Independence Day

by Richard Ford

INDEPENDENCE DAY is the sequel to Richard Ford's 1986 novel THE SPORTSWRITER. The story picks up six years later and finds the narrator, Frank Bascombe, still trying to make sense of life. Bascombe is no longer a sportswriter; he now sell real estate. Over the course of a Fourth of July weekend he takes a stab at settling some aspects of his life. He attempts to finally sell a house to a couple which has already turned down the first 46 houses he has shown them. He goes on a trip with his 15-year-old son to visit the basketball and baseball halls of fame, but the magic of Cooperstown eludes them. INDEPENDENCE DAY was the first ever to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/Faulkner Award.

Editions of Independence Day

ISBN 9780679735182	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Vintage Books	Date 1996	Price $1.00	Very Good
ISBN 9780963192523	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher B E Trice Pub	Date 1999	Price None Available
ISBN 9780679443803	Binding/Format Audio Cassette	Publisher Random House	Date 1995	Price $5.23	Very Good
ISBN 9780679492658	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Random House Inc	Date 1995	Price $1.00	Used, Good

Publisher Notes

A visionary account of American life--and the long-awaited sequel to one of the most celebrated novels of the past decade--INDEPENDENCE DAY reveals a man and out country with unflinching comedy and the specter of hope and even permanence, all of which Richard Ford evokes with keen intelligence, perfect emotional pitch and a voice invested with absolute authority.Frank Bascombe is no longer a sportswriter, yet he's still living in Haddam, New Jersey, where he now sells real estate. He's still divorced, though his ex-wife, to his dismay, has remarried and moved, along with their two children, to Connecticut. (He bought her old house and made it his home.) In the midst of his so-called Existence Period, Frank is happy enough in his peculiar way, more or less sheltered from fresh pain and searing regret.
And he has high hopes for this 4th of July weekend (while the nation lurches toward another election, Bush vs. Dukakis, in uncertain prosperity). As a realtor he's seeking a house and a life's accommodation for deeply hapless clients relocating from Vermont; in his free time he takes pride in managing his entrepreneurial, and civic, sidelines. Then he will travel to the Jersey Shore, where his girlfriend and delight awaits him. Finally, up the Northeast Corridor, to Connecticut, there to pick up his larcenous and emotionally troubled teenage son, and together they will visit as many sports halls of fame as they can in two days.
But Frank's Independence Day turns out not as he's planned. This decent, appealingly bewildered, profoundly observant man is wrenched, gradually and inevitably, out of his private refuge. And in this embattled ascent Richard Ford the mystery of life--in all its conflicted glory--with grand humor, intense compassion and transfixing power.

Media Reviews

"'Independence Day' is an astonishing accomplishment, richly detailed, peopled with compelling and realistic characters, and constructed with heartbreaking care by an enviably gifted writer."

First Line

In Haddam, summer floats over tree-softened streets like a sweet lotion balm from a careless, languorous god, and the world falls in tune with its own mysterious anthems.

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