{"id":19658,"date":"2014-12-09T13:25:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T19:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=19658"},"modified":"2015-10-28T11:19:49","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T16:19:49","slug":"richard-ford-signing-let-me-be-frank-with-you-at-off-square-books-1211","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/richard-ford-signing-let-me-be-frank-with-you-at-off-square-books-1211\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Ford Signing “Let Me Be Frank With You” at Off Square Books 12\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RichardFord-Let<\/a>A brilliant new work that returns Richard Ford<\/strong> to the celebrated fictional landscape that sealed his reputation as an American master: the world of Frank Bascombe.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his trio of critically acclaimed, bestselling novels\u2014The Sportswriter<\/em>, the Pulitzer Prize and PEN\/ Faulkner-winning Independence Day<\/em>, and The Lay of the Land<\/em>\u2014Richard Ford, in essence, illuminated the zeitgeist of an entire generation, through the divinings and wit of his now-famous literary chronicler, Frank Bascombe, who is certainly one of the most indelible, provocative, and anticipated characters in modern American literature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, in Let Me Be Frank With You<\/em>, Ford returns with four deftly linked stories narrated by the iconic Bascombe. Now sixty-eight, and again ensconced in the well-defended New Jersey suburb of Haddam, Bascombe has thrived in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy\u2019s devastation. As in all of the Bascombe books, Ford\u2019s guiding spirit is the old comic\u2019s maxim that promises if nothing\u2019s funny, nothing\u2019s truly serious. The desolation of Sandy, which rendered houses, shorelines, and countless lives unmoored and flattened, could scarcely be more serious as the grist for fiction. Yet it is the perfect backdrop and touchstone for Ford\u2014and Bascombe. With a flawless comedic sensibility and unblinking intelligence, these stories range over the full complement of American subjects: aging, race, loss, faith, marriage, redemption, the real-estate crash\u2014the tumult of the world we live in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through Bascombe we engage in the aspirations and sorrows, longings, achievements, and failings of American life in the morning of the new century. With his trademark candor and brimming wit, Richard Ford brings Bascombe fully back, in all his imperfect glory, to say (often hilariously) what all of us are thinking but few will voice aloud.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"TLV-218-SA-SquareBooks-RGB\"<\/a>Whether you\u2019ve been a Bascombe insider since The Sportswriter<\/em> or are encountering Ford\u2019s unforgettable inventions newly here, Let Me Be Frank With You<\/em> is a moving, wondrous, extremely funny odyssey, showcasing the maturity and brilliance of a great writer working at the top of his talents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Ford is the author of the Bascombe novels as well as the New York Times<\/em> bestselling novel Canada<\/em> and the short story collections Rock Springs<\/em> and A Multitude of Sins<\/em>, which contain many widely anthologized stories. He lives in Boothbay, Maine, with his wife Kristina Ford.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brilliant new work that returns Richard Ford to the celebrated fictional landscape that sealed his reputation as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":19665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2239],"tags":[821,4904,4903,4906,1094,448,4905,4902,602],"class_list":["post-19658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-literary-events","tag-book-signing","tag-frank-bascombe","tag-let-me-be-frank-with-you","tag-literature","tag-local","tag-off-square-books","tag-reading","tag-richard-ford","tag-square-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/RichardFordFEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}