The following is my Goodreads review for this new Richard Ford book, one of my favorite authors. Ford’s famous for his character Frank Bascombe, a fictitious character now appearing in a fourth Bascombe novel. He’s full of wisdom and wit and always a pleasure to read. His everyman characters live ordinary, yet unique lives set in places and people you recognize – including many places in New Jersey! This one takes place mostly in a cold mid-west winter under uncomfortable circumstances. Not a joyful read, but always entertaining.
PK
Be Mine by Richard FordMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wisdom is the currency Frank Bascombe has to offer readers who choose to explore the pages of Be Mine, or for that matter any of the other four Bascombe novels on living a life in these times. When I plumb my life (I’m 75) at the age of Frank (He’s 74), I can’t help but think he knows exactly where I am and what I’m thinking and experiencing.
Crafted by an extraordinarily talented writer and storyteller, Ford can make even the drollest facts interesting and draw you into a storyline that might otherwise turn off readers. The art is in the storytelling. His subtle magic will suck you in as you begin to discover a reality and hope that exists at any age.
Here he starts by posing the question, “What exactly is happiness”? Putting the messy details aside, he posits that it may be as simple as the “absence of unhappiness”. Yet how do we become and stay happy? Frank is reminded of this by memories of his mother and a high school reunion which impress upon him the secret of life is just to be happy; as if we could tailor our our actions and our circumstances to make it so.
Frank is in the that retirement stage of life of being partially connected to an old career by shifting into an easy, part time job working for Mike Mahoney, his ex-real estate partner who remains a friend and ally to Frank. Those past tumultuous years (documented so well in all the Frank Bascombe novels) of being a writer, teacher, real estate agent, husband, father, lover and friend have gone by. Life is simpler now with a stressless job, a few trusted friends, a comfortable home and a realization of his successes and failures in his life, family and career. In a word, Frank is “happy”. That’s not in a joyful way but in resignation. The absence of unhappiness gives him no right to complain.
Frank has previously survived a young child dying, a divorce, an estranged daughter, a second wife leaving him and numerous other challenges that life has put in front of him. Yet through all this he has found that life is good and there’s little left to go after. It is a waiting game as to what’s coming up next?
Frank’s immediate dilemma that has shaken his world is the fact that his 47-year old bachelor son, Paul, has been given a terminal diagnosis of fast staging ALS. Paul lives alone but near his dad. His sister can provide limited help remotely. So, Frank decides his life must change as he moves from his comfortable home in New Jersey to Minnesota to assist him. Suddenly, Frank is shaken from his comfortable “happy” life with the idea that he must do something to help Paul.
Knowing Paul’s ildeocycrancies – he has many – Frank offers to take him on a crazy last car trip to visit the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. It’s a quirky road adventure that fit both their personalities and the bizarre timeline they find themselves in. This is mid-winter, February (around Valentine’s Day) at the Mayo Clinic where Paul is a participant in an advanced ALS research program which only leads to the prognosis that he has little time left.
It’s a story of both father and son estrangement and love for each other. Maybe the biggest gift they can give each other is their remaining time together. Both share a similar sense of humor in their dialog that offers the reader a hundred different funny and entertaining moments they share together, for the last time. Both are self-deprecating. Despite his serious disease Paul insists on calling his ALS condition “Al’s). Paul’s life career goal was to be a ventriloquist which never fully materialized. But his years developing greeting cards for Hallmark shows in his dialog with Frank.
Ford knows how to make the most of words and branding to help bring home the commercial and absurd aspects of our everyday lives. For example, he points out businesses like “Free Will Cleaners, Lint Free or Dye”, “Little Pharma Drugs” and “Vietnamese-American Hospitality”. One of Paul’s favorite t-shirts says “Cornhole IS America”. Many commercial brands from Walmart to Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts are woven into the story which lends to its legitimacy.
The adventure takes him through mid-western America as two keen observers like modern-day Tocqueville’s. Visits to the Comanche Mall, the Northern Lights Octoplex. the Corn Palace, Fawning Buffalo Casino and Mt. Rushmore tell a different story of today’s America. They meet medical staff, protestors, nurses, ex-military, loving couples and ethnic strivers. Just common good folks out in this cold unforgiving land of promise.
On Comanche Mall…
Shopping malls all emit the same climate of endgame up and down their carnivorous expanse. (They were never meant to be places where people belonged.) The mealy light emanates from nowhere. Air is a warm-cool Temperature found only here, and riding it is a cotton candy aroma, like at a state fair. “When you wish upon a Star” sung by a cricket is being piped in on top of everything.”
On Mt. Rushmore…
(Paul’s observation to Frank)– “It’s completely pointless and ridiculous, and It’s great.” His eyes are jittering and gleaming. “There’s not enough in the world that’s intentionally that stupid.” (Frank’s observation)He is smiling beatifically, as if he’s experienced an extraordinary discovery and surprise. A confirmation. I’m merrily happy to believe we see the same thing the same way once – more or less. It is pointless and it is stupid. And if seeing it can’t fix him, it can a little. “We’re bonded,” Paul says slyly still smiling, gazing with complete awareness toward the presidents. I am his favorite turd.
There’s no happy ending to this story as you might expect. Frank appears to have reached a new awareness of his late stage in life and a resignation that he had done all he could. Maybe it’s time to look at things fresh again and renew friendships. With Paul gone, he has eliminated the “unhappiness” of seeing his child pass but re-gained a stable“happiness”. At least for now. With happiness there is hope.
My hope is there’s more Frank Bascombe to come.
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