Independence Day is the story of a long (oh, so very, very long) Fourth of July weekend for middle-aged real estate agent Frank Bascombe. Over the weekend he maybe makes some slight changes, turning his life in a new direction (possibly).

I'm not a middle-aged guy, but I've had some revelations in my own young life, so I get what Ford is saying. Frank is mired in the "Existence Period" where he pretty much just tries not to let things bother him, just keep everything even keel. On this holiday weekend, Frank and his son Paul, who's been getting in trouble for shoplifting, vandalism, so on, are going to the Basketball and Baseball Halls of Fame. At first glance, I thought the book would revolve around the travels of father and son, but this is not the case. Instead, for a good two hundred pages or so we readers are mired in the dull life of Frank Bascombe as he tries to sell a house to middle-aged former hippies who have yet to discover the comfortably numb bliss of the Existence Period. And there's Frank checking out his hot dog and root beer stand outside town, trying to collect rent from his deadbeat tennants, and having overly philosophical talks with his girlfriend, whom Frank really can't commit to because it would upset the delicate balance in his mundane life.

When the father and son jamboree finally does get underway, I almost wished it hadn't, because Paul is a very weird kid. He reminded me of a couple cousins of mine, which is not a good thing. After Frank tries to bond with his son at the Basketball Hall of Fame and on the way to Cooperstown (without lots of success) Paul is mercifully hit in the eye when he stands directly in the path of a batting cage pitching machine and has to go to the hospital. Inexplicibly, Frank's half-brother takes him to the hospital why Paul is choppered there. The half-brother appears from nowhere and his sudden appearance seemed a little too convenient for me.

Anyway, after Paul's injury, Frank begins to realize that maybe he should try to get out of the Existence Period and commit to his girlfriend, have a better relationship with his ex-wife and kids, so on. The book grinds to a halt before it's really clear what exactly Frank is going to do, which left me wondering, "I read all this way for what?" A book so long and plodding, I wanted some kind of conclusion, something to make me feel it was worthwhile, and I don't think I got that.

My biggest complaint is that some of the characters didn't seem real to me. Paul (and his sister) are so weird, the girlfriend is too cerebral, and the ex-wife was flat. Maybe I just don't know enough people...

However, this is a fairly good book. The story, as slow as it is, is engrossing and the writing is almost top-notch. I'd recommend giving it a look, especially if you're a middle-aged man in an Existence Period of your own.

This is a book that is fit to win the Nobel as well as the Pulitzer. I read it and heard it on tape and was mesmerized (Recorded Books, Inc. has it and the reader, Richard Poe, is brilliant). It made me feel wonderful - peaceful - that a great book could be written about a good, good man. It's funny, sweet, sad - Richard Ford has given me a gift and I thank him. I love that a lot of his "good intentions" go to hell, but that doesn't change his sense of humor or his basic love of life. His characters are priceless: the pathetic couple excited to buy a home in New Jersey only to find that they can't really afford it; Frank's hinky son; his kooky (and ungrateful) tenants. I love Frank Bascombe - hope there's going to be more about him - long may he wave.

Ford drove up from Chinook MT to Regina in November to keynote the annual Saskatchewan Writers Guild awards. The Sportswriter had left me profoundly depressed 10 years ago -- I remembered a very good writer, but a hero going nowhere -- and I wondered why Ford had wasted so much time on Frank Bascombe and had such a big following. I heard Ford several times on radio in the last 2 years, and he sounded so much nore positive and interesting than Bascombe had been. I bought Independence Day so I'd have something to get autographied at the dinner, and to my surprise loved the book, about a middle-aged guy with a fragmented family trying to put the pieces together, a bit like me (I lived in Teaneck NJ, once). This book seemed so much more positive, it seemed possible that Bascombe could get a life. Did I miss something that all those 2's and 3's people got, or are they stuck where I was (and Frank was) 10 years ago? Don't think so. 8 for story, 9 for characters, 11 for language. The Pullitzer committee got it right.

