What do you think?
Rate this book
Frank Bascombe #5
Be Mine
From Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford: the final novel in the world of Frank Bascombe, one of the most indelible characters in American literature.
Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive, and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway.
Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colorful lives--sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent--Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all: caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank, in typical Bascombe fashion, faces down the mortality that is assured each of us, and in doing so confronts what happiness might signify at the end of days.
In this memorable novel, Richard Ford puts on displays the prose, wit, and intelligence that make him one of our most acclaimed living writers. Be Mine is a profound, funny, poignant love letter to our beleaguered world.
Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive, and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway.
Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colorful lives--sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent--Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all: caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank, in typical Bascombe fashion, faces down the mortality that is assured each of us, and in doing so confronts what happiness might signify at the end of days.
In this memorable novel, Richard Ford puts on displays the prose, wit, and intelligence that make him one of our most acclaimed living writers. Be Mine is a profound, funny, poignant love letter to our beleaguered world.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published June 13, 2023
About the author
Richard Ford
189 books1,532 followersRichard Ford, born February 16, 1944 in Jackson, Mississippi, is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank With You, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories. Comparisons have been drawn between Ford's work and the writings of John Updike, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and Walker Percy.
His novel Independence Day won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1996, also winning the PEN/Faulkner Award in the same year.
His novel Independence Day won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1996, also winning the PEN/Faulkner Award in the same year.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 261 reviews
June 3, 2023
Since Richard Ford created him almost 40 years ago, Frank Bascombe has become his literary alter ego, in the same vein as Roth's Zuckerman or Updike's Rabbit. And as with Larry McMurtry's Duane Moore, what started out as a standalone novel has expanded into several sequels as Ford has found more and more issues to address.
Now in his 70's, Frank is once again on a roadtrip with his son Paul with whom he first meandered in the Pulitzer winning Independence Day, but now Paul is 47, and Frank is his caretaker since he has ALS (or Al's, as they call it). So dealing with his own aging body as well as the ever increasing needs of a person with that fatal uncompromising condition, Frank thinks it a great idea if they go to Mount Rushmore on Valentine's Day in a rented camper.
What Ford does so well is delineate life's ludicrous incongruities, usually through the skewed lens of Paul's perceptions. The conversations between these two men, addressing matters of life and death interspersed with observations on the midwest landscape they traverse ("I am tantalized, as always, by the dense life elsewhere, though smart enough not to breathe its fumes too deep.") (On the Corn Palace: "Macy's of corn-themed crapola.") A visit to Fawning Buffalo, an Indian-managed casino, had me laughing out loud. But the real strength of the book lies in its depiction of grief and its sublimation. As Ford muses, "Can grief be defeated, or merely out-lived?"
Now in his 70's, Frank is once again on a roadtrip with his son Paul with whom he first meandered in the Pulitzer winning Independence Day, but now Paul is 47, and Frank is his caretaker since he has ALS (or Al's, as they call it). So dealing with his own aging body as well as the ever increasing needs of a person with that fatal uncompromising condition, Frank thinks it a great idea if they go to Mount Rushmore on Valentine's Day in a rented camper.
What Ford does so well is delineate life's ludicrous incongruities, usually through the skewed lens of Paul's perceptions. The conversations between these two men, addressing matters of life and death interspersed with observations on the midwest landscape they traverse ("I am tantalized, as always, by the dense life elsewhere, though smart enough not to breathe its fumes too deep.") (On the Corn Palace: "Macy's of corn-themed crapola.") A visit to Fawning Buffalo, an Indian-managed casino, had me laughing out loud. But the real strength of the book lies in its depiction of grief and its sublimation. As Ford muses, "Can grief be defeated, or merely out-lived?"
October 23, 2023
This was a donation to my Little Free Library Shed.
And…
Apparently, this is a series, a Frank Bascombe series.
And…
This is the last one.
I haven’t read the first four in the series, so I was at a disadvantage to understand Frank’s previous world. Especially, learning that the author's book in the series: Independence Day won The Pulitzer.
So…
Does that mean this can be read as a stand-alone.
I did.
But…
I believe I missed out on the nuances that are best known when you have been following a character through their past history.
So…
I encourage others to start at the beginning.
Still…
Here is the story.
Frank, our protagonist is now 74, mostly retired. He was a sportswriter before doing real estate. He now is into observing the human condition. Frank’s grown son, Paul has A.L.S., (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and time is short.
So…
The two of them decide to take an R.V. trip from an experimental protocol at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. where Paul is, to Mount Rushmore.
They are an odd couple. Paul is 47, often in his wheelchair. They display their love through puns and insults.
Frank has also had health issues, including prostate cancer. He wants…
“To be happy – before the gray curtain comes down.”
