Lay of the Land (Ford) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The novel’s lovely last sentence evokes "our human scale upon the land," and that touch of grandiloquence is well earned. By now, we have gotten to know Frank Bascombe well enough to take his measure, and to appreciate that, like almost no one else in our recent literature, he’s life-size.
A. O. Scott - New York Times


[I]t's a testament to Ford's mastery that we never tire of Frank's company. Whether we're battling rush-hour traffic with him, joining him for a few highballs while his car is in the shop, accompanying him on a client visit or just listening in while he returns some phone calls, we always feel lucky to hang out with him and hear what he has to say. Frank Bascombe—a divorced, middle-aged New Jersey real-estate agent with health problems, kid problems, ex-wife problems and a deep, submerged grief that erupts volcanically from time to time—has become our unlikely Virgil, guiding us through the modern American purgatory of big-box stores along frontage roads, slowly decaying town squares and leafy, secret-harboring suburbs. He's there to remind us that glimmering meaning is hiding everywhere, even in the ugliest or most banal of places.
Jeff Turrentine - Washington Post


Ford once again shows why he deserves to be hailed as one of the great American fiction novelists of his generation.
Washington Post Book World


The Lay of the Land...is distinct not only for its singular style but also because of its generosity. Ford shows that life is never easy and never placid.... Yet we keep moving forward for that occasional moment of pure understanding.
Chicago Sun-Times


[A]s in many literary classics, the beauty of this novel is in its presentation—word choice and perfect phrases—and in Bascombe's unwaveringly honest and humorous narration. Ford... transform[s] his novel into a story told to us by an old friend. A fitting way to complete the Frank Bascombe legacy. —Stephen Morrow, Columbus, OH
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Frank Bascombe....[is] trying mightily to deal with present circumstances while dodging past regrets. But it's Thanksgiving week, "the time of year when things go wrong if they're going to." ... Ford crafts a mesmerizing narrative voice—one that gives us, with offhanded eloquence and a kind of grim mirth, "the lay of the land." —Joanne Wilkinson
Booklist


The third and most eventful novel in the Frank Bascombe series takes a whiplash turn from comedy (occasionally slapstick) toward tragedy.... Though not as consistently compelling as Independence Day (too many chickens coming home to roost), this reaffirms that Frank Bascombe is for Ford what Rabbit Angstrom is for Updike.
Kirkus Reviews