Re: Richard Ford
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Tue, 24 Aug 1999 15:50:47 -0400
At 5:50 AM -0700 on 8/24/99, Laughing Man wrote:
> My image of Frank Bascombe, the main character in The Sportswriter
>and
> Independence Day, is a time bomb waiting to explode. On the
>surface,
> everything is cool. Things are not working out the way they should,
>however,
> and Frank=EDs thoughts about the =ECwhy=EE=EDs and the =ECwhat to do=EE=ED=
s is
>just like a
> grown up version of the Catcher.
My impression of Bascombe is less that of a time bomb and more of a
thinly frozen sheet of pond ice that is churning and full of turmoil
under that ice. But more than that, he seems to me the equivalent of
a mannequin that once had light bulbs for eyes, where the bulbs have
long ago burned out and gathered dust, while the mannequin still
stands, perhaps also gathering dust, perhaps even forgotten in a
storage room. I don't get the sense of menace or danger that I get,
say, from other literary characters. (Many of which abound, though
none in my head at the moment.)
But I am by far no expert in Richard Ford -- I'm the first to admit
that.
--tim