Tuesday, September 04, 2007

richard ford: the sportswriter

i wanted to like this book. i really really wanted to like this book. and, for the first 150 pages, i did. i loved it. i loved frank bascombe and his interior monologue. i loved X. i loved the journey he was on. but then something happened. the easter weekend in which the story takes place started moving in slow motion. and i started getting itchy for the end. when i reached the end, of course, i realised i wanted to read independence day and the lay of the land, the two books which follow. to remember it as i book i almost liked a lot, i'll include this quotation:

"'Frank, we don't amount to much. I don't know why we go to the trouble of having opinions,' Henry says.

'It puts off the empty moment. That's what I think.'"

Richard Ford, The Sportswriter. (London, Bloomsbury, 2006) 121.