Canada
Canada is a coming-of-age novel about a young man living in Montana whose family falls apart when his parents rob a bank and he is sent to Canada to live. Richard Ford does not keep readers in suspense: He summarizes the plot of Canada in the first two sentences of the 418-page novel:
"First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then the murders, which happened later."
Although these events will be revisited later, it is not the events... Independence Day
Independence Day, the novel that won Richard Ford the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner, is a bittersweet, albeit short, journey through the midlife critical week in the life of Frank Bascombe. Frank is divorced from his wife, who has since moved on and remarried a snobbish twit. He has become disconnected from his son Paul, who exhibits a wealth of antisocial behaviors far beyond the typical adolescent rebelliousness of young males. Frank is watching t... The Lay of the Land
At age 55, Frank, diagnosed with prostate cancer, still needs to define himself.
In the three days of Thanksgiving weekend, 1999, Frank must resolve life-changing issues. His second wife, Sally, has left him to live with her first husband who miraculously re-appeared from the dead.Meanwhile, his first wife, Ann Dykstra, has become widowed and makes overtures towards him again. Rashly, he invites her to join him for the holiday dinner at his se...