If an author sets out to write a collection of short stories about adultery, you'd think they'd have a lo say about it, right? Well, Ford certainly expends plenty of words, but the net impact of them is next to nothing by the end of this incredibly feeble navel-gazing group of stories. Mind-numbingly similar in tone and temperament, the ten stories center of upper and upper-middle class white, middle-aged, married professionals who seem to have drifted into infidelity. Story after story plods cautiously along, poking at the consequences of adultery in a very mild way, with leaden dialogue and a lot of empty moodiness. Adultery is treated almost as a kind of bland rite-of-passage for a disconnected male. Marital infidelity can happen in so many ways for so many reasons, and yet Ford seems interested in only a very limited field of it. I have no idea what his personal background or situation is, but it's a collection you read and leave wishing the author had worked out their issues in therapy or something. If he wasn't such a literary bigshot, there's no way this would have been published-it strikes the same note over and over and over, and isn't provocative, insightful, or even interesting. PS. If you were planning on the audio version, don't. Ford is a terrible reader, sounding like someone reading the telephone book aloud as punishment.

Richard Ford is undoubtedly one of America's finest authors. More than any other writer today, he has a special gift for creating characters with undeniable humanity. In this new collection of short stories, not his best work but excellent nonetheless, each character feels truly genuine, with human flaws and weaknesses that we all can relate to. Infidelity and its consequences is the main theme here, and Ford explores it with all the grace, subtlety, and compassion that readers have come to expect from him. The stories, for the most part, focus on everyday occurrences; Ford's work rarely relies on intriguing plot twists, but rather profound explorations of emotion and the human experience. In "Reunion," inspired by a John Cheever story, a man encounters the husband of a woman with whom he briefly had an affair, and stumbles through an awkward yet revealing conversation, set in the middle of Penn Station. In "Under the Radar," a woman admits to her husband that she had a brief affair with the host of a dinner party they are on their way to attend. In "Privacy," a man takes stock of his marriage after finding himself drawn to his neighbor, whose nude figure he views regularly from his apartment window. In each, Ford is deeply interested in the inner motivations of his characters. What makes them love? What makes them cheat? How do they justify their infidelities, both to themselves and their spouses? And how do they ultimately deal with their own guilt and the pain they have caused to those around them? Each of these questions is answered unflinchingly and unapologetically, but with the tenderness and charm for which Richard Ford's prose is well known.

A Multitude of Sins is a very interesting, somewhat depressing set of stories. Every one of them deals with adultery in one form or another. Sometimes a past adultery informs the plot of the story, sometimes the ending of it is the driving force. ... though, none of the stories actually deals with the beginning of it, except in flashback. Many times, the parties involved think back to the beginning and try to figure out what has gone wrong, and why a thrilling, secretive experience has become dull and boring.

The highlight of the novel has to be Abyss, the last story in the book. It's the longest story, and allows Ford to really get into the character of the two protagonists. Again, you see the beginning of their affair in flashback, the sudden spark when they first touch, and the red hot desire when they first truly look into each other's eyes. When the characters are sent to Phoenix for a convention, you see how their feelings have changed as the height of their passion comes crashing down into the dullness of reality and they each see what the other person is really like. Watching this relationship crumble, and then seeing the unexpected (at least to me) resolution to the story, was very intriguing, and made me want to finish the story as soon as possible.

The characters in each story are seekers, in a way. They are all searching for something to make their life complete. They are lost souls, searching for the fulfillment that life should bring, but doesn't always. Having an affair seems to them, at first, to fill that gap, but it never actually does. That's what makes the stories so depressing, in a way: seeing the fruitless search for life. Only one story has what's even close to a happy ending, and even that happiness is caused by the realization that their marriage is truly over. Most of the stories end with the characters having fallen, picking themselves up and resolving to move on through life's dense fog. A little wiser, perhaps. Or perhaps not. Some people never learn.

Still, depressing or not, I found all of the stories worthwhile to read. From the short vignettes to the longer pieces, each one contained interesting situations, or a nice twist, or even just making a point about life. I can't say I enjoyed the book, but I certainly did find it fascinating. I have never read any of Ford's stuff, but I may have to now that I've read some of his short fiction.

Richard Ford's Women with Men is a collection of three short stories. The first and third seem closely related. They focus on two men from the Midwest, both entering middle age, and both profoundly confused and clueless. The city of Paris features prominently in both stories. The third, story, much shorter and sandwiched between the Paris tales is a sort of coming of age tale of a teenage boy in Montana. It seems somewhat out of place.

