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A review by anitaofplaybooktag
Between Them: Remembering My Parents by Richard Ford
3.0
What this memoir really made me want to do is read something else by Richard Ford. The guy can write. In fact, my overall impression of the entire book is that he could write a gripping tale about a person lying on a couch watching television.
Because his parents, about whom he writes lovingly, are just not that interesting. So he wrote a book about two basically pedestrian lives - that of a travelling salesman and his wife. There's really not a whole lot about Ford himself unless you read between the lines. Each parent gets a section and the beginning of each section has a lot of overlap - - as if he wrote two separate stories and then decided to combine them into one book without further editing. Which I believe is exactly what he did.
Yet, despite the structure, despite the fact that this was a pretty ordinary family, despite the fact the Ford is doing a whole lot more telling than showing (violating the cardinal rule of writing in my opinion), despite all of it - - the book is compulsively readable, and I finished it in a day and a half. Yeah, I'm a little mystified about it myself. There's just something about the rhythm of his writing and his voice that I absolutely loved. For a book that is similar to this one, but much better in every regard except the writing, I suggest [b:A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage|8978483|A Box of Darkness The Story of a Marriage|Sally Ryder Brady|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312064669s/8978483.jpg|13855545]. Meanwhile, I'm going to look for my copy of [b:Canada|12872236|Canada|Richard Ford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327927048s/12872236.jpg|18024855].
Because his parents, about whom he writes lovingly, are just not that interesting. So he wrote a book about two basically pedestrian lives - that of a travelling salesman and his wife. There's really not a whole lot about Ford himself unless you read between the lines. Each parent gets a section and the beginning of each section has a lot of overlap - - as if he wrote two separate stories and then decided to combine them into one book without further editing. Which I believe is exactly what he did.
Yet, despite the structure, despite the fact that this was a pretty ordinary family, despite the fact the Ford is doing a whole lot more telling than showing (violating the cardinal rule of writing in my opinion), despite all of it - - the book is compulsively readable, and I finished it in a day and a half. Yeah, I'm a little mystified about it myself. There's just something about the rhythm of his writing and his voice that I absolutely loved. For a book that is similar to this one, but much better in every regard except the writing, I suggest [b:A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage|8978483|A Box of Darkness The Story of a Marriage|Sally Ryder Brady|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312064669s/8978483.jpg|13855545]. Meanwhile, I'm going to look for my copy of [b:Canada|12872236|Canada|Richard Ford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327927048s/12872236.jpg|18024855].