Customer Rating:  
Summary: Black Comedy
Comment: I started the Frank Bascombe chronicles in the middle by reading the second book in the trilogy, Independence Day. I was blown away by Independence Day and, sadly, less so by Lay of the Land. This isn't to suggest I disliked Lay of the Land, but that it wasn't as luminous and compelling as the middle book in the saga.
I'm amazed by Richard Ford's ability to describe so many things with such incredible detail, humor, pathos, and sophistication -- all at once. Ford can take 10 pages to work through a two-minute conversation, because all the rest of the pages are thoughts and observations. And every one of those thoughts is fascinating and on the mark. I can't think of an author who's better at doing digressions.
In this book, the protagonist, Frank Bascombe, is in his mid-50s and recovering from twin blows a few weeks apart: his second wife leaving and finding out he has prostate cancer. At the start of Lay of the Land, Frank's cancer is under control; his wife hasn't returned. The book follows Frank on two days of preparations for Thanksgiving with his two adult kids and their companions and then the inevitable blowups on the day itself.
Along the way, he introduces us to his new business partner, a Nepalese immigrant, his obnoxious next-door neighbor, and various people he has tried to help periodically. His life is busy and full in a superficial sense -- but he's lonely and empty nonetheless.
The book dives off the deep end into black comedy about halfway through when a series of bad incidents pile up on each other. I'm not a big fan of black comedy, and often I don't realize it's supposed to be comedic at some level (i.e., John Irving). It took me a while to realize that it was happening in this book -- until Frank's son shows up with a beautiful girlfriend ... whose hand was blown off by a landmine when she was in army training.
Anyway, without giving away too much, let me say that Lay of the Land is a deep look at a life that many of us would envy -- wealth, sophistication, professional success, meaningful impact on many people. And simultaneously it gives us a window into how a thinking person must always challenge himself or herself to do more and to grow.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bascombe Redux
Comment: "Lay of the Land" is the first book I read on my Kindle, and in some sense it's the ideal book to read electronically. You might not think so because it's a complex, interior character study, but the collaged impressions of a stream of consciousness emerge from reading the pages in short typographical bursts on the Kindle screen. This is a book that explores what Frank Bascombe, the central character, calls "the Permanent Period" of life--that post midlife period when the sheer finality of death comes clear and closer, and whispers shrilly in the ear of a man recovering from prostate cancer virtually every hour of every waking day. Bascombe, a sportswriter turned realtor we have met in Ford's earlier novels is a man with a troubled life (isn't everyone's?)--one son killed in childhood, another son and daughter who behave bizarrely and problematically, a second marriage shattered when his wife abandons him for her former husband, and several startling events that interrupt an ordinary realtor's life with the urgency of an ambulance siren. It is a longer than it needs to be--you feel that Ford feels compelled to explore every corner of an experience--but, as a prostate cancer survivor myself, I found it thoroughly engaging. I hope there's another Bascombe book to come.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Frank Bascombe
Comment: This is, to my way of thinking, the best of the 3 Frank Bascombe novels. Frank is now all "growed up" and facing the inevitabilities of late middle age (he's 55): prostrate cancer, ungrateful or at least emotionally angular children, possible failure of a second marriage and re-connection of a first, perhaps early retirement. Frank remains one of the great creations of modern fiction, precisely for what he is not -- heroic, existentially confused, depressed, or captured by a mid-life hormone surge. He's a real human, better than most, but not without flaws; the kind of person I'd like for a friend. He's nothing to excess: intelligent but casually so, kind but capable of the occasional cruelty, wealthy but not showy, and despite all of the above not the least bit boring. After all, you gotta love a guy who can feel entirely comfortable and happy getting drunk in a lesbian bar and be able to express guiltless anger at a sorry-for-himself, vaguely dysfunctional son who blames his father for his unhappiness. I stress the character because the plot isn't much -- to be sure things happen, ordinary things really (Frank's days are filled with more bits and pieces of pastel drama than mine, but still not earth-shaking). His philosophical musings on his life's conditions are interesting, sophisticated, and often wryly funny, and it is his interior life that is the subject of the novel. Wordy? Yes and perhaps 50 pages too long. I tend to be a fast reader and sometimes (to my regret) skip over material that doesn't move a plot along. This book requires considerable attention for maximum benefit, and I found myself rereading some passages, in part to be sure I hadn't missed anything important and in part because the writing really is quite lovely, even poetic (if a low-key way). For those of us who enjoyed the first two novels, this is a must-read. It is certainly possible to read this without having done the first two, but some of the richness of Frank's life would be lost. One of the best books I have read in the past 5 years or so, and I'm hoping we'll be a 4th Bascombe novel. Highly recommended but not for those who are impatient or favor plot over character.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly rendered audiobook
Comment: The Lay of the Land
No need to rehash the storyline or gist of this excellent novel. Just a strong recommendation for the audiobook version, which is brilliantly rendered by Joe Barrett. Mr Barrett brings to life the entire persona of protagonist Frank Bascomb with a sympathy and sensitivity that is rarely found with such profundity in audiobooks. Indeed, the audiobook version may be in some ways preferable to the written page, particularly in working through Ford's denser prose common to some of Frank's introspective ruminations. Some readers may 'lose the string' while reading these passages--this is a book that takes some work, but is well worth it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ulysses in new jersey
Comment: Frank Bascomb, Richard Ford's New Jersey real estate agent, is an old soul, part Greek Ulysses, part Leopold Bloom, part Underground Man, but he is also a totally contemporary guy. For three days before Thanksgiving we're on the road with this very unique mind, interacting with the rest of humanity and in particular, the American cultural scene. Hilarious and depressing, Frank is ultimately one of the most memorable and sympathetic characters in literature. This one's in the top 10; okay, top 20.
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