The Lay of the Land

Last updated
The Lay of the Land
RF LOTL.jpg
First edition cover
Author Richard Ford
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Knopf
Publication date
October 2006
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages496 pp
ISBN 0-676-97248-9
OCLC 68401973
Preceded byA Multitude of Sins 
Followed by Canada  

The Lay of the Land is a 2006 novel by American author Richard Ford. The novel is the third in what is now a five-part series, preceded by the novels The Sportswriter (1986) and Independence Day (1995); and followed by Let Me Be Frank With You (2014), a collection of "long" stories, [1] and the novel Be Mine (2023). Each of these books follows a portion of the life of Frank Bascombe, a real estate agent.

Contents

The Lay of the Land was nominated for a 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award.

Plot

The Lay of the Land takes place in the fall of 2000, and Ford's character Frank Bascome is preparing for Thanksgiving at his home in Sea Clift, New Jersey. His son Paul, who is now a greeting card designer in Kansas City, Paul's girlfriend, who has only one hand, and Frank's daughter, Clarissa, who is an on-and-off lesbian, are all expected to attend. Frank has ordered a ready-made organic meal to be delivered on the holiday.

Frank's second wife, Sally, has reunited with her formerly AWOL and presumed-dead husband Wally, and they now live in the British Isles. Frank is in the last throes of a fight against prostate cancer, and Frank's first wife, Ann, has moved back to Haddam, New Jersey, after the death of her second husband.

Frank has started RealtyWise, his own company, and employs Mike Mahoney, a Tibetan who has adopted an American Republican lifestyle, except inasmuch as he believes in Buddhist philosophy.

Over the course of three days, Frank has a range of painful experiences with everyone he meets, including potential home buyers, the father of an old flame, his former wife, his son, and an old acquaintance whom Frank assaults in a bar. Frank's most redeeming moments as a character are in a lesbian bar where he waits for repair work on his Chevrolet Suburban, and when he gets shot in the chest by teenagers who have murdered his unlikable neighbors.

In the end, Frank and Sally are flying to the Mayo Clinic to get the final word on his prostate.

Reception

The Lay of the Land received very positive reviews. Merle Rubin of The Christian Science Monitor commented that the book "bristles with energy, with a natural assurance on the part of its writer." [2] The Sydney Morning Herald noted that "the tone of The Lay of the Land is somber, despite a few patches of high comedy, and its style is markedly introspective," adding that "Ford is such a fine writer that he pulls off a notable feat." [3] In a review for The Observer Tim Adams of wrote "Often in the book, you feel like you could listen to Frank observing his life for ever; very occasionally, it feels like you are," adding "There's not a line in the nearly 500 pages that you would want to lose, though." [4] The Wall Street Journal complimented the book, writing "Mr. Ford's prose, however, is far from dull; virtuosic flights and crescendos animate passages that we might otherwise think we could do without." [5] In contrast, Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times called the book "lethargic" and a "padded, static production." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Madox Ford</span> English writer and publisher (1873–1939)

Ford Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Ford</span> American author

Richard Ford is an American novelist and short story author, and writer of a series of novels featuring the character Frank Bascombe.

<i>Cujo</i> Novel by Stephen King

Cujo is a 1981 horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a rabid Saint Bernard. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982 and was made into a film in 1983.

<i>Storm of the Century</i> 1999 horror TV miniseries directed by Craig R. Baxley

Storm of the Century, alternatively known as Stephen King's Storm of the Century, is a 1999 American horror television miniseries written by Stephen King and directed by Craig R. Baxley. Unlike many other television adaptations of King's work, Storm of the Century was not based on a novel but was an original screenplay written by the author and directly produced for television. King described the screenplay as a "novel for television." The screenplay was published as a mass-market book in February 1999 prior to the TV broadcast of the mini-series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambda Literary Awards</span> Award for published works that celebrate or explore LGBT themes

Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature. The awards were instituted in 1989.

<i>Tipping the Velvet</i> 1998 novel by Sarah Waters

Tipping the Velvet is a 1998 debut novel by Welsh novelist Sarah Waters. A historical novel set in England during the 1890s, it tells a coming-of-age story about a young woman named Nan who falls in love with a male impersonator, follows her to London, and finds various ways to support herself as she journeys through the city. The picaresque plot elements have prompted scholars and reviewers to compare it to similar British urban adventure stories written by Charles Dickens and Daniel Defoe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Perry</span> American film director (1930–1995)

Frank Joseph Perry Jr. was an American stage director and filmmaker. His 1962 independent film David and Lisa earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The couple collaborated on five more films, including The Swimmer, Diary of a Mad Housewife, and the Emmy Award–nominated A Christmas Memory, based on a short story by Truman Capote. Perry went on to form Corsair Pictures, privately financed by United Artists Theatres, which produced Miss Firecracker and A Shock to the System, then folded. His later films include Mommie Dearest and the documentary On the Bridge, about his battle with prostate cancer.