In the first story, "The Womanizer", Martin Austin a supposedly happily married man, has traveled to Paris for a business trip where he finds himself intrigued by a somber, enigmatic woman undergoing a painful divorce. The story chronicles what happens when Austin becomes unaccountably obsessed with her. In the other Paris story, "Occidentals", Charley Matthews, whose wife has recently abandoned him, is visiting Paris on business, accompanied by his lover, Helen. I found both stories painful and dreary but was struck by how congruent Ford's writing style was with the psyche of the characters. Both the characters and the writing are ponderous, and humorless and grim. The result is an unusually intense portrayal of unconscious grief, depression, and delusion and quiet despair among men (and the women in their lives) who are groping for meaning and purpose in a soul-dead existence, and who are floundering for human connection without the slightest capacity for autheticity or intimacy.

This collection of stories extends a major theme in Ford's work: women sans men do just fine. Drop a male or two into the picture, and the problems start to pile up. This collection throws this thematic cream pie in your face. It's not a subtle message; the title's obvious poke at Hemingway gives it away before Page One. Fortunately, its thematic constructs do not overshadow the absolute quality of the work. Ford is a premier American writer, and this volume upholds his lofty standing, although it may not raise it to the next level (whatever that may be). Still, there are nits to pick. To the well initiated, these stories may well read like highly developed drafts of finer works to come. While the characters are true and well-developed, they lack a certain depth of those in other Ford works. And the internal dialogs, for which Ford is famous, sometimes border on whining, particularly in the third story, Occidentals. If you're not a Ford fan, these shortcomings may leave you searching for a more engaging read. Still, anyone interested in serious American literature, should check out Women with Men.

I think this is one of Richard Ford's best along with Wildlife, Rock Springs, and The Ultimate Good Luck. The subject matter and setting are quite different from the Americana we've come to expect from him, yet the depth of insight is there in maybe even more intensity than in any other works. I rank the first story, The Womanizer, up there with more obvious and less subtle works by Camus concerning "the human condition" While some reviwers found the protagonist lacking direction and substance, I felt that this was precisely WHY this story was so good. Ford has managed to portray a character who is non-commital and self-deceptive to the point of ridiculousness. He is an onion skin of lies and apathy floating back and forth between Paris and the US under the illusion that he is having an affair with a woman that he really doesn't care about. There are so many great scenes in here from the one where he imagines himself in court with his wife to when he presents the little boy with a gift. Ford undermines him with irony from start to finish and presents us with incredible detail and insight a character who is fundementally vague and doesn't even know himself let alone others. A classic of the short novel which should be ranked with the best of Peter Handke in this genre. There is a little of this protagonist in all of us. Well done.

Mr. Ford has an excellent prose style and as I began reading the book, I thought it was going to be excellent. The author seems unable to continue with anything interesting and the novel runs out of gas by the half way point. The characters are apathetic regarding their lives and their world and make the reader feel the same. In the end, I no longer cared about the characters (even loathed some of them) and I was happy when I reached the end.

Richard Ford is an incredible writer. His works dig deep into the character's psyche. Ford usually finds his characters in the midst of a down cycle in their lives and explores their personal experience as they deal with life's trauma.

Not the usual novel nonsense where everything ends happily ever after, but a real life portrayal as an individual encounters the nitty gritty essentials of life and confronts the tough choices offered.

Ford is among the best American writers alive today and I think that this is his best book.

I picked up this book attracted by its famous awarded sequel 'Independence Day' and a panegyrical comparison of its author with Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck and Bellow simultaneously (a list of my favorite American writers!). I'm glad that all the hype includes at least some truth: Ford's language is really excellent. Unfortunately I can not say anything similar about a plot and the characters of the novel.

Frank Bascombe, a garrulous protagonist, is charmed by his own stream of words (not of consciousness). He speaks about his former wife, deceased son, other children, but the more he speaks the more his sincerity becomes questionable. His inability to write serious prose is quiet intelligible: nothing and nobody interest him except his inner spiritual emptiness and his bleak (but accurately counted) sexual affairs. In his narrative even his ex-wife do not have a Christian name, she is just his X. An incessant rumination about deceased son is only a justification of his promiscuity and lack of interest in living son and daugther. Existing in the desert of own soul he fabricates feelings from nothing, at the same time staying indifferent to other's genuine pains and worries. A suicide of a member of his 'male club' and realization of a fact that he could possibly prevent it, revive his emotions for a moment which soon ends (guess!) in next sexual affair. It is terrible to live in a world depicted by Richard Ford. What is this? A prophesy of coming spiritual death of America? I don't want to believe.

