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| The Lay of the Land (Vintage Contemporaries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Ford
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.73
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Avg. Customer Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 39346
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0679776672
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780679776673
ASIN: 0679776672
Publication Date: July 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: **COVER WEAR/CREASES AND GENERAL SIGNS OF USE Cover wear, creases, page edge wear and/or markings. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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Amazon.com Review
After more than a decade, Richard Ford revives Frank Bascombe, the beloved protagonist from The Sportswriter and Independence Day. Fans will be scrambling for The Lay of the Land, a novel that finds Bascombe contending with health, marital, and familial issues wake of the 2000 presidential election. We asked Richard Ford to tell us a little more about what it's like to create (and share so much time with) a character like Frank. Read his short essay below. --Daphne Durham
Richard Ford on Frank Bascombe
 I never think of the characters I write as exactly people, the way some writers say they do, letting their characters "just take over and write the book;" or for that matter, in the way I want readers to think of them as people, or even as I think of characters in novels I myself read (and didn't write). In my own books I do all the writing--the characters don't. And for me to think of them as people, instead of as figures made of language, would make my characters less subject to the useful and necessary changes that occur as I grow in my own awareness about them as I make them up. Writing a character for twenty-five years and for three novels, as I have written about Frank Bascombe, has meant that Frank has, of course, become a presence in my life (and a welcome one). When I wrote Independence Day I began with the belief that Frank was pretty much the same character and presence he was in The Sportswriter. But when I went back later and read parts of The Sportswriter, I found that the sentences Frank "spoke" and that filled that second book were longer, more complex, and actually contained more nitty experience than the first book. This has also been true of The Lay of the Land: longer sentences, more experience to reconcile and transact, more words required to make lived life seem accessible. You could say that Frank had simply changed as we all do. But practically speaking--as his author--what this makes me think is that I've had to make up Frank up newly each time, and have not exactly "gone back" and "found" him--although Frank's history from the previous books has certainly needed to be kept in sight and made consistent. What is finally consistent to me about Frank is that I "hear" language I associate with him, and it is language that pleases me, with which I and he can (if I'm a good enough writer) represent life in an intelligent and hopeful and buoyant spirit a reader can make use of. --Richard Ford
Product Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
A New York Times Best Book of the Year
A sportswriter and a real estate agent, husband and father –Frank Bascombe has been many things to many people. His uncertain youth behind him, we follow him through three days during the autumn of 2000, when his trade as a realtor on the Jersey Shore is thriving. But as a presidential election hangs in the balance, and a postnuclear-family Thanksgiving looms before him, Frank discovers that what he terms “the Permanent Period” is fraught with unforeseen perils. An astonishing meditation on America today and filled with brilliant insights, The Lay of the Land is a magnificent achievement from one of the most celebrated chroniclers of our time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...
 Bittersweet Downshift In Life Expectations November 13, 2006
42 out of 49 found this review helpful
"This novel showcases many of Mr. Ford's gifts: his ability to capture the nubby, variegated texture of ordinary life; his unerring ear for how ordinary people talk; his talent for conjuring up subsidiary characters with a handful of brilliant brushstrokes.
MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times
Frank Bascombe, real estate manager, aka sportswriter and novelist, is in the prime of his life. He is on what he describes as ""the permanent phase" of his life, the period when life "starts to look like a destination rather than a journey". He is 55, his second wife has left him for her first husband, he has prostate cancer, his daughter is moving from her lesbian phase, to what exactly? His son has a girlfriend and wants a relationship with his father. But Paul, the son is overbearing and, what was it that Frank did not give him? His first wife, Anne, calls and wants to start another relationship, But, do they really love each other? These and other life problems all emerge within three days of this 500 page novel.
These three days take place in 2000. I began to see the irony in Frank's thinking when he said his life was going down a permanent road, just when the election of Bush has just taken place. There is no peace in America or in Frank's life at this time. We find that events and tragedy's spring up around us at all times. Frank realizes he has fear for 'The Lay of the Land' in 2000, and, as we all know 9/11/2001 is just around the corner. We have the luxury of looking back as Frank tells his story.
Some parts of this novel are too limiting, the explosion in the local hospital, and one of the police officers must question him as a suspect but that never occurs. His first wife has but a small part in the novel, and it is confusing. I wonder if her part is to explain that we are all looking for love and may be confused about where we will find it. The next door neighbors are strange and the final chapter leaves no gratification. People come and people go in these three days, and we learn alot about some and more about others. Frank is a man that we feel some sympathy for, but do we really like him? Yes, he has his faults, and I see some of mine in him. This is a book to ponder and re-read. Frank is wondering what his last days will be like. He wonders as he is ordering a complete Thanksgiving dinner that is organic and elite and is it edible?
I consider this book to be one of the best of the year. Like Cormac McCarthy's book, 'The Road' the other great book of this year. 'Lay of the Land' looks back to look at what has happened while "The Road" looks to the future so we can contemplate where we are.
