The Sportswriter

Name: The Sportswriter
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)
Author: Richard Ford
ISBN: 9781436123914

Author: Richard Ford

Series: Frank Bascombe #1

Narrator: Richard Poe

Unabridged: 14 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/04/2008

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

In this “powerful” blockbuster of a novel (The New York Times), the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Independence Day introduces his most beloved character, failed novelist turned sportswriter Frank Bascombe, during an Easter weekend, as he moves through the great losses of his life. As a sportswriter, Frank Bascombe makes his living studying people—men, mostly—who live entirely within themselves. This is a condition that Frank himself aspires to. But at thirty-eight, he suffers from incurable dreaminess, occasional pounding of the heart, and the not-too-distant losses of a career, a son, and a marriage. In the course of the Easter week in which Ford’s moving novel transpires, Bascombe will end up losing the remnants of his familiar life, though with his spirits soaring. “Powerful. … So pliant and persuasive that we are instantly drawn into his story.”—The New York Times

About Richard Ford

Richard Ford is the author of The Sportswriter; Independence Day, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award; The Lay of the Land; and the New York Times bestseller Canada. His short story collections include the bestseller Let Me Be Frank With You, Sorry for Your Trouble, Rock Springs and A Multitude of Sins, which contain many widely anthologized stories. He lives in New Orleans with his wife Kristina Ford.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Glenn

Photo of the American novelist - Richard Ford Part of the Vintage Contemporaries Series, Richard Ford’s 1986 novel, The Sportswriter, is about a divorced 38-year old suburban New Jersey writer who lives out the American dream gone sour. In some ways the story reminded me of Camus’s The Stranger. What......more

Goodreads review by Jaline

After spending hours in Frank Bascombe’s head, I am still not sure what to make of him. This book revolves around an Easter weekend in his life, beginning with an annual visit to his son’s grave with his ex-wife (referred to as “X” throughout the novel) early in the morning of Good Friday. Many thin......more

Goodreads review by Will

Richard Ford - image from The Paris Review Frank Bascombe published a book once. He just never got around to writing another, veering off into the world of sportswriting. The Sportwriter shows us a week in Frank’s life in which he confronts the choices he has made as parts of his life are pared away......more

Goodreads review by Glenn

I tried reading Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter years ago, but I wasn’t ready. Now that I’ve lived a lot more life, I get it. Most of all, I get Ford’s Everyman hero, Frank Bascombe, a 38-year-old, divorced man with two kids (one has died), who works at a sports magazine after he gave up a promising......more