Rating: five stars for author's rich language and one star for everything else gives average three stars.

In contrast to some of his earlier work, this is the novel that Ford found the voice that he went on to perfect in Independence Day. However, because I had first read that award winning work, I found the Sportswriter ultimately less satisfying. The weaknesses of the story are the unresolved quality to some of the events-these are due to the style of following Bascombe's thoughts over a few days of time. However it is a style that is engaging, and inevitably, I couldn't stop reading.

The characters are well defined, some much too vividly, others with a mere gesture so as to appeal to the imagination (His descriptions of his children while he casually observes them, for instance). Often we are left with underlying questions about character motivation, and merely skim the surface of a life lived. To his credit though, it is often understood implicitly what Bascombe's motives are.

Whether or not one is a sports fan (it is not required), the story appeals on its observations regarding attitudes toward trying to live the good life. As with most good literature, this makes the reading worthwhile. The story does feel true to life, albeit one that the reader might get drawn into reluctantly. Ford as Bascombe regularly spins out a yarn of self-deprecating humor, heavy with cynicism. At the beginning, I found the effect frustrating. Several pages later, however, the tangential thread is clarified as part of the grand design, and, as Bascombe works through the thicket, the cynicism is transformed. By the end the reader has become Bascombe's coeval, rooting every turn toward hope.

Richard Ford writes about a very real phenomenon in modern life: the overweening lonliness and alienation that many within modern society feel. Frank Bascombe is a divorced man, and this is a very male book. What makes the book succsessful is that you have these feelings of alienation set against a backdrop of traditional sleepy happy New Jersey: a symbol of steady family values and community. Indeed, the novel itself constitutes and explores the tricky inner dialogue of Frank Bascombe. This is a man who uses language evocatively and subtly in his mind, but speaks in public like he's so "good-ole boy" he could be a Republican speech-writer . He too contributes the external facade of small town USA within Haddam...but like his homosexual friend who commits suicide, Frank is hiding a real lack of meaning and belonging. This book ses Frank looking for the answers (at a roadside palmist) and at the same time declaring that he doesn't need any. I especially enjoyed his relationship with X, his ex-wife. The fact that he declares himself to accepting of his divorce yet in his thoughts never allows himself to use her name is but one example of the hidden Frank Bascombe with his unacknowldeged feelings.

Oh...but there's no plot, so if you want escapism..look elsewhere.

Book gives a great over view and lays out a common sense approach to performance. Each chapter opens up talking a good game but then falls short of the expectations that it has set.

Book falls short by not covering the SQL Optimizer, how it works, or how to change the pre-bind parameters to influence it. Covers DB2 version 5-6 and mentions some things coming along in version 7. Book lists "Hints" but does not give definitions for each one nor the behavior that it should invoke.

Performance tools, techniques, scripts, screenshots are all from the mainframe environment. The event monitor GUI on the windows 200 interface tells you how code is actually behaving instead of the SETEXPLAIN which makes estimates and guesses. The book never mentions the event monitor tool. (I like books that cover different implimentations.)

Considering that this is the only performance book available for DB2, it's the best. I have an older Oracle performance book that most of my SQL Tuning/modeling techniques are based on. This DB2 book doesn't compare in depth or breadth.

If your new to DB2 or to Tuning, this book could help you out.
If you already know Tuning or another database, read the DB2 RedBooks at ibm.com, they're free.

This text has more insight than any other text I have read on tuning a mainframe DB2 system. The text sometimes seems disjointed, but in trying to cram all of the authors combined knowledge and experience into one text and trying to give it some order, is daunting. I would have to say this text rates a bit higher on the scale than DB2 Developer's Guide by Craig Mullins because it is not trying to cover all of the bases that Mr. Mullins is in his book. This is strictly for giving pointers on tuning DB2 in a mainframe OS/390 environment. I hope the authors combine their efforts and put out a true "DB2 for OS/390 Certification Guide" so we DB2 DBAs can train newcomers to the field. Their latest effort falls short of that.

Now that I have your attention -- I must confess I have not yet seen this book. But Richard Yevich has consulted my organization on a complex DB2 system, and I would say that his collaboration on this book should guarantee useful insights.