This book is set just before Covid appeared. Ford has an interesting way of showcasing his prose as readers follow Frank glimpsing a television screen…
“President Trump’s swollen, eyes-bulging face filled the TV screen behind the honor bar, doing his pooch-lipped, arms-folded Mussolini. I couldn’t take my eyes off him – tuberous limbs, prognathous jaw, looking in all directions at once, seeking approval but not finding enough.”
If I had read the other books ahead of this one, would I have felt closer to these characters?
Understood them more?
There is still something to be said about the author’s snarky humor and wit. His view of the world.
Still…
There is a desperation about Frank’s character that makes him almost unlikable, and I don’t know if that makes him lovable, or not.
Because…
Has he been this way all along?
Yet…
In this book…
There were some parts within that touched me.
The sense of mortality felt real.
And…
As readers we can feel the fear of that, and understanding of growing older, weaker, and more uncomfortable with a body that doesn’t work as well for us.
Still…
If anyone has been following along with this series, or not…
Best to start at the beginning…
The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land, and Let Me Be Frank With You.
And…
Apparently, this is a series, a Frank Bascombe series.
And…
This is the last one.
I haven’t read the first four in the series, so I was at a disadvantage to understand Frank’s previous world. Especially, learning that the author's book in the series: Independence Day won The Pulitzer.
So…
Does that mean this can be read as a stand-alone.
I did.
But…
I believe I missed out on the nuances that are best known when you have been following a character through their past history.
So…
I encourage others to start at the beginning.
Still…
Here is the story.
Frank, our protagonist is now 74, mostly retired. He was a sportswriter before doing real estate. He now is into observing the human condition. Frank’s grown son, Paul has A.L.S., (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and time is short.
So…
The two of them decide to take an R.V. trip from an experimental protocol at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. where Paul is, to Mount Rushmore.
They are an odd couple. Paul is 47, often in his wheelchair. They display their love through puns and insults.
Frank has also had health issues, including prostate cancer. He wants…
“To be happy – before the gray curtain comes down.”
This book is set just before Covid appeared. Ford has an interesting way of showcasing his prose as readers follow Frank glimpsing a television screen…
“President Trump’s swollen, eyes-bulging face filled the TV screen behind the honor bar, doing his pooch-lipped, arms-folded Mussolini. I couldn’t take my eyes off him – tuberous limbs, prognathous jaw, looking in all directions at once, seeking approval but not finding enough.”
If I had read the other books ahead of this one, would I have felt closer to these characters?
Understood them more?
There is still something to be said about the author’s snarky humor and wit. His view of the world.
Still…
There is a desperation about Frank’s character that makes him almost unlikable, and I don’t know if that makes him lovable, or not.
Because…
Has he been this way all along?
Yet…
In this book…
There were some parts within that touched me.
The sense of mortality felt real.
And…
As readers we can feel the fear of that, and understanding of growing older, weaker, and more uncomfortable with a body that doesn’t work as well for us.
Still…
If anyone has been following along with this series, or not…
Best to start at the beginning…
The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land, and Let Me Be Frank With You.
August 11, 2023
Death, Not Yours
A few years ago, I picked up a copy of “The Sportswriter” by Richard Ford and before I read it, I ordered a copy of his Pulitzer Prize winning “Independence Day.” Once I got into “The Sportswriter,” though, I realized it did not interest me at all. The ramblings of a middle-aged man stumbling through his mid-life crisis seemed to have been done better by John Updike’s Rabbit books. The prose was good, the journey… bleh (to me at the time). With more attractive suitors on my TBR list I never did get around to “Independence Day.”
Recently an advance copy of Mr. Ford’s new book, “Be Mine,” was available and I thought I would give it a shot. I felt I must have missed something, had the wrong attitude. At the same time, I had an extra Audible credit available, and I thought maybe a different format might be the thing to align me with his pacing.
The central character running throughout this series is Frank Bascombe, now 74 and focused on mortality and the puzzle of life. His son, Paul, is 47 and has been diagnosed with ALS, the “Lou Gehrig” disease for which there is still no cure. It is one thing to be playing out your days trying to come to grips with life’s eventual fade, it is quite a bit more challenging to be the one guiding your son to his finale.
Frank drives Paul out to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he will be analyzed and studied, not cured. Paul’s condition is rapidly deteriorating, and Frank finds himself in the role of caretaker, assisting his son increasingly more often in performing his basic functions. The two men are constantly sparring with one another, with a sarcasm and gallows humor both witty and morbid.
A trip is planned– rent a dilapidated RV and make the trek up to the glorious Mount Rushmore with the goal of helping the guys bond while shaking off a painfully claustrophobic walk of death. Father and son look to break down some of the walls neglect has fostered over the years. The question looms…why this destination? What huge significance can a commercial tourist trap like Mount Rushmore be in the comprehension of a life?
