports halls of fame. Their journey-- a passage through
choices, reflections, and regrets-- is transformed in one lightning-bolt moment
alongside a peaceful baseball field. Helped by a solicitous stranger, Frank and
his son are carried across their own spiritual deep river to a fresh start on
the other side. As Everyman, Frank Bascombe is a symbol of redemption and
possibility-- a source of hope for all.
Reader's Guide
- You may have laughed out loud while reading Independence Day.
Possibly the novel's serious purpose came as a surprise. What is the temper
of Frank Bascombe's interior monologue as opposed to that of the novel's
themes? How is Ford's pervasive use of humor integral to his development of
plot and theme?
- Haddam, New Jersey, is introduced as idyllic, but reality soon counters
the idyll. How does Independence Day's catalog of past and present
Americana juxtapose the ideal and the real? Does the novel express the
American character?
- Frank Bascombe believes he is "more or less normal-under-the-microscope"
[p. 7]. But his ex-wife, Ann, says he may be "the most cynical man in the
world" [p. 184]. Sally, his girlfriend, finds him "too smooth" and
"noncommittal" [p. 272]. What kind of person is Frank? Does his profession
suit him? He says, "I'm no hero" [p. 438]. In what ways is he heroic?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
