Friday, July 02, 2021

FFB CANADA, Richard Ford

 CANADA, Richard Ford.

I am a big Richard Ford fan. Loved his trilogy about Frank Bascombe beginning with THE SPORTS WRITER. Love his short stories.

CANADA may be his most brilliant work. It is certainly a sharp turn north. The North American experience, the life on the western plains, has never seemed more eloquent.


Dell and Berner Parsons are fraternal twins being raised in Montana. When things get tight, their parents rob a bank. This information comes from the first lines of the novel.

"First I'll tell you about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later. The robbery is the more important part, since it served to set my and my sister's lives on the courses they eventually followed."

And it is this event that drives the first half of the book if not all of it. You may think Dell's parents are kindred souls, but in fact their marriage is awful in the way marriages born of bad decisions were in 1960. But Dell's parents, in a severe economic crisis, rob a bank, and come home to almost immediate imprisonment.

Dell is sent to stay with a remote Canadian relative in Saskatchewan and his sister takes off for virtually the remainder of the novel. Dell is put in the care of Arthur Remlinger, a remote, strange man who basically ignores him with the idea he is teaching him survival skills.

The final part of the book hooks the siblings up fifty years later, but again it is not a happy reunion. These two were doomed from the moment of their birth.

This is a sad book, a strange one. But the experience of Dell is one we want to hear. The writing is exquisite: rough-hewed at times, velvety at others. I highly recommend it to readers who like good writing and are patient with plot.

9 comments:

Steve A Oerkfitz said...

I need to read more Richard Ford. I read his short story collection, Rock Springs years ago and liked it but for some reason I never followed up on it.

Margot Kinberg said...

I really like stories where you see a larger set of events and experiences through the eyes of the 'regular' people who live them. I'm glad you enjoyed this so well, Patti.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have pretty much read all of him, most recently the memoir about his parents, which was terrific because he made very ordinary lives interesting through his skill as a writer. Although the next generation is not fond of him for various reasons. Have we become too judgmental about the way people lived their lives in decades past or our sins just different now.

George said...

I'm a big fan of Richard Ford, too. But I had a different opinion of CANADA: http://georgekelley.org/canada-by-richard-ford/

MP said...

I read the first two Frank Bascombe novels years ago and for some reason never got any further even though I'd liked them. A few weeks ago I finally got around to PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, which was terrific, then went looking through my streaming services for anything I hadn't seen with Carey Mulligan. I came across WILDLIFE, which I'd never heard of, on Netflix. Turns out it was based on the Richard Ford novel of the same name. It's about a teenager growing up in Wyoming (I think) in the early Sixties dealing with a difficult family situation. Mulligan plays his mother. Highly recommended to anyone who likes Ford, Mulligan, or just good movies.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I really thought it good, too. Paul Dano was perfect as the mixed up husband and the child actor was terrific. You are the only one I know that saw it too.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I like Ford a lot too, especially ROCK SPRINGS but also the Bascombe novels (so far). I did see WILDFIRE. Dano directed it but the husband was played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Oh, right. It's funny how I picture Dano in the role. It was not such a big role. Seens like he disappeared to be a fire watcher fairly quickly. And she began an affair with someone....

Jeff Meyerson said...

Yes. Bill Camp, which seemed a bit of an odd choice after Gyllenhaal. But you're right, he disappeared into the fire thing and basically deserted her.