A BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford, 2014.

Frank Bascombe, sixty-eight, a retired real estate agent living in a well-to-do New Jersey suburb, has been the protagonist of three earlier books by Richard Ford: The Sportswriter, Independence Day (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner award), and Lay of the Land.  In this fourth book of the series Frank is summing up his life in the post Super Storm Sandy 2012 Christmas landscape.  Maybe it's a response to the stress of the storm; of the near miss -- for him. The thin book is really four long short stories, or novellas, where Frank realizes that he has to pare down his life to what is essential. Words, for example. I was particularly amused when he culled words that "should no longer be useable -- in speech or any form." For example: awesome when it only means "tolerable," no problem when you really mean "You're welcome." "Likewise, soft landing, sibs, bond, hydrate (when it just means "drink"), make art, share, reach out, noise used as a verb ....." In the stories Frank meets, in succession, a man to whom Frank sold his house was near the ocean that was destroyed by the storm; a black woman who many years previously, and after many intervening families,  owned his present home and who needed to expunge some demons; his former wife who now has Parkinson's Disease and is checked in to an up-scale care facility; a not-so-close friend from long ago who is dying. These subjects might seem depressing but in this book they are not. I have read very psychologically complicated reviews in praise of this book in national newspapers but, really, they seemed to be written more for the reviewer than for the potential reader. It seems clear to me that Frank Bascombe is doing what he has to do because he is a  good man. There really is no plot or dialogue here to criticize but Frank Bascombe is maybe not unlike many of us. He has lived more years than are left to him and he is taking stock. He has had a good, fulfilling life, but what does he want to leave? Not material stuff but the spiritual, the essence of who he was and is. He is not making big plans for some future. These stories are not moralizing pieces. The stories are sometimes funny but in them he, or Richard Ford, reviews where he is now, and each of the stories is the story of an individual who has a different claim on him. The ruined house in New Jersey: Frank feels some responsibility for having sold the house that was ultimately destroyed. At the same time he thanks his lucky stars for having left that bowling alley of the ocean. Have you sold a house and felt responsible for at least a while after? I have. Frank had to meet the guy even though he didn't particularly like him. A visit to his former wife in a care facility: We see that he is very happily married and we can see how and why his first marriage ended; it was not all one sided. What we also see is the connection that he maintains with his first wife even after many years. The former wife berates Frank for many things, and Frank argues with himself: "Why am I doing this?" 'Till death do us part?  I don't think that means just within the framework of a physical marriage. He can be quite content within his life but still acknowledge the persistasnce of that first love that gave them children and, a life. In the third story Frank is called to the bedside of a dying guy with whom Frank had been friends many years ago. A long time and, as they do, the two went different ways. But, they were friends and friendship implies some kind of responsibility even over time. Frank lists many reasons why he should not go, or does not have any responsibility to go, but in the end really he has no choice. As with his former wife, he is stung by the confession of a rotten deed done by the dying man, of something done long ago, but in the end it is just that:  something that happened long ago. In the second story Frank turns into his drive to find a well-dressed black woman ringing his door bell. What does she want? He has choices: send her on her way or, find out what she wants. Of course the sit around sharing tea or coffee and talking, haltingly but talking. The woman's family had lived there many years earlier and she just wanted to see the old house. Not quite. Turns out that she was a child when her family members were murdered in the house. She needed to confront that sad reality.  The past is the past. We have responsibilities, ties that are important and inescapable but the past is balanced by  what we do and who we are now, at this moment. 

Most of the dialogue in these stories goes on inside Frank's head.  Race, religion, politics: sometimes humorous and not essentially 'deep,' but his thoughts are authentic and, to me, reasonable. Richard Ford's writing is superb. It is a pleasure to read his phrasing and his choice of words. The book is enjoyable and thoughtful.  I have not read anything else by Richard Ford but as soon as I put these stories down, I bought another of his novels.  I enjoyed this book immensely and think that some of you might enjoy it as well. There is a copy of Let Me Be Frank With You in the Deering Public Library; I am certain there are copies in other libraries.