Earlier in the novel, Frank details a relationship he has with Betty, a Vietnamese American massage therapist who he considers marrying and who may or may not seriously consider him as anything more than a reliable client. This may have some point in a five-novel portrait of Frank Bascombe, but in a stand-alone story it really serves little purpose.
Advancing age brings with it the examination of what life is all about. Frank had his own concerns, but they are framed much differently when it is his son’s story he is defining. Death has become the undeniable reality and its progress is being measured by Paul’s decline, something Frank cannot ignore.
So, yes… this can be seen as a depressing subject and there is very little in the way of plot movement. I have to endorse the Audible edition by Harper Audio, which I used alternating with the kindle download. Richard Ford’s prose is always witty and clever, but the audible helped to keep things moving. While this was not an easy journey, the questions posed made it a rewarding one.
Thank you to Ecco Books and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #BeMine #NetGalley
A few years ago, I picked up a copy of “The Sportswriter” by Richard Ford and before I read it, I ordered a copy of his Pulitzer Prize winning “Independence Day.” Once I got into “The Sportswriter,” though, I realized it did not interest me at all. The ramblings of a middle-aged man stumbling through his mid-life crisis seemed to have been done better by John Updike’s Rabbit books. The prose was good, the journey… bleh (to me at the time). With more attractive suitors on my TBR list I never did get around to “Independence Day.”
Recently an advance copy of Mr. Ford’s new book, “Be Mine,” was available and I thought I would give it a shot. I felt I must have missed something, had the wrong attitude. At the same time, I had an extra Audible credit available, and I thought maybe a different format might be the thing to align me with his pacing.
The central character running throughout this series is Frank Bascombe, now 74 and focused on mortality and the puzzle of life. His son, Paul, is 47 and has been diagnosed with ALS, the “Lou Gehrig” disease for which there is still no cure. It is one thing to be playing out your days trying to come to grips with life’s eventual fade, it is quite a bit more challenging to be the one guiding your son to his finale.
Frank drives Paul out to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he will be analyzed and studied, not cured. Paul’s condition is rapidly deteriorating, and Frank finds himself in the role of caretaker, assisting his son increasingly more often in performing his basic functions. The two men are constantly sparring with one another, with a sarcasm and gallows humor both witty and morbid.
A trip is planned– rent a dilapidated RV and make the trek up to the glorious Mount Rushmore with the goal of helping the guys bond while shaking off a painfully claustrophobic walk of death. Father and son look to break down some of the walls neglect has fostered over the years. The question looms…why this destination? What huge significance can a commercial tourist trap like Mount Rushmore be in the comprehension of a life?
Earlier in the novel, Frank details a relationship he has with Betty, a Vietnamese American massage therapist who he considers marrying and who may or may not seriously consider him as anything more than a reliable client. This may have some point in a five-novel portrait of Frank Bascombe, but in a stand-alone story it really serves little purpose.
Advancing age brings with it the examination of what life is all about. Frank had his own concerns, but they are framed much differently when it is his son’s story he is defining. Death has become the undeniable reality and its progress is being measured by Paul’s decline, something Frank cannot ignore.
So, yes… this can be seen as a depressing subject and there is very little in the way of plot movement. I have to endorse the Audible edition by Harper Audio, which I used alternating with the kindle download. Richard Ford’s prose is always witty and clever, but the audible helped to keep things moving. While this was not an easy journey, the questions posed made it a rewarding one.
Thank you to Ecco Books and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #BeMine #NetGalley
February 3, 2024
Rating: 3.75
This was the second book I've read by this author, and while more engaging, his long winded approach to storytelling, isn't the sort I gravitate towards. Ford obviously has stream of consciousness 'episodes' while writing of which some are of interest, but not all.
Frank Backcomb has had a life filled with both tragedy and joy while dwelling in NJ..he's lost his wife, children and job and has a 47 year old son suffering with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He's taken a job with an unusual firm called "House Whisperers", an agency that spots real estate investments for the those with shadow corps.
His son refers to the disease as "Al's" due to his sarcastic, depressing views which are the polar opposite of Frank's. Since ALS is a neurological disease that slowly kills, Frank gets wind of a Mayo clinic in MN and takes his son there for treatment. The banter between son and father is challenging, funny and often sad due to the horrible disease's effects. A ladies man, Backcomb uncovers a Vietnamese massage parlor near their rental, and becomes 'chummy' with the owner during his son's regular sessions.
A relatively simple plot that's humorous at times, it loses momentum due to needless details, back story and oddball insights. Ford is a skilled storyteller, but I can't say he's my 'cup of tea'.
This was the second book I've read by this author, and while more engaging, his long winded approach to storytelling, isn't the sort I gravitate towards. Ford obviously has stream of consciousness 'episodes' while writing of which some are of interest, but not all.
