Customer Reviews

The Sportswriter

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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?

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??

This book sucks. [...] Ford has a formidable talent for using a lot of words to say little. I would have liked, at least, to learn a little bit about the world of sportswriting, and even in that I was disappointed.