A failed writer, husband, and father, Frank Bascombe is a middle-aged real estate agent who has moved into his ex-wife's house in an effort to reconnect with his son and daughter. Bascombe is the narrator and protagonist of Richard Ford's fifth novel, Independence Day (1995), winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/Faulkner Award.
In this passage from Chapter Five of Ford's novel, Bascombe reflects on his own behavior through a highly personal classification of a seemingly simple facial expression.
from Independence Day*
by Richard Ford
Then, suddenly, peering up at the brassy fan listlessly turning, I for some reason wince--whing-crack!--as though a rock or a scary shadow or a sharp projectile had flashed close and just missed maiming me, making my whole head whip to the right, setting my heart to pounding thunk-a, thunk-a, thunk-a, thunk-a, exactly the way it did that summer evening Ann announced she was marrying Frank O'Dell and moving to Deep River and stealing my kids.
But why now?
There are winces, of course, and there are other winces. There is the "love wince," the shudder--often with accompanying animal groan--of hot-rivet sex imagined, followed frequently by a sense of loss thick enough to upholster a sofa. There is the "grief wince," the one you experience in bed at 5 a.m., when the phone rings and some stranger tells you your mother or your first son has "regretfully" expired; this is normally attended by a chest-emptying sorrow which is almost like relief but not quite. There is the "wince of fury," when your neighbor's Irish setter, Prince Sterling, has been barking at squirrels' shadows for months, night after night, keeping you awake and in an agitation verging on dementia, though unexpectedly you confront the neighbor at the end of the driveway at dusk, only to be told you're blowing the whole dog-barking thing way out of proportion, that you're too tightly wrapped and need to smell the roses. This wince is often followed by a shot to the chops and can also be called "the Billy Budd."
What I have just suffered, though, is none of these and has left me light-headed and tingling, as if an electrical charge had been administered via terminals strapped to my neck. Black spots wander my vision, my ears feel as though glass tumblers were pressed over them.
Selected Works by Richard Ford
- The Sportswriter, novel (1986)
- Rock Springs, short stories (1987)
- My Mother in Memory, nonfiction (1988)
- Independence Day, novel (1995)
- A Multitude of Sins, short stories (2002)
- The Lay of the Land, novel (2006)
* Independence Day, by Richard Ford, was originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in 1995. It is currently available in a Vintage paperback (1996).