Frank Backcomb has had a life filled with both tragedy and joy while dwelling in NJ..he's lost his wife, children and job and has a 47 year old son suffering with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He's taken a job with an unusual firm called "House Whisperers", an agency that spots real estate investments for the those with shadow corps.
His son refers to the disease as "Al's" due to his sarcastic, depressing views which are the polar opposite of Frank's. Since ALS is a neurological disease that slowly kills, Frank gets wind of a Mayo clinic in MN and takes his son there for treatment. The banter between son and father is challenging, funny and often sad due to the horrible disease's effects. A ladies man, Backcomb uncovers a Vietnamese massage parlor near their rental, and becomes 'chummy' with the owner during his son's regular sessions.
A relatively simple plot that's humorous at times, it loses momentum due to needless details, back story and oddball insights. Ford is a skilled storyteller, but I can't say he's my 'cup of tea'.
June 20, 2023
As one of the blurbs on the back of "Be Mine" states, "You don't read the Bascombe books for plot. You read them for Ford's gleaming sentences". A truer statement may never have been written, for Be Mine is chock full of gleaming sentences but is essentially plotless. That's not as bad as it sounds, since it does leave a lot of room for Ford to ruminate on life, death, and everything else.
Be Mine is 74 year old Frank Bascombe as he endures the travails of old age before suddenly being confronted with his 47 year old son Paul's more imminent mortality. Paul has been diagnosed with a less common type of ALS that progresses rapidly and for which there's no cure. Paul, a smart, quirky, underachieving man who probably is somewhere "on the spectrum" and lives with his dad, has been accepted into a study at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The no-longer-married Frank is now Paul's caretaker and is trying his best to manage his son's physical and mental deterioration as they relocate temporarily to Rochester, MN. So, the first part of the book follows the father-son duo as they bicker, play word games, insult one another, and generally try to make the best of their situation. The remainder of Be Mine details the trip in an old, rented RV that Frank arranged, because he thought his quirky son would get a kick out of it, to Mount Rushmore in the middle of winter. Frank and the increasingly physically challenged Paul spend hour upon hour in the ramshackle vehicle visiting the various tourist traps along the way while continuing to bicker, Frank gently and Paul with more of an edge to his words.
I've always been impressed with Ford's writing and Be Mine is another fine effort in that regard. If you're an old guy like me who realizes the sands of time are continuing to run out, it's definitely not a feel good book. It is, though, quite a vehicle for Ford to talk about things and situations that may make us uncomfortable and his humanity and self-awareness are on display. The writing is A+, it's almost bereft of plot, and it's made me depressed, so I give it 3 stars.
Be Mine is 74 year old Frank Bascombe as he endures the travails of old age before suddenly being confronted with his 47 year old son Paul's more imminent mortality. Paul has been diagnosed with a less common type of ALS that progresses rapidly and for which there's no cure. Paul, a smart, quirky, underachieving man who probably is somewhere "on the spectrum" and lives with his dad, has been accepted into a study at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The no-longer-married Frank is now Paul's caretaker and is trying his best to manage his son's physical and mental deterioration as they relocate temporarily to Rochester, MN. So, the first part of the book follows the father-son duo as they bicker, play word games, insult one another, and generally try to make the best of their situation. The remainder of Be Mine details the trip in an old, rented RV that Frank arranged, because he thought his quirky son would get a kick out of it, to Mount Rushmore in the middle of winter. Frank and the increasingly physically challenged Paul spend hour upon hour in the ramshackle vehicle visiting the various tourist traps along the way while continuing to bicker, Frank gently and Paul with more of an edge to his words.
I've always been impressed with Ford's writing and Be Mine is another fine effort in that regard. If you're an old guy like me who realizes the sands of time are continuing to run out, it's definitely not a feel good book. It is, though, quite a vehicle for Ford to talk about things and situations that may make us uncomfortable and his humanity and self-awareness are on display. The writing is A+, it's almost bereft of plot, and it's made me depressed, so I give it 3 stars.
July 18, 2023
It's been a while since I read the four previous works by Ford featuring and following Frank Bascombe through family and marriages and divorces and emotions, holidays, yearnings, America and more. I can't say I remember them particularly well, but I recall falling into each happily, reading them with great focus, and have each on my bookshelves. Having read this one, which may or may not be the final installment in Bascombe's world, I might very well make it a project to read them all again from the beginning. In Be Mine, Frank is now 74, working in real estate part-time, mostly a desk job, living alone, when he learns from his daughter that his son, Paul, with whom he's had an uneven relationship, has ALS. A road trip, as the other novels include, is featured here, once Paul has gone through an experimental drug program at Mayo. This is not laugh out loud funny, but the views are amusing, droll, the nature of America precise, the relationship between father and son true, and it was a pleasure to take this latest trip with Frank.
Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for an ARC.
Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for an ARC.
August 14, 2023
Ford's writing is as lyrical as ever but Frank Bascombe takes on a new tint in Be Mine: less ironic, more understanding, more tender.
It's a compact, smooth read with humour and wryness sprinkled in, but deals mainly with longing and loss and relationships. It's a fitting "finish" for Frank, who began as a wayward and absent father in The Sportswriter and who finishes as a mostly determined caregiver to his son, Paul.
Some of the secondary storylines seemed to cut out abruptly but I want to believe it's just part of Frank's rather unpredictable, choppy life.
It's a real shame this series is coming to a close. Loved spending time with FB.
It's a compact, smooth read with humour and wryness sprinkled in, but deals mainly with longing and loss and relationships. It's a fitting "finish" for Frank, who began as a wayward and absent father in The Sportswriter and who finishes as a mostly determined caregiver to his son, Paul.
Some of the secondary storylines seemed to cut out abruptly but I want to believe it's just part of Frank's rather unpredictable, choppy life.
It's a real shame this series is coming to a close. Loved spending time with FB.
August 27, 2023
I highly recommend this book even if you have not read the other Frank Bascombe novels. I think I have read everything Ford has ever published. This book is poignant, hilarious and profound. Frank is self-aware almost to the point of it being painful, so a lot of the book is stream-of-consciousness. He and his son Paul are quick-witted and funny. Frank has a lot to say about aging and evaluating one's life when one is in the final chapter. As with many of us, his wisdom is hard-won, especially in relationships/marriages.
August 11, 2023
This is Richard Ford’s fifth Frank Bascombe novel, and possibly his last, although I would welcome more. Like Richard Linklater’s Before films and Boyhood, it revisits the characters every 9 years or so. In this novel, Frank is 74 and caring for his 47-year-old son, Paul, who has ALS (MND). As with the other novels, it takes place during a national holiday: Valentine’s Day, one of the “excuse” holidays that Paul used to write dopey Hallmark greetings cards for. Their self-appointed mission is to visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, “most notional of national monuments”. This is really just an excuse for Frank to spend some time with Paul now that his treatment at the Mayo Clinic is over. (It wasn’t really treatment: they were just studying his decline.) Paul thinks Rushmore is “completely pointless and ridiculous, and it’s great”: it tickles his love of the absurd. On the long drive from Rochester, Minnesota, they also visit the World’s Only Corn Palace (look it up: it’s a real place): a Midwestern Taj Mahal made of corn with an absurd gift shop full of corn-themed tat - that Paul also relishes.
This is the most poignant and touching of the Bascombe novels. Frank is an asshole, but is more humble and selfless, less selfish, than in the past. His old age feels like a terminal illness and he’s beginning to suffer from “global amnesia”, which suggests dementia is on the way. Ford takes another snapshot of America in the days before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out; the novel finishes with “the long plague months” at the end of Paul’s life. There’s also an ever-present menace, which many Americans must feel: the possibility of a sniper hiding somewhere, just about to take them out.
I love spending time with Ford’s meandering prose, his long overland journeys, his drab suburbia and strip malls, his melancholy of bad decisions and bad behaviour, his gentle crescendos of experience over national holidays. None of his other writing achieves this greatness; and I’m thankful for these five beautiful novels.
This is the most poignant and touching of the Bascombe novels. Frank is an asshole, but is more humble and selfless, less selfish, than in the past. His old age feels like a terminal illness and he’s beginning to suffer from “global amnesia”, which suggests dementia is on the way. Ford takes another snapshot of America in the days before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out; the novel finishes with “the long plague months” at the end of Paul’s life. There’s also an ever-present menace, which many Americans must feel: the possibility of a sniper hiding somewhere, just about to take them out.
I love spending time with Ford’s meandering prose, his long overland journeys, his drab suburbia and strip malls, his melancholy of bad decisions and bad behaviour, his gentle crescendos of experience over national holidays. None of his other writing achieves this greatness; and I’m thankful for these five beautiful novels.
July 17, 2023
I've been a fan of Ford's Frank Bascombe for decades, but this one was a little too unrelentingly glum for me. Son with ALS, bleak road trip in midwinter Midwest, death cloud over everything. And yet... the son is a sardonic, wry curmudgeon who really grew on me and the father-son dynamic is like riding along with two word-nerds who see America with a gimlet eye. Masterful writing as always.
July 7, 2023
Despite its tender ending, a long and brutal slog
June 30, 2023
I don't think this is the best book to start reading Richard Ford's novels but this was my first one and was a sort of novice.
I got more than i bargained as I discovered a talented storyteller and read a novel that moved me to tears and made me laugh.
