The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford

Some books speak to all mankind through being so general, or possibly even allegorical, in their scope they could apply to anyone, at any time, in any place; others are so specifically linked to a time and place that they speak only to those who have experienced that setting, valuable more for sentiment’s sake than for literary merit. Others, though, and these are the truly great works of literature, pinpoint, with merciless detail, the atmosphere of a particular time and place, and how that atmosphere, that culture, that location, that era, affects its characters, and then use those details, that ruthlessness, to illuminate, somehow, the entire human condition.

The Sportswriter, thankfully, is one of the latter type. It is so relentlessly American, and, in fact, so relentless middle American, that neither the novel, nor the characters in it, could ever take place without that setting. The story of a divorced man in early middle age, the sportswriter of the title, and his fumblings to find love and, more importantly, peace and contentment, with his slow, rather lonely life, the novel showcases the suburbian doldrums of New Jersey, the stubborn hopefulness of the midwest and its inhabitants, and the strivings of the individual, in its essentially, if not uniquely, American conception, to find his place in the world.

The writing here is beautiful, as indeed is the entire book. Though slow, and not necessarily driven by a forceful or compelling plot, the characters, and setting, and prose, and message, more than compensate for the book’s not being a real page-turner. Ford writes that, “deep down we’re all reaching out for a decent rewarding contact every chance we get,” and he lays bare, smoothly and easily, the consequences, positive and negative, of such random reaching. This is a serious book, long and lovely and restless and rhythmic and solemn and sombre, but in these very qualities, in its depressive thoughtfulness and tender idleness makes me, if this is not too strange, proud to be an American.