Richard Ford. “I write because it makes me smarter than I am.”

Pulitzer Prize 1996 independence, In the second installment of the Frank Bascombe cycle, Richard Ford returns to this beloved character in his new novel, fool’s paradise The latest installment in the adventures of this former sports reporter and former aspiring writer, whose existential crises have been explored in book after book over the national holiday (Thanksgiving, Easter, or, here, Valentine’s Day) is nothing short of his sense of humor Charcot sufferer Frank and his son Paul’s trip to Mount Rushmore turns into a fun and dark odyssey. An interview with an insightful observer of America who knows how to debunk its mythology like no other.

Madame Figaro. – Why did you want to return to the character of Frank Bascombe?
Richard Ford. – As always in my previous novels, Frank is not really the starting point. It’s not really about developing a new chapter in his story. In fact, I have some ideas going through my head, and I understand that Frank will let me express them and explore them. them in more depth. A fool’s paradise It also comes from the fact that I went to Mount Rushmore one day. It’s one of those national monuments that Americans love. It’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. What an idea! to carve on this impressive mountain that the Indians considered sacred… It’s kitsch. And it shows such self-love… All this should have found its place in the novel, but I didn’t know how how would I do it, and then I told myself that Frank Bascomb could go to Mount Rushmore. But if Frank went there, what would he do? And why should he go there? That’s how the book started, climbing up the chain.

The first time we met Frank, he had lost a child. This time he faces another…
When I was trying to figure out what could have brought Frank to Mount Rushmore, I realized that Paul might be sick. Gehrig’s disease, named after a 1960s baseball player who was extremely popular in the United States, and that it can cause; a joke from Paul. He may find it funny to suffer from this disease that was going to kill him, but the juxtaposition of the comic and the tragic is stimulating to me. Dealing with a very serious issue while allowing myself to have fun, being serious in the ridiculous and laughing in the serious is what I try to do and what I know how to do.

Would you say that’s the goal? A fool’s paradise ? The idea that in the darkest of circumstances there remains the possibility of joy.
Yes! At the end of the novel, Frank hears a voice. “I have something to show you that you will really like.” It was my way of saying that despite age, disorientation, the death of my son, we can always find a reason to go on admires you. Someone who loves you, someone who cares about you, someone to laugh with… A fool’s paradise is a book about acceptance and resilience.

Why did you make these characters travel?
There is nothing more common in the United States than driving here or there. it’s an American gesture. And, as an aesthetic decision, the journey of people allows me to have a closed space where I can focus on what my characters say and what they hear. The road trip also implies an evolution, a change, that of this story something significant will develop or be produced during the arc. means we have to bow to the clichés.What interests me about the relationship between Frank and Paul is that the former loves the latter, but is not sure that he appreciates her. This is the difference between the two verbs we have in English, love And like I accidentally fell in love with people who didn’t like me, and this tangle of emotions interests me.

Mount Rushmore is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen

Richard Ford

What does Frank mean to you?
He is interesting to readers as a character, but to me, he is a creature of words. He captures my mind not as a person, but as a set of strategies for dealing with modern America through language. When I started writing this quintet, in 1982, I had published two books, but I didn’t feel like I was pushing the limit. Frank Bascombe allowed me to express myself fully. He’s not a double, he’s not in the same profession as me, he’s divorced, I’ve been in a relationship for sixty years, he has kids and I don’t… and that was important to me because . if he looked too much like me, that would limit my maneuverability.

Did you already have a special relationship with language as a child?
I was dyslexic when I was young, I had a hard time putting everything I read and heard into a whole. The pieces fell apart if I didn’t focus intensely on putting it all together. But when I really focused on it all , what I was listening to and reading, I discovered aspects of the language that I was never aware of before. This is also what makes me so attentive when people talk to me. If I pay absolute attention I literally wouldn’t be able to understand what you’re saying. This definitely gave me some perspective. I’m writing because it makes me smarter than I am. what happens in all artistic gestures, and is one of the reasons we create. By trying to bring together elements that do not a priori combine, you require reflection, an unusual way of thinking for you, which will sharpen your mind and force you to say things that you would not say. otherwise.