It's a novel about life, mortality and there's something that kept me turning pages.
I want to read the other books as I want to learn more about Bascombe.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
I got more than i bargained as I discovered a talented storyteller and read a novel that moved me to tears and made me laugh.
It's a novel about life, mortality and there's something that kept me turning pages.
I want to read the other books as I want to learn more about Bascombe.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
November 3, 2023
Here's Frank Bascombe come to take us on a road trip once again. Since his creator, Richard Ford, first introduced him to us almost forty years ago, Frank has taken us on several holiday trips, most notably in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Independence Day.
Once again, Frank is taking a road trip with his son Paul who is now 47 and suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease). Frank and Paul refer to it as Al's, like some neighborhood bar. Frank is in his 70s and dealing with all the problems that come with an aging body, while also trying to serve as caretaker to his son.
So, how exactly is Frank accomplishing that? Well, his latest idea is to hit the road with Paul and take him to Mount Rushmore on a Valentine's Day trip. Paul has been in an experimental protocol for treating ALS at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Frank collects him and they head west.
The topics of conversation between the two men while traveling range from observations about the midwestern landscape they are traversing to matters of life and death itself. Frank's health has been problematic as well. He's recovered from prostate cancer and now he just wants to be happy "before the gray curtain comes down."
There's a certain desperation to Frank's personality that has been less noticeable (at least to me) in the previous four books in this series. As his body grows older, weaker, and more uncomfortable to live in, he senses that time is running out for him as well as for his son. It's an awareness that many of us, especially those of us of a certain age, can easily relate to. I think Richard Ford, who was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944, may perceive that awareness quite personally, too, and perhaps that is why he is able to write about it so feelingly.
Previous reviews in this series:
The Sportswriter
Independence Day
The Lay of the Land
Let Me Be Frank With You
Once again, Frank is taking a road trip with his son Paul who is now 47 and suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease). Frank and Paul refer to it as Al's, like some neighborhood bar. Frank is in his 70s and dealing with all the problems that come with an aging body, while also trying to serve as caretaker to his son.
So, how exactly is Frank accomplishing that? Well, his latest idea is to hit the road with Paul and take him to Mount Rushmore on a Valentine's Day trip. Paul has been in an experimental protocol for treating ALS at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Frank collects him and they head west.
The topics of conversation between the two men while traveling range from observations about the midwestern landscape they are traversing to matters of life and death itself. Frank's health has been problematic as well. He's recovered from prostate cancer and now he just wants to be happy "before the gray curtain comes down."
There's a certain desperation to Frank's personality that has been less noticeable (at least to me) in the previous four books in this series. As his body grows older, weaker, and more uncomfortable to live in, he senses that time is running out for him as well as for his son. It's an awareness that many of us, especially those of us of a certain age, can easily relate to. I think Richard Ford, who was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944, may perceive that awareness quite personally, too, and perhaps that is why he is able to write about it so feelingly.
Previous reviews in this series:
The Sportswriter
Independence Day
The Lay of the Land
Let Me Be Frank With You
July 5, 2023
Surprisingly found myself locked in and finished this in two sittings. Another holiday. Another road trip. Supposedly the last Bascombe novel, but I like the ending's openness, the way Ford left himself with options. What next, though? Bascombe's seventy-four here, and as Lorrie Moore said, "No one wants to hear what you think when you're eighty." Perhaps Ford will feel tempted to test that thesis. Perhaps not.
Some craft/litcrit stuff that jumped out at me: Meandering sentences exquisitely punctuated. When minor characters are given the stage, they steal it. Places explode as they are microscopically examined and described. Reported dialog casts certain words in quotes to show what narrator Bascombe (or is it author Ford?) considers notable (to flavor, to stress, to mark as cliche or emblematic). This stylistic use quotes to tag words is sure to be critically examined, and fully "academized." What to make of the structure that has two framing sections titled "Happiness" sandwiching two parts and eleven chapters? Paul's kitschy shirts! And, finally, there's Heidegger. Heidegger? Really? Give me 200o words on that. Due Friday.
Some craft/litcrit stuff that jumped out at me: Meandering sentences exquisitely punctuated. When minor characters are given the stage, they steal it. Places explode as they are microscopically examined and described. Reported dialog casts certain words in quotes to show what narrator Bascombe (or is it author Ford?) considers notable (to flavor, to stress, to mark as cliche or emblematic). This stylistic use quotes to tag words is sure to be critically examined, and fully "academized." What to make of the structure that has two framing sections titled "Happiness" sandwiching two parts and eleven chapters? Paul's kitschy shirts! And, finally, there's Heidegger. Heidegger? Really? Give me 200o words on that. Due Friday.
