Hope you're all celebrating in style wherever you are. We celebrated a neighbor's 40th birthday yesterday and we celebrate America's birthday today. For us that means going to the circus that comes to town each year and then we're off to another party in a friend's backyard/garden. Today I recommend one of my favorite novels about summer, that I read one summer vacation at the Jersey Shore -- Richard Ford's Independence Day. I love this book, and read it and The Sportswriter in quick succession that vacation (tho you should read The Sportswriter first...).
In Independence Day, Ford tells the story of Frank Bascombe, who, in the aftermath of his divorce and the ruin of his career, has entered an "Existence Period," selling real estate in Haddam, New Jersey, and mastering the high-wire act of normalcy. But over one Fourth of July weekend, Frank is called into sudden, bewildering engagement with life.
Independence Day is a moving, peerlessly funny odyssey through America and through the layered consciousness of one of its most compelling literary incarnations, conducted by a novelist of astonishing empathy and perception.
Aloha!
You've got a fun blog, and I see a great title in your book club lineup: A Thousand Splendid Suns. Just wanted to share a July 4th review of 1776 on my blog about the Navy's Professional Reading Program, which is a list of suggested titles for women and men serving in the Navy. After seeing your cool blog, I think an earlier post: "Why Women Should Rule the World" might be more fitting. Alas, here's my blog:
Navy Reads
Posted by: Bill Doughty | July 04, 2009 at 04:58 PM
Don't forget about the third Frank Bascombe title, The Lay of the Land, where you get to see how everyone turns out. Gorgeous, funny writing, and Frank doesn't disappoint.
Posted by: Sonya Unrein | July 08, 2009 at 06:58 PM