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| Plot Summary of Independence Day |
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"Independence Day, the novel that won Richard Ford the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner, is a bittersweet, albeit short, journey through the midlife critical week in the life of Frank Bascombe. Frank is divorced from his wife, who has since moved on and remarried a snobbish twit. He has become disconnected from his son Paul, who exhibits a wealth of antisocial behaviors far beyond the typical adolescent rebelliousness of young males. Frank is watching the dying flames of a once promising romance die away and struggling at alternately being a middling success as a real estate agent, a landlord of low cost housing and a small business entrepreneur.
The story is crowded with of personalities, life issues and internal struggles. The whole story revolves around Frank's desire to find common ground with his son in hopes a permanent custody of him while touring several sports halls of fame around the northeastern U.S. At the same time, he must face his ex-wife and her issues, deal with a frustrating couple seeking real estate in his home town in NJ, agonize over the end of his relationship with his girlfriend, tinker with his new start up hot dog stand business and try to maintain a civil relationship with the deadbeat tenants of his realty property.
The balancing act is exhausting for Frank and for the reader, but Mr. Ford is a skilled and intelligent writer. Mr. Ford gives the reader the freedom to view Frank and his life with awe, sympathy, frustration, animosity and humor. "
David Fletcher, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Independence Day |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Life of a profession:
- businessman, small
Family, struggle with
Yes
Struggle with:
- Son
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- small businessman
Age:
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 9 ()
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Small town?
Yes
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Sex in book?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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