The Lay of the Land
The situation in the country is the German title of the published 2006 novel The Lay of the Land of the American author Richard Ford The translation from American English by Frank Heibert was released in 2007 by Berlin Verlag.
The situation in the country of being the last part of a trilogy, the novels The Sports Reporters ( 1989) ( orig. The Sportswriter, 1986) and Independence Day ( 1996) ( orig. Independence Day, 1995) preceded it.
As in the first two parts is again born in Mississippi in 1944 real estate agent Frank Bascombe in the center, who had begun his career as a writer and sports reporter in New York. The novel is set in the fictional town Haddam on the Atlantic coast of New Jersey where Frank now runs his own real estate office, which he leads with his exiled Tibetan colleagues Mike Mahoney. The plot covers (similar to Independence Day) on three long days before the Thanksgiving feast in 2000. His business requires full commitment. Son and daughter are expected with its partners to the feast. Presidential elections are imminent.
Similarly as in the previous two novels used Ford prepare a feast (Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving) as a time frame that is filled with observations and self- reflections of the protagonist. As a businessman, Frank is reasonably successful. He draws profit from the booming real estate market and thus indirectly from the economic boom under President Clinton. Many characters standing but to change. As a partisan of Democrats and socially engaged citizen Frank sees a possible change in the presidency with skepticism. His medium milieu provides vivid visuals and room for moral and political reflections on the situation of the country.
The novel portrays quite meticulously American life on the East Coast with its various social strata, their views and behaviors. Frank Bascombe itself embodies the subjective state of the intelligent, critical and capable of self- irony, the average citizen of the millennium.
Its complexity wins the novel by linking the business, personal and political levels of action. For health, it is not the best with Frank. Diagnosis: prostate cancer. Privately, he is fighting for his second wife Sally wears with the intention of returning to her first husband, who was considered lost, but after many years all showed up as a surprise. The relationship with his children and his first wife have occasion to take stock of his life, that could be have been a whole soon.
As in Richard Ford 's Independence used in the situation of the country the real estate business of his protagonist as polyphonic metaphorical instrument to bring the moral mood of the Company at the blades. The relationship between broker and client are used as everyday examples of more general social relations. Not without irony succeeds Ford were, under the premise disclose Living as elementary needs ', with everyday situations, the psychological disposition of the home seekers and home buyers in order to respond to the moral ramifications and the personal consequences that arise from their decisions. ( So it would be interesting to learn whether Ford takes the housing crisis as an opportunity for a follow-up novel - which would then probably play in the days before the New Year ... )
Although one must identify the mood of the novel as moody, succeeds Ford to let the yeast rise of irony the live philosophical dough to a loose cake. Although Frank appears as morally man of integrity, however, is not as principled, how can the "permanent period", as he describes his present life Section suspect. By many options are still kept open, and the limits and principles of design life appear more as working hypotheses that are tested on a concrete example to their carrying capacity.
Formally, a linear, sometimes reportage exemplary Book The situation in the country. His style is essayistic, his expressive language, however conventional. Nevertheless, the narrative offers the psychological tracing of the many people who speak photographic sharpness of observation and the atmospheric portrayal of situations. Throughout the novel, therefore, in places as a model for American, creative writing ' regurgitates, he is convincing, but as for the fragmentary description of the medium-sized environment ( the East Coast ) and his soul landscape.