Books
Book review: Richard Ford brings back our old friend Frank
The latest, and possibly the last, Bascombe novel, Be Mine is a bleak book in search of redemption, and what a relief that this voice of peevish authenticity survives intact
Be Mine is the fifth of Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe novels, which have been published at decennial intervals since the 1980s. This is a somewhat gloomy reflection because it points to this book being very probably the last in the series. Who’ll be so frank with us now? Who’ll supply the cold douche of realism when that restless, querulous, profane, relentlessly loquacious voice falls silent?
Frank Bascombe is the old friend who you hardly ever ...
