I completed my 75 books challenge in mid-October. I think you can see the list here. Some good reading…some fluffy reading…mostly fairly non-demanding reading. So, I’m struggling a little bit with my current read. Richard Ford’s The Lay of the Land is a dense story of a man facing the “Permanent Period” of his life as he struggles with relationships, health problems and a general sense of things breaking apart. There are moments of insight but there are also moments when I just want to shake Frank Bascombe, the main character. Indeed, The New York Times called the book “lethargic” and that’s an apt description. Long chapters, long internal musings. In a way I don’t want to abandon it because there must be some climax, a reckoning, at least a satisfying personal experience as a reward for living in this man’s head for so many pages. So, I think I need a different strategy for reading it.
It occurred to me that it is so different from the other books I’ve read this year. They emphasized the story and included multiple interesting characters interacting with each other. Frank is really the only character here: we see everyone else through his eyes. I think it’s a book that requires slow reading, almost like reading someone’s journal: less story and more reflection, so a few pages here and there are enough. After all, there isn’t any real plot to remember.
I wasn’t aware it was the third book in a trilogy. Evidently, at the Times thinks the two other books were better, but I’m not sure I want to go back. Will I like Frank any better as a young man?
