The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
"The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford is a notable work of contemporary realistic fiction that follows the life of Frank Bascombe, an Everyman figure living in a New Jersey suburb. The novel delves into themes of identity, occupation, and personal loss as it portrays Frank's journey after an unsuccessful literary career, where he now works as a sportswriter for a national magazine. Central to the narrative is Frank's complicated past, including his divorce from his wife, referred to only as "X," and the death of his young son, Ralph, which deeply affects his sense of self.
Set against the backdrop of suburban life, the story examines how Frank navigates his current relationships and the emotional voids left by past experiences. As he interacts with a group of divorced men and attempts to connect with a new romantic interest, Vicki, Frank's struggle with his shifting identities becomes apparent. The novel mirrors the search for meaning prevalent at the end of the twentieth century, akin to themes found in Walker Percy’s "The Moviegoer." Ultimately, while "The Sportswriter" concludes with a glimmer of hope, Frank’s future remains uncertain, emphasizing the complexities of defining oneself in the face of loss and change.
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Subject Terms
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
First published: 1986
The Work
The Sportswriter is a highly acclaimed example of contemporary realistic fiction. In its exploration of the life of Frank Bascombe, a sort of suburban Everyman, the novel explores the ways in which occupation, environment, and the relationships that men have or lose define them to others and to themselves. Like Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer (1961), to which it has often been compared, The Sportswriter depicts the search for meaning and identity toward the end of the twentieth century.
After an abortive literary career, Frank Bascombe is now a sportswriter for a glossy national sports magazine. His life in the New Jersey suburb of Haddam (modeled after Princeton, where Ford once taught) is not an unpleasant one, although he has come unhitched from his previous moorings. He is divorced; his wife is referred to only as “X” in Frank’s narration. He has lost his son Ralph at age nine to illness. Despite Frank’s love for “X” and his regret for the failure of their marriage, he is now forced to define himself as divorced, and his membership in the Divorced Men’s Club, a group of similarly stricken males, symbolizes the loss of one of his most significant identities. Ralph’s death and Frank’s insubstantial relationship with his remaining children symbolize another loss, while his listless romance with Vicki, a nurse he met in the emergency room, represents a final example of Frank’s shifting and indistinct identities regarding the other people in his life.
In The Sportswriter and its sequel Independence Day (1995), Frank Bascombe is most clearly defined by his occupation (sportswriter and, in the later novel, realtor). Bascombe tries to incorporate into his new life beliefs he has derived from sportswriting, particularly the idea that whether games are lost or won, they are here and then they are gone. Unlike the athletes about whom he writes, however, Bascombe has difficulty allowing the past to be past and difficulty moving forward into any kind of new life. In interviewing a former professional football player who has been crippled in an accident, Bascombe is irritated to discover not the inspirational athlete he hoped to write about, but a man stuck in bitterness and unable to adapt to the changes in his life. Such are the ironies of his profession and of his general emotional condition.
Frank Bascombe faces difficulties similar to those the former athlete faces. Frank is no longer a husband, barely a father, no longer a fiction writer. The only identity he can claim with any certainty is sportswriter, and, ultimately, that is not enough. Although the novel ends on a note of hope, Frank’s future identity is no clearer than when his story began.
Bibliography
Dupuy, Edward. “The Confessions of an Ex-Suicide: Relenting and Recovering in Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter.” Southern Literary Journal 23 (Fall, 1990): 93-103. Analyzes Frank as a searcher for mystery in the ordinary. Shows how Frank, unlike Walter, survives by yielding to the vicissitudes of life. Explains that Frank gives up fiction by choosing reality over the power of language. Considers the influence of William Faulkner and contrasts Frank with Quentin Compson in Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936).
Ford, Richard. Interview by Kay Bonetti. The Missouri Review 10, no. 2 (1987): 71-96. Ford discusses the writing of The Sportswriter, explaining how Frank differs from him, why he made Frank a sportswriter, why the ex-wife is called X, and how the novel’s religious elements can be misconstrued. He defends Frank’s optimism as merely an openness to choices.
Ford, Richard. Interview by Matthew Gilbert. Writer 109 (December, 1996): 9-11. Ford reveals that he thought about quitting writing when he was working on Independence Day. He offers his thoughts on the public perception on the write-or-die attitude of writers, reflections on winning the Pulitzer Prize, and comments about writing a novel.
Gornick, Vivian. “Tenderhearted Men: Lonesome, Sad and Blue.” The New York Times Book Review, September 16, 1990, pp. 1, 32-35. This consideration of the way men are portrayed in works by Ford, Raymond Carver, and Andre Dubus shows how Frank is typical of Ford’s lonely, confused, hurt protagonists. Analyzes Frank’s relations with women. Argues that Ford is infatuated with Frank’s depression.
Schroth, Raymond A. “American’s Moral Landscape in the Fiction of Richard Ford.” Christian Century 106 (March 1, 1989): 227-230. Admires The Sportswriter for reproducing a complex cross-section of middle-class America. Explains that the novel is about the modern American search for integrity through sports, art, religion, friendship, love, and daily obligations.
Weber, Bruce. “Richard Ford’s Uncommon Characters.” The New York Times Magazine, April 10, 1988, pp. 50, 59, 63-65. This biographical profile explains how Ford’s fiction differs from the dominant American fiction of the 1980’s, which is minimalist in style, nihilistic in spirit. Argues that Ford’s style is more lyrical than that of the minimalists and discusses the difficulty critics have categorizing Ford’s work.