"Yet while the melancholy settles in deeper this time, Bascombe remains what he always has been: a funny, kind and gentle man, a possessor, as one critic observed, of the "mysteriousness of the agreeable, nice person, harder to describe than the rake, miser or snob". Which is to say, he is not merely pleasant. Ford has kept Emerson in mind throughout: "Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none." Bascombe is willing to speak difficult truths and does so; but he doesn't enjoy it and says so. "
BRIAN McCLUSKEY, The Scotsman
Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-13-06
 Get it! Especially the AUDIOBOOK October 31, 2006
34 out of 42 found this review helpful
I love this series and have waited patiently for further Frank Adventures. The wait has paid off. Yes, it's a long book; and yes there is some repetition, but the amazing wit and insightfullness of the writer's ability to plunge the depths of Frank's soul is astounding. Each sentence is wonderfully crafted with twists and turns that tug at your soul and at other times make you laugh outloud; he paints images that stay with you; notes situations and and experiences that plague all of us 50 somethings. I thought it was a fabulous read. Not a quick read, but one to be savoured by the fire this winter. He makes me laugh that warm human bittersweet laugh of recognition. *** I subsequently went ahead and got the AUDIO version .. wow ...Go ahead a treat yourself .. get this audio and listen to the wonderful narrator (Joe Barret) tell Frank Bascombe's story. This is a book that is meant to be heard out loud. I am not an audiobook fan, but this reading has won me over. The writing is heart-wrenchingly touching and the reading supports the writing 100 per cent. I laughed, I cried. Gee whiz, it's good stuff.
 More ordinary, with flashes of brilliance..... February 6, 2007
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
Having written his first two tomes in 1986 and 1996, author Richard Ford seems poised to end Frank Bascombe's story as he approaches the age of 60; with a decade's gap. Ford is a marvelous writer of prose, and while much of the book takes place in Bascombe's thoughts, we are treated to dialogue in his encounters with friends and foes from the earlier books, as well as a new character or two - notably his employee, realtor Mike Mahoney, who is a Tibetan Buddhist and a consummate capitalist.
In addition to the ups and downs of normal life, as the book opens Bascombe muses on his own mortality. He has suffered from prostrate cancer for which he is treated at the Mayo clinic with a procedure that sounds like a clinical trial, so incomprehensible is it to me to be walking around with radioactive pellets in your body.
It is this sense of ongoing danger and risk that sets the tone for the musings of Bascombe, as he looks back on his successes and failures during the "permanent period" of his life....where he's reached his destination on the Jersey shore, instead of continuing his journey. But where his thoughts on life and death seemed to spur his actions in the first two novels, in "The Lay of the Land", they seem somewhat incidental to a series of unrelated, ordinary happenings. There are whole sections of the book, that, while descriptive, seem to go nowhere. Eventually, as you bog down and wonder where Ford is taking you, you start to be bothered by his lengthy descriptive passages for ordinary incidentals. In short, where the first two books gave depth and sincerity to writer/realtor Bascombe, this third novel becomes tedious.
I must say I'm disappointed, because after the first chapter, "Are You Ready to Meet Your Maker?", I anticipated loving the book and carved out a weekend to read the whole thing. I loved Ford's dalliance with Frank as a member of the New Jersey "Sponsors" network, an organization that could have spawned the whole novel, of ordinary people giving ordinary advice to complete strangers for ordinary problems. And there are passages where Ford captures his voice and the lyrical quality of his prose is second to none.
I'm not sorry I purchased "The Lay of the Land", but I can't recommend it wholeheartedly, and I certainly shake my head at the thought that it is making a lot of "Top 10" lists for 2006. Methinks it is Ford's reputation, and not the novel itself, that has critics crowing.
Nonetheless, if he keeps writing, I'll keep reading!
 The Lay Of The Bland February 19, 2007
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
Having spent most of my time reading business related books, I thought it was time for a change of pace with a fictional book. So, off I went to my favorite bookstore, hoping to find something interesting, informative and creative.
However, buying a book in the bookstore is like buying a bottle of wine in the wine store - challenging. You see the covers/labels etc. and instinctively, though often superficially, make your choice, hopefully for the best. It's obviously an inexact process, as frustrating as it is confusing, unless you have a favorite author or a strong recommendation to guide your selection.
All of which is a grim way of saying that I bought this book cold - without prior knowledge of the author or his previous books, apart what appeared on the book liner. In fact, I actually checked a few Amazon reviews in the book store (most said that it was OK) before putting my money down and carrying it away. Honestly, the biggest attractions were the age of the protagonist, Frank Bascombe, and how he dealt with his newly diagnosed prostate cancer (a disease that is becoming increasingly endemic among my friends and peers), and his adult children.
Subsequently, I have read many more reviews posted on this book, which I think fairly described my feelings as I slogged my way through this gruesome tome. I believe that these reviews are objectively reasonable, if not overstated. My favorite was that this book is similar to Seinfeld - a book about nothing, certainly nothing that you especially care about. Another reviewer thought that the 500 pages could have been reduced to 150. I agree.
For as many books that I have read, I was surprised by all the new words (to me) that I was seeing in just the first few pages. At first it seemed like fun - sitting with my dictionary next to me researching these new words. Soon it just became excessive and annoying, as though the author was trying to smugly disguise mindless vocabulary for a plot line that was worth caring about. It was like reading Melville back in the day - only there was no whale at the end to keep your interest.
Paragraphs of descriptive digressions morphed into pages and chapters, until I began skimming the paragraphs. Ultimately, I found myself not caring about Frank Bascombe, or his various plights - even though we are chronologically linked. I just wanted the book to be over.
This is not a good thing, which is why I can hardly endorse this book.
Perhaps had I read Ford's prior books I would have enjoyed this segment of Bascombe's "life" more. Suffice it to say that I will neither read those prior books, nor look forward to the next.
 monotonous, bromidic, disappointing November 5, 2006
14 out of 45 found this review helpful
This is not the Richard Ford of The Sportswriter, much less Independence Day; the intervening two decades must have taken a terrible toll on this author. I found two chapters with dialogue sufficient to engage my interest. The balance of this novel is filled with so much meaningless, monotonously descriptive narrative that I began to suspect I was reading a New Jersey travel brochure. I want a refund. I deserve a refund.
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