Be mine : a Frank Bascombe novel

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Title:

Be mine : a Frank Bascombe novel

Author:

Ford, Richard, 1944- author.

Series:

Frank Bascombe ;

Series Number:

Summary:

Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colorful lives—sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent—Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all: caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank, in typical Bascombe fashion, faces down the mortality that is assured each of us, and in doing so confronts what happiness might signify at the end of days. -- Amazon.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

342 pages ; 24 cm.

Subject Term:

Older men -- Fiction.

Fathers and sons -- Fiction.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- Patients -- Fiction.

Automobile travel -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9780061692086

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023]

Call Number:

FORD

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003664227	Adult Fiction	FORD Richard	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

From Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford: the final novel in the world of Frank Bascombe, one of the most indelible characters in American literature

Over the course of four celebrated works of fiction and almost forty years, Richard Ford has crafted an ambitious, incisive, and singular view of American life as lived. Unconstrained, astute, provocative, often laugh-out-loud funny, Frank Bascombe is once more our guide to the great American midway.

Now in the twilight of life, a man who has occupied many colorful lives--sportswriter, father, husband, ex-husband, friend, real estate agent--Bascombe finds himself in the most sorrowing role of all: caregiver to his son, Paul, diagnosed with ALS. On a shared winter odyssey to Mount Rushmore, Frank, in typical Bascombe fashion, faces down the mortality that is assured each of us, and in doing so confronts what happiness might signify at the end of days.

In this memorable novel, Richard Ford puts on displays the prose, wit, and intelligence that make him one of our most acclaimed living writers. Be Mine is a profound, funny, poignant love letter to our beleaguered world.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Ford finds Frank Bascombe, star of The Sportswriter, still searching for the meaning of life in his appealing latest. Frank, 74 and twice divorced, stays buoyant despite some mortal despair by indulging in clichés such as falling for a younger massage therapist. His son, Paul, has ALS, and he proposes they road-trip together to Mount Rushmore. In a rented RV, Frank and Paul set out from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where Paul has just finished participating in a clinical study. On the way through South Dakota, they stop at the famed Corn Palace, spend a night at a rundown motel, and visit a dire casino called the Fawning Buffalo. "What causes places to be awful is always of interest," Frank notes in Rapid City. Father and son banter with mock cruelty, but Frank's outlook is sincere: "Not every story ends happy. Out in the gloom you can find some lights on." These pages are steeped in melancholy, and for the most part Ford's prose stays within the speed limit, neither soaring nor stalling, though he stops the reader cold with the occasional startling insight: Paul, divulging the details of his dementia, remarks on Frank's indomitable mind: "You connect everything." Ford's fans will find much to love. (June)