Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507250034
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: G-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY LARRY SHIELD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Imagine a world where a real estate agent who, when writing an editorial for an in-house journal, wishes he could say, ``things could get worse in a hurry. Now is the time to test the realty waters. Sell! (or Buy).''
Frank Bascombe, 10 years older than when author Richard Ford first introduced him in ``The Sportswriter,'' has left the newsroom for the living rooms of Haddam, N.J., to enter the zero-sum game of flogging real estate. Along the way he has lost his wife and his house, but acquired a desire to ``ignore much of what I don't like or that seems worrisome and embroiling.'' Then Bascomb's world receives the ripples of his son Paul's arrest for stealing condoms. Having assaulted a female security officer during the robbery, the miscreant was forced to undergo counseling. The counseling was successful except in one small area - Paul now tends to bark like a dog during times when such barking in not wholly appropriate.
To help his troubled son, Frank decides on the best therapy known to him - visiting the most sports halls of fame possible in the two days available to them.
Well, that is the Cliff Notes precis of the plot. The joy of the book is the rambling thoughts and character studies which comprise the bulk of the 451 pages. Written in an unusual first-person, present-tense style, the book is not an easy read. Ford constantly causes the reader discomfort by having action envelop him like an unseen fog bank at dawn. While not stream of consciousness, ``Independence Day'' is stream of experience. Little exposition is given the reader of what lies ahead in Basombe's vision of life. His vision barely extends past the crack in the sidewalk where his topsiders currently reside.
Each time he takes a step, the reader is offered a new view life - well maybe a just a slightly newer view - surprising and unexpected.
Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
by CNB