April 2, 2024
This is the fifth book in a series and I never would have picked it up if I didn't have to read it for the Booktube Prize. There is a bit of a plot, but it's surrounded by a lot of ruminating by the main character and endless banter between him and his son. If you've read other books in this series I hope you like it more, but for me it mostly felt like a slog.
August 27, 2023
Frank Bascombe, now an old man, returns to usher his invalid son Paul (47) with ALS to the Mayo Clinic and then on to Mount Rushmore for a final fling at companionship in a rented RV. This is a funny, witty and moving story about family and life by an author who knows how to write.
July 31, 2023
“Which, after all, is what we’re here for. To give life its full due, no matter what kind of person we are. Or am I wrong?” So thinks Frank Bascombe, now 74 and taking care of his terminally ill son, in this, the final book in the series by Richard Ford. I found this book to be moving without ever even getting close to maudlin, it is an honest and open look at a man nearing the end of his life while watching his son die. It ends up being mostly a road novel and Ford’s ability to describe and define place is superb. Frank and his son Paul are very strong characters, Paul is especially singular (and difficult), but they are allowed to exist in their imperfections, and aren’t we all imperfect, and Frank has always been such a keen observer of life and of America that you end up really enjoying the trip. In the end, as Frank muses near the close of the novel, “the most important thing about life is that it will end, and that when it does, whether we are alone or not alone, we die in our own particular way.” Frank has been his own “particular way” all along. This is a fitting close to this story.
August 31, 2023
I am roughly the same age as Frank Bascombe so my adulthood has paralleled his. The subject of this chapter, his son’s ALS, as well as his own mortality made this a rather sobering read. However, the dark humor and Ford’s brilliant writing alleviate the pain.
It’s interesting to me that both Ford and my musical idol, Bruce Springsteen, have focused their latest works on aging, death, and loss of close ones. Listen to Springsteen’s last album, Letter to You, to see what I mean.
“Relations, the great master says, never really end. But it is the task of the teller to draw - by a geometry of his own - the circle within which they will, happily or otherwise, appear to do so.” (Richard Ford)
“I’ll see you in my dreams.” (Bruce Springsteen)
It’s interesting to me that both Ford and my musical idol, Bruce Springsteen, have focused their latest works on aging, death, and loss of close ones. Listen to Springsteen’s last album, Letter to You, to see what I mean.
“Relations, the great master says, never really end. But it is the task of the teller to draw - by a geometry of his own - the circle within which they will, happily or otherwise, appear to do so.” (Richard Ford)
“I’ll see you in my dreams.” (Bruce Springsteen)
July 31, 2023
Such a beautiful book about Richard Ford's recurring character, Frank Bascombe, who at age 74 becomes the caregiver for his son Paul Bascombe who at age 47 is diagnosed with ALS, or as Paul calls it, Al's. The two of them decide to take a trip together to Mount Rushmore even as Paul's body is suffering more and more from the devastating impacts of ALS. All along the way they talk about things profound and mundane, some sad, but many hilarious. I loved this book and highly recommend it. Such a great read.
March 27, 2024
Like the latter novels of Updike, some echoes of the earlier works that landed better.
August 2, 2023
Just didn’t have the spark of earlier novels.
July 24, 2023
Another sad book (I was on holiday in Fiji and read three books in a row that were about aging or death or similar sad themes I could all too readily identify with). In this one, Frank Bascome, Ford’s central character of The Sportswriter and Independence Day is now 74. One son has died much younger, he has two failed marriages, a daughter who is a Republican he doesn’t much like, and a remaining son who is 47 and has ALS, a terminal degenerative disease. After supporting his contrarian son through a guinea pig trial at the Mayo Institute (which doesn’t offer any promise of cure or relief) he decides to go on a major road trip with him to see Mt Rushmore and the famous US president effigies (echoing a trip in an earlier book that had not gone well). He is consumed with awareness of his son’s fate and the limits of what he can do to help (especially as his son is a difficult character and neither of them are good at talking directly about anything) but feels that this one gesture to plan and finish something is worth doing. The book is extremely poignant and also amusing – both father and son are witty and good at word play, and both have an eye for the sentimental ridiculousness and affectations of rural America. But it is overall sad – the book of someone who considers himself old and who is very aware of his own bodily aging and limited time remaining, and who is equally dwelling backwards on his whole life, and especially his relationship with his children. He is thinking about what happiness means, and of possibilities of new relationships with women and is partly disappointed in these and partly satisfied or reconciled. It is a powerful book that lingers when you have finished reading.
February 4, 2024
Ford is one of my all-time favorite authors. There's a lyrical and poetic quality to his writing, combined with a somber literary voice, that I really love. And yet this story was painful to read because through five novels we have watched his literary creation, Frank Bascombe--a guy with no negative qualities and a desire just to get through life with as little sorrow as possible--suffer tragedy after tragedy. In this book, a 70-year-old Bascombe tries to care for his 40-something son who is dying of ALS. You read page after page of an old man, who you've been reading books about for decades, struggling to get by, and you have to wonder to what purpose Ford is putting his literary alter ego through one misery after another like this. After a while, Bascombe deserves to have something good happen to him.
