Wildlife (Harvill Panther) [Paperback]

Richard Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1996 | Series: Harvill Panther

Seen through the eyes of a 16 year-old boy, this is the story of a family drawn west by dreams of oil boom prosperity only to find themselves on the margins of society, confronting the loss of work and the dissolution of the family. By the author of "A Piece of My Heart".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Joe, now an adult, recalls confronting his parents' shortcomings at age 16 when his unemployed father took up firefighting and his mother began an affair. According to PW , Ford has a "remarkable ability to capture distinctive voices" and "his short, bittersweet fourth novel . . . again proves him to be a gifted chronicler of the down-and-out."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Narrated by son Joe, a teenager at the time of the events, this well-written tale takes place in 1960 Montana. Wealthy businessman Warren Miller plays golf with teaching pro Jerry Brinson at a private Great Falls country club. When Jerry loses his job at the club, Miller starts taking swimming lessons from Jerry's wife, Jeanette, at the YWCA. Jerry and Jeanette, a handsome, athletic couple in their late 30s, are both headed for midlife troubles. Seeking to prove his manhood, Jerry joins a firefighting crew battling a blaze in the nearby mountains. Left behind, Jeanette falls into bed with an eager Warren Miller. By the author of A Piece of My Heart (LJ 12/1/76), The Sportswriter , and Rock Springs, this excellent short novel, while gently and reflectively told, is ultimately a devastating account of one family's destruction. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/90.
- James B . Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Col.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 162 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Press Ltd (September 7, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860461735
• ISBN-13: 978-1860461736
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,911,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the fire leaves behind..., April 26, 2004

By 

C. Fletcher (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wildlife (Paperback)

I've been a devoted fan of Richard Ford's writing since I read his incredible Frank Bascombe novels, THE SPORTSWRITER and INDEPENDENCE DAY. Those are easily two of the best books I've ever read.

Ford is so skilled at creating damaged yet optimistic characters and making them interact in the world around them, that is just makes you want to cry with compassion and love for all of the ways that we as humans are screwed up, and yet able to mount another dream after the went before has turned into ashes.

WILDLIFE is pure Richard Ford, though on a smaller scale than the Bascombe novels. In this novel, Ford writes from the perspective of a young boy growing up in rural 1950's Montana with amid his parents' troubled marriage.

Ford is often compared to Hemingway, and the similarities are certainly visible in this novel. Ford's simple, understated, yet emotion-packed style is maybe at its most Hemingwayesque in this novel, but it's still uniquely Ford. The young boy finding the means around him to be a man is also similar to Hemingway's Nick Adams, but again, but, again, it never feels that Ford is just imitating Hemingway here.

Richard Ford is his own man, and his own writer, and there's something very appealing about Ford's writing, that shines through in this novel, and makes you want to celebrate the beauty of life in all its painful twists and turns.

If you've never read Richard Ford before, you're missing out on a great modern American writer.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise, enjoyable, culimination of a larger project, April 22, 2004

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wildlife (Paperback)

Ford told me that this book, really a novella more than a novel, was his last attempt to get out of his system what he began in the Montana stories in his collection Rock Springs, although I would suggest that the Montana-based story in Women without Men which had not appeared then continues that. What is significant to me about these stories is not the Western setting which is nice and full and accurate, or the feelings for the times, but Ford's approach to the question of the myth of parenthood. In this book and the stories our characters are faced with the patriarchal myth of the father and the mother as people who can play such a superior role and guide the family safely through the maze of life in capitalism, always being someone to look up to by the child. Ford brings about explosions, sometimes big explosions--in Rock Springs dad kills a guy in one story and in another story the Dad and the son come and find good old mom and an Airman in the sack--sometimes small and this myth is blown away. The child discovers that the parent is a conflicted person with all the problems and humanity that we know, open to disaster, tragedy, and just plain bad luck. Whether from the parent's point of view, or the child's what we see is this myth receding and the acceptance of real humanity by both the child and the parent. Would that so many of this could have learned all this as wisely in life as Ford tells this in his fiction!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional and insightful from start to finish, November 16, 1999

By 

David Antonelli (Windsor, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wildlife (Paperback)

This book is gripping from the first to the last word and I couldn't put it down. The story moves quickly and the feeling of impending disaster seems to build up until the climax toward the end. The characters feel intensely about life but don't seem to understand each other well. I particularly think of the scene where the boy is in the car watching his dad set fire to a house. I would rate this along with his short stories, Women with Men, and The Ultimate Good Luck as the best Ford has to offer. I'm not sure why The Sportswriter and Independence Day have received so much attention, as these books tend to be too long and pointless, although I realize that this was the intent, ie to construct an existential landscape of a man in mid-life searching for meaning. But I liked Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly more than Wild Strawberries, so there you go. More emotion, more gripping, yet similar underlying message.