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Wildlife
By Richard Ford
This novel stays in your mind long after you read it, which is why I am writing about it years after I first read it.
Joe Brinson and his parents moved to Great Falls, Montana , in 1960. Joe was in high school at the time - the family; had moved several times previously - always with high expectations. His parents had attended college , but Jerry, the father, had always been a natural athlete and chose being a golf pro for his profession. They were a quiet family and didn't really look for a social life - but the time came when everything changed. Jerry lost his job as a golf pro and couldn't decide on his future until the wildfires around Great Falls that fall seemed to inspire him to join the firefighters, with no real goal in sight.
The results of this unpredictable decision were resounding, and Joe must learn to face the world as it is and not how he believes it to be.
The fierce honesty and love that fills these pages is amazing: the resilience and understanding is spellbinding, and the writing is luminous. This is storytelling at its best - the characters transform themselves before your eyes and yet it is so masterfully and quietly done it is also believable.
I am now reading The Lay of the Land , by the same author and found myself putting it aside to go back and reread Wildlife with the same intensity as when first read in 1990. The language is simple and exquisite and so it is no surprise that Richard Ford has won the Pulitzer and the Pen / Faulkner Award.
Published: The Atlantic Monthly Press
19 Union Square West
New York, NY 10003
Copyright: © 1990 by Richard Ford
Reviewed: 04/04/08 - 253
Copyright: © 2008 by Joan G. Smith
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