The Sportswriter (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Richard Ford, New Jersey, Sergeant Benivalle (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's hard to imagine a book illuminating the texture of everyday life more brilliantly, or capturing the truth of human emotions more honestly, than Ford does in his account of an alienated scribe in the New Jersey suburbs. Frank Bascombe, Ford's protagonist, clings to his almost villainous despair in a way that Walker Percy's men don't, but the book is heavily influenced by Ford's fellow southerner nonetheless. Read this and you're ready for Ford's Pulitzer Prize-winning sequel, Independence Day.

Product Description

To coordinate with the publication of its long-awaited sequel, Independence Day, Vintage is reissuing this novel. In the course of one Easter week, Frank Bascombe, a former novelist who now supports himself writing about men who live more successfully within themselves, walks the treacherous line between elation and searing regret. Profile in Vanity Fair.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 9th edition (June 13, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679762108
• ISBN-13: 978-0679762102
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,357 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to peek inside the head of the modern American male?, September 22, 2003

By	Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Okay, ladies: in spite of the title, go right out and buy this book. If you've ever complained that you just don't understand what makes men tick, The Sportswriter was meant exactly for you.
Frank Bascombe's young son has just died, his marriage has crumbled, and his promising career as a novelist has failed - and the guy's only in his late 30s. Depressing, right? Right. For sure. Sooooo, why bother, you might ask? Answer: Frank has a rich inner life that makes you want to stick with him. This is where his problems originate. We know he is sensitive (these days, we'd say he has a well-developed feminine side) and cares about the pleasures of life's small moments - but he's got a typical male problem: He can't express this side of himself to those closest to him, resorting to moral dishonesty rather than expose himself as a caring human.
Read it, ladies. Then read the sequel, Independence Day, which won the Pulitzer in 1996. But read this one first. It's important.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A portrait of the unmoored life in a suburban purgatory., June 10, 2006

By	D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Taking place entirely over Easter weekend in 1983, "The Sportswriter" portrays Frank Bascombe, a 38-year-old man living in bland suburbia and suffering from the inertia and "dreaminess" of a mid-life crisis. The theme of middle-aged, middle-class male angst has pretty much become a genre unto itself (see John Updike, Philip Roth, Frederick Barthelme, et al.), and I confess that I've grown somewhat weary of it, but what rescues Ford's entry into the field is his compelling and wry prose.

Like the author himself, Bascombe hails from Mississippi, lives in New Jersey, published a well-received collection of short stories earlier in life, and works as a writer for a glossy sports weekly. There the resemblances between author and protagonist apparently end. Bascombe is suffering: he is still reeling from the loss of his son four years earlier and the subsequent demise of his marriage after his wife discovered evidence of his infidelity. He's the type of guy who knows a lot of people but has no real friends, and his male reserve prevents him from confronting the tragedies experienced by his family, the lingering feelings for his ex-wife, and the emotional vacuity of his life. Instead of therapy, he escapes to a fortune-telling psychic; unfortunately, she seems to be away for the weekend.

During the course of three days, Frank reunites with his wife briefly for the anniversary of his son's death. He travels to Detroit both for business (to conduct an interview with a permanently disabled football player) and for a short holiday with his latest girlfriend Vicki. The trip is a disaster on both counts. When he returns, Frank finds himself an unwilling confessor to the emotionally unstable and clearly distraught newest member of The Divorced Men's Club--a loose and unofficial support group to which both men belong.

In spite of the self-professed apathy of its narrator, the book boasts some extraordinarily touching and even occasionally humorous moments--such as the conversation between Frank and his son when the latter catches him spying outside his ex-wife's house, or the uncomfortable moment when Vicki finds Frank going through her purse. But the book is not without its missteps. Frank sublets part of his home to a black divinity student from Africa, whose almost ghost-like and peripheral presence in the novel seems, at best, gratuitous.

Although a lot happens to Frank over one holiday weekend, the aloof and defensive tone of its narrator can, at times, make his life seem more sluggish than it really is. To me, Bascombe's mid-life experiences--indeed, his entire milieu--seem like depictions from an alien world, but Ford somehow manages to create a convincing portrait of the unmoored life in a self-created purgatory.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't skip because you don't like "Sports books", May 11, 2003

By	Timothy Gager "some call me Tim" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This is an example of a book's title misrepresenting the product. When I told people I was reading this, many unfamiliar to the author said that they didn't like sports books. This is not a sports book. It's a book based on human emotion, isolation, and need. The main character, written in the first person narrative just so happens to hold down that job. The book is heavy on the narrative end with very sparse dialog. By doing this the author creates a psychological work where a broken marriage, deceased son, writer's issues are all examined. This book was so well written that I admired many of the passages and re-read them directly after reading them the first time. This is a very good read for all, men, women, sports fans and fans of Martha Stewart.