Learning to be American

Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe trilogy and the construction of a national identity

Peinado Abarrio, Rubén

Few contemporary novelists have dissected American culture in as great a detail as Richard Ford has in his Frank Bascombe trilogy. The Sportswriter, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land form a triptych on the idiosyncrasies of US society displayed by one of the nation's most conscientious narrators. Frank Bascombe, like John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom, represents a standard model of national identity - the run-of-the-mill male American pursuing happiness in the face of competing forces. Ford resorts to his all-too-human signature character to portray a rich picture of failed expectations, power relations, social unrest, and political discontent in the contemporary United States. This book ventures into unexplored territory, revealing how the unique American flavor of the Frank Bascombe novels also stems from its distinctive settings and marginalized characters, which propose alternative identity models. This work rediscovers the essence of Ford's main novelistic project, unveiling it as an inexhaustible source of insights for any reader interested in the people, myths, and narratives that construct Americanness.