<i>Independence Day</i> (Ford novel) 1995 novel by Richard Ford

Independence Day is a 1995 novel by Richard Ford and the sequel to Ford's 1986 novel The Sportswriter. This novel is the second in what is now a five-part series, the first being The Sportswriter. It was followed by The Lay of the Land (2006), Let Me Be Frank With You (2014) and Be Mine (2023). Independence Day won the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1996, becoming the first novel ever to win both awards in a single year.

Merle Dale Miller was an American writer, novelist, and author who is perhaps best remembered for his best-selling biography of Harry S. Truman, and as a pioneer in the gay rights movement.

<i>The Well of Loneliness</i> 1928 novel by Radclyffe Hall

The Well of Loneliness is a lesbian novel by British author Radclyffe Hall that was first published in 1928 by Jonathan Cape. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver during the First World War, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection, which Hall depicts as the typical sufferings of "inverts", with predictably debilitating effects. The novel portrays "inversion" as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: "Give us also the right to our existence".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Goode</span> British actor (born 1978)

Matthew William Goode is a British actor. Goode made his screen debut in 2002 with ABC's television film Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. His breakthrough role was in the romantic comedy Chasing Liberty (2004), for which he received a nomination at the Teen Choice Awards for Choice Breakout Movie Star – Male. He then appeared in a string of supporting roles in films, such as Woody Allen's Match Point (2005), the romantic comedy Imagine Me and You (2006), and the period drama Copying Beethoven (2006). He earned praise for his performances as Charles Ryder in the 2008 film adaptation of the novel Brideshead Revisited and as Ozymandias in the superhero film Watchmen (2009). He then starred in the romantic comedy Leap Year (2010) and Australian drama Burning Man (2011), the latter earning him a nomination for Best Actor at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Deford</span> American sportswriter (1938–2017)

Benjamin Franklin Deford III was an American sportswriter and novelist. From 1980 until his death in 2017, he was a regular sports commentator on NPR's Morning Edition radio program.

<i>The Sportswriter</i> 1986 novel by Richard Ford

The Sportswriter is a 1986 novel by Richard Ford, and the first of five books of fiction to feature the protagonist Frank Bascombe. In The Sportswriter, Bascombe is portrayed as a failed novelist turned sportswriter who undergoes an existential crisis following the death of his son. The sequel to The Sportswriter is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Independence Day, published in 1995. After the third installment in the series, titled The Lay of the Land, was published in 2006, the three books together are sometimes identified as "The Bascombe Trilogy." Ford called them "The Bascombe Novels." In 2014, a fourth book in the series, titled Let Me Be Frank With You, was published. The latest book in the Bascombe series, titled Be Mine, was published in 2023.

<i>Against the Day</i> 2006 historical novel by Thomas Pynchon

Against the Day is an epic historical novel by Thomas Pynchon, published in 2006. The narrative takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I and features more than a hundred characters spread across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central Asia, Africa and "one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all," according to the book jacket blurb written by Pynchon. Like its predecessors, Against the Day is an example of historiographic metafiction or metahistorical romance. At 1,085 pages, it is the longest of Pynchon's novels to date.

<i>Toward the End of Time</i> 1997 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American author John Updike

Toward the End of Time is a novel by American writer John Updike, published in 1997. It is the author's 18th novel.

<i>Canada</i> (novel) 2012 novel by Richard Ford

Canada is a 2012 novel by American author Richard Ford. The novel follows 15-year-old Dell Parsons, who must learn to fend for himself after his parents are arrested for robbing a bank. The book also re-visits Great Falls, Montana, a setting that Ford frequently uses in his work. It was Ford's first "stand alone" novel since Wildlife (1990).

<i>Not Safe After Dark</i> Short story collection by Peter Robinson

Not Safe After Dark (1998) is the first collection of short stories by Peter Robinson; stories previously published in crime anthologies and magazines. They include three Inspector Banks short stories, one previously unpublished. The 1998 edition published by Crippen & Landru, Virginia as Not Safe After Dark and Other Stories included thirteen stories ; the 2004 edition published by Macmillan, London as Not Safe After Dark and Other Works included twenty stories. Robinson is the writer of the Inspector Banks series of novels.

<i>Let Me Be Frank With You</i> 2014 novel by Richard Ford

Let Me Be Frank With You (2014) by Richard Ford, is the sequel to The Lay of the Land (2006) and the fourth in a series of five books of fiction that features protagonist and narrator Frank Bascombe.

<i>Be Mine</i> (novel) 2023 book by Richard Ford

Be Mine is a novel by Richard Ford published in 2023. It is Ford's fifth book to feature Frank Bascombe as the narrator and protagonist.

References

  1. "Frank and me: Richard Ford on his Bascombe novels". Financial Times. 24 October 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  2. Rubin, Merle (November 14, 2006). "A realtor-cum-critic, dismayed by all he sees". The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  3. Riemer, Andrew (November 17, 2006). "The Lay of the Land". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  4. Fox, Richard (November 17, 2006). "Let's hear it for Frank". The Observer . Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  5. Gallagher, Tara (October 28, 2006). "Revisiting Frank Bascombe's World: an Ex-Sportswriter at 55". The Observer . Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  6. Revisiting Middle Age, That Home of Despair