The Lay of the Land

Richard Ford has written one of those books that make you believe he has been reading your mind for years. If you are a middle-aged suburban man, Frank Bascome is as real as the guy you see in the mirror every morning. We have the tendency to think our personal experience is unique, but a good author that so perfectly recreates your experience can let you see how universal life's story's are. I find it liberating and humorous to realize my situation is not as unique as I thought, hearing another man struggle with the same questions puts my fears and doubts in perspective.

Richard Ford has to be one of the best writers working today. Each sentence, wonderfully narrated, is packed with meaning. The strength of this novel is not plot but character. You get to know Frank, and in the process he teaches you a great deal about how to learn to accept life, family, and a variety of other imperfections. There is a great deal of wit here - I agree with the reviewer who found delight in Frank's visit to the Lesbian bar while waiting for his car to be repaired across the street. But I would say that the wisdom in this book is what finally makes it such a good one. Frank learns to accept what his life has given and to accept and even love the people he encounters. I had the feeling several times that Frank is a better person than I am, or at least a much wiser one. Frank a very likeable man - one I would delight in purchasing a house from - but also a very wise man who has embraced all that life offers with a serene intelligence that is at the same time pragmatic and down to earth. The narrator is excellent, with just the right timing for those marvelous sentences. This is one great listen.

I liked this book quite a lot. There were several times that I laughed out loud so I consider the book to be quite funny. There's a really funny part that takes place when the main character (1st-person narrative) ends up stuck in a lesbian bar while waiting for his car to be repaired. The author is able to make events funny, while drawing out the seriousness and trouble that clouds our lives from time to time.

Not a lot happens in the book in terms of plot (at least until the last parts of the book). There are long and detailed descriptions of events, people, etc. that might cause many to call the book "slow." At first, that was a little off-putting, but eventually, I came to understand what the author was doing, and that style didn't make any difference to me at all at the end. I was sorry to have it end.

Themes include observations about modern life, fatherhood, loss of a child, neighbors, divorce, selling, late-middle age, cancer and more.

The narration was first rate. The reader put effort into different voices for each character, and did lots of accents (southern, midwest, East Indian and others) all of which I enjoyed.

I recommend it.

(There's a sixteen-mintute interview with the author after the end of the book, so it's not actually a 24 hour 57 minute book.)

After an 11-year hiatus, the Pulitzer prize-winning author revisits his most enduring character, Frank Bascombe, a former sportswriter turned real estate agent. Bascombe, now 55 years old, newly divorced, battling prostate cancer, has reached the Permanent Period: "the time of life when very little you say comes in quotes, when few contrarian voices mutter doubts in your head, when the past seems more generic than specific, when life's a destination more than a journey and when who you feel yourself to be is pretty much how people will remember you once you've croaked. . . ." It's Thanksgiving week, and Frank Bascombe narrates with an armchair philosopher's appreciation for everything from the route he drives to work to the grandest themes in everyday life as he navigates the highways and byways of the Garden State. His two grown children (his "reformed" lesbian daughter and his emotionally removed son who pens greeting cards for Hallmark), his Tibetan business associate, Mike Mahony, and his ex-wife Sally, all come under his highly entertaining scrutiny. Although the book could be criticized for taking pages to describe the simplest interactions, with detail that can be overwhelming numbing, the very notion of this novel is that the drama is in the details of our non-dramatic lives. The audio format lends itself to such expository story-telling, and the narrator -- who sounds like I envision Frank Bascombe sounds -- enhances the tale.

This was a read about everyday life, in an area of the US I’ve never visited, and from the viewpoint of a man in the decade of his life I’m preparing to enter. Character, Frank Bascombe has great insight and amusing portrayals of family members, neighbors, and friends. I may have to go back and read the previous Richard Ford novels about this character. The book did move a little slow, but I smiled quite a bit, and it was a nice change of pace from fast action or high intrigue.

Can anyone alive turn a phrase better than Richard Ford? I believe listening to or reading good language can enhance the listener's/reader's language facility. Both writer and reader of Lay of the Land are inspiring.

This is the first audiobook (out of over 150) that I couldn't finish. I almost made it through the first third, but realized that I had sufficiently experienced the mid-life crisis about which the narrator is perpetually expounding. I found myself repeatedly telling him, almost out loud, to get over it. At the point that I stopped no plot had been established. I don't give up easily, having managed to complete Proust's "Swann's Way", which was no easy feat. "The Lay of the Land" is comparable to "Portnoy's Complaint", it is difficult to maintain any empathy with the narrator. Don't waste your time on this one!

I thought I'd get some middle-aged wisdom from this book. One good point was that the author's style was just engrossing enough and the *narrator's voice* sounded close enough (in my mind) to SOUND like the fictional main character. It sounded like an autobiography and not fiction. But unless you have an ex-wife, sell real estate, or have testicular cancer I can't say this book has a lot in the way of entertainment value or offers much wisdom or mid -life insight. For example, he pokes a bit of fun of his real-estates assistant's Eastern (Hindu / Buddhist) religious ideas while I respect Buddhism highly since it is not a "religion" per se rather a mind set - the middle path - nothing to extreme. I respect Eastern philosophy to our Western "Progress First" rat race mentality that puts no emphasis on inner peace (something the main character desperately seeks.) I was surprised to learn that this is also the third of the series. It is hard to imagine what is in the first two other than his divorce and then his diagnosis. It is true literature in a sense. I just didn't get much depth or deeper understanding out of it. It isn't BAD it just isn't REALLY good. When the deepest thing you can relate to is the satisfaction of getting much needed bladder relief you know you're not getting much out of the book.

This is one of two books I've never finished. I listened to probably 80% of it but there was nothing holding me to the end. The author and the narrator seemed to drone on and on. I'm not saying that there was nothing good -- I still have the feeling of the beach setting and it was interesting seeing things from the perspective of the realtor. It was a picture of a person and a place... The picture just didn't move enough for me.... Maybe I'll go back finally and listen to the end of it....

Verrrryyyy loooonng on meaningless details, very short on any interesting events. I skipped large parts because I just could not stand to listen to more descriptions of stores, roads, traffic signs, cars, expressions, feelings, etc. And guess what, I did not miss any of the story. So little happens, that it could be told in 10 minutes. One of the worst books i have listened to.