The Sportswriter [Paperback]

Richard Ford (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ralph Bascombe, the brooding antihero here, is not a Walter Matthaustyle, cigar-smoking sportswriter. Rather he resembles John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom (sans cynicism). Bascombe has decided in his "mid-life crisis" years to write heartwarming articles for a glossy sports magazine, and in the literal world of sportswriting, he has found a way to avoid life's "searing regret" without sacrificing its mysteries. In fact, Ralph is comfortable all around, living an ordinary, invisible existence in the "muted and adaptable" landscape of a New Jersey suburb. He has two lovely children, buddies in the Divorced Men's Club and occasional romps in the sack with a buxom nurse. Then comes a crisis, with a narrative that becomes an odyssey through an extraordinary Easter week of death and renewal that brutally challenges Ralph's fragile optimism. This painfully funny addition to Ford's two other masterful novels (A Piece of My Heart and The Ultimate Good Luck establishes the author among the best realist American writers today.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Random House/Vintage Contemporaries; 1st edition (February 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394743253
• ISBN-13: 978-1860461712
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Why is this So Revered?, November 12, 2011

By 

Andrew Martin (East of the Hudson) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sportswriter (Paperback)

I've had several people tell me how much they loved this book so I finally gave it a shot a while back. The writing is certainly good and Ford knows how to make believable characters, but where is the real source of interest in the story? Maybe I'm just not the kind of reader who goes for novels that are entirely character-based. I do like a good story with some surprises to keep me interested and this book just started to bore me about halfway through.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally fine, December 31, 2006

By 

Reader "Book Lover" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sportswriter (Paperback)

This book was a joy to read - and to begin the journey of Frank Bascombe as Ford travels through his life here and in the other two Frank Bascombe novels I will read next. Ford is an extraordinary author, because as he tell of the lives of his characters, he's also telling our own in a way that makes us understand ourselves better. Who can't use more of that?

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe we carried it back too!, June 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sportswriter (Paperback)

My wife and I agree... this book, how can we say it... has great and continuous vaccuum. We purchased it to take with us and read on a 16 hour flight to Australia. It was my turn first. To say the least, I'm certainly glad our pilot was not also reading it. Pointless, self indulgent, and boring. I made it 60 pages before I went back for a second read of the Airline's flight magazine. It is extremely rare that I don't finish a book, but in this case I can't imagine anything more torturous.

My wife took it as more of a challenge. A challenge to make it through the book... and that she did... reading it because "Surely, it must get better". It apparently never did. She WAS going to read Independence Day... not anymore.

What exactly *do* you do to get a Pulitzer anyway. He couldn't possibly have upgraded his style that much could he??