A sad and depressing book, but like everything Ford writes it's also powerful. I'd definitely recommend not reading this, though, until you've read the previous four Bascombe novels.
A sad and depressing book, but like everything Ford writes it's also powerful. I'd definitely recommend not reading this, though, until you've read the previous four Bascombe novels.
September 6, 2023
Frank Bascomb's 47 year old son has Lou Gehrig's disease and Frank is taking him to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I liked this book because I got a real feel for Minnesota in the winter and a real feel for the atmosphere surrounding the Mayo Clinic. Ford is so self-deprecating and sarcastic that it pulls on your natural sympathies much more so than if he tried to get your sympathy. I loved the son who is described by his father as being fat, balding, with warty fingers. He always wears the worst clothes and sweatshirts with sayings on them like "Genius at Wrok".
When the treatment is over Frank decides to take his son to see Mount Rushmore and thus a road trip in an ancient rented RV follows. Hilarity ensues. There's no happy ending here and the author doesn't try to make an object lesson out of it but you can feel the love between these two crusty old birds and it's fun to bear witness.
When the treatment is over Frank decides to take his son to see Mount Rushmore and thus a road trip in an ancient rented RV follows. Hilarity ensues. There's no happy ending here and the author doesn't try to make an object lesson out of it but you can feel the love between these two crusty old birds and it's fun to bear witness.
October 7, 2023
Richard Ford remains my favourite author. He captures the mundane inner life of an ordinary Joe, and in the process the reader gains significant insights into America - the country, people, politics, landscape, society, and memorable incidental characters.
This is his 5th book centred on the character of Frank Bascombe. It is touching, heart wrenching, funny, awful, sad, never pitiful and also never cosy. Frank, for all his imperfections in affairs of the heart over the course of his life, is committed to showing up for his dying son, and given the limitations of what is available given the time of year and his sons precarious health, he creates a road trip as a form of a Valentine's gift.
Richard Ford handles relationships and polarities particularly well - 'you're my favourite turd' says Frank's son to his father - and in that captures both their whole relationship and the son's persona. Just beautiful- a work of art.
This is his 5th book centred on the character of Frank Bascombe. It is touching, heart wrenching, funny, awful, sad, never pitiful and also never cosy. Frank, for all his imperfections in affairs of the heart over the course of his life, is committed to showing up for his dying son, and given the limitations of what is available given the time of year and his sons precarious health, he creates a road trip as a form of a Valentine's gift.
Richard Ford handles relationships and polarities particularly well - 'you're my favourite turd' says Frank's son to his father - and in that captures both their whole relationship and the son's persona. Just beautiful- a work of art.
August 16, 2023
Poignant story of a father and his mid-life son who take a trip out west after the son receives a diagnosis of ALS. The many musings on happiness and how to live life presented questions, but not really very clear answers.
I believe I read another of the Frank Bascombe novels, but I can’t remember it now…I think it was Independence Day. I probably won’t go back and read the others. I think this story stands up just fine on it’s own.
I believe I read another of the Frank Bascombe novels, but I can’t remember it now…I think it was Independence Day. I probably won’t go back and read the others. I think this story stands up just fine on it’s own.
Read
October 19, 2023Ford's Bascombe novels are uniformly excellent. For my taste:
1. The Lay of the Land
2. The Sportswriter
3. Let Me Be Frank With You
4. Independence Day
5. Be Mine
The biting muscularity of Ford's depiction of grief mellows in Be Mine, which is probably why I found it the weakest entry but it remains moving and perceptive.
1. The Lay of the Land
2. The Sportswriter
3. Let Me Be Frank With You
4. Independence Day
5. Be Mine
The biting muscularity of Ford's depiction of grief mellows in Be Mine, which is probably why I found it the weakest entry but it remains moving and perceptive.
September 5, 2023
This joins a unexpected group of books by older male writers looking back, especially at their family(ies) with some regret. A lot of readers thought there was much humor in Be Mine.....I found a lot of courage, along with some very odd decisions....
February 10, 2024
Frank Bascombe is a crazy man. This is a sad story about a man who goes to Mt Rushmore with his son who is dying of ALS. The things they talk about are hilarious. You never get to feel how sad it is because every other page there is something to laugh about. I think some more sensitive people would be quite offended by this book. I don't care. I liked it and I am sad that there are only two more Frank Bascombe books I haven't read. I read the last one because it was on sale. Now I have to go back in time and read books 3 and 4. Something I could imagine Frank Bascombe doing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 261 reviews