Note that this book will likely be only for an mainframe environment. For Unix or NT, I would go with a book on the DB2 UDB version.

I have used chiltons books for many years for different model cars and motorcycles. Do you also provide a CD with maintenance manuel type information. At our local auto parts dealer I've seen CDs maintenance information. I understand from the store employee that the CD is much more comprehensive and has better pictorial details. I'd like to get some more information on the CD. Thanks, Eli Elias

This is the second repair manual that I purchased that covers the '66 to '77 Bronco, as well as others. The first was the Haynes Pick-ups & Broncos 1973 thru 1979, and I can say without a doubt that the Chiltons manual is far superior. However, it still tends to concentrate on the '78 and later Broncos. I have a '76, and while it gives relatively detailed instructions for the later models, it usually only gives vague instructions for the early trucks, or omits them altogether. It's a handy reference, but not sufficient for more involved work or restoration. Your best bet is still the factory service manual.

I am a Mustang enthusiast who was sorely disappointed with this book. While this book provides dyno evidence for most enthusiasts¡¯ anecdotal knowledge, it misses important tests of the standard equipment and combinations that most gear heads want to know about.

For instance, in the section which compares cams on a typical street/strip 5.0 setup w/ extrude honed Dart Iron heads, ported Cobra intake, and long tube headers, the dyno results purport to compare 8 different cams. However, in reality, the cams tested were only from three different companies: Ford Motorsport, Lunati and Crane. Additionally, the cams were not really selected for optimal use with that particular combination. A more valid test would have compared similar cam grinds among 8 different companies.

The intake section has similar shortcomings as well. The dyno results of many tests that most reasonably knowledgeable mustangers don't really care for are reported in great detail. Many comparisons are made between OEM and slightly modified OEM components vs. FRPP/SVO components. There is absolutely no comparison among the different aftermarket intake manufacturers represented here. Although there are comparisons of ported vs. unported cobra/GT40 style intakes and extrude hones OEM intakes reported here, this information is only useful to the novice who is looking to get his/her feet wet.

The supercharger and exhaust modification sections are better, but lack key dyno comparisons as well. I give credit to Richard Holdener for compiling such a comprehensive array of cheap and/or free modifications for the novice to try, but most enthusiasts would have tried these modifications already. The layout of the book is very easy to read, well organized and very well written. But, in my estimation, it is a book most suited for the novice seeking optimization of stock or SVO/FRPP components. This book is not for the gear head that knows which combo they want to run, but is seeking hard evidence from the dyno to make a particular component or brand choice.

Peace

While I think this book has some good information, I think anyone who regularly reads Muscle Mustang and Fast Fords will have read most of this already. It states there are 2000 dyno runs, I counted, and came up with around 180. While this is a lot, most of this was already in MM & FF magazine. They didn't even test a vortech/paxton centrifugal supercharger on a stock engine. They did this test for a Kenne Bell, but it would be a great comparison to test the KB against a centrifugal supercharger. Overall, I am dissapointed, I think most of this is regurgitated material.

While I think this book has some good information, I think anyone who regularly reads Muscle Mustang and Fast Fords will have read most of this already. It states there are 2000 dyno runs, I counted, and came up with around 180. While this is a lot, most of this was already in MM & FF magazine. They didn't even test a vortech/paxton centrifugal supercharger on a stock engine. They did this test for a Kenne Bell, but it would be a great comparison to test the KB against a centrifugal supercharger. Overall, I am dissapointed, I think most of this is regurgitated material.

We were trying to replace the heater core, the instructions were foggy to say the least. Further repairs or maintenance just as foggy, its a good book if you have a lot of experience with repairing the vehicle and don't need a how to. Amazingly the "Ford Tempo Mercury Topaz 1984-94" book by Mark Christman, which is by the same company, was a lot better for repairs and maintenance. But neither book helped with replacing the heater core, we eventually used other resources for more ideas on how to actually get to the heater core to get it out.

I've used this book for nearly three years now, and keep wondering why I go back to it. (Actually, it's because it's the only Tempo/Topaz book I own.) I have found several major errors in the illustrations, usually due to showing a 2.0 engine setup as a 2.3 or vice versa. Some instructions, like how to change a water pump, are just plain wrong. Electrical schematics, particularly of the instrument cluster are sketchy to the point of being useless when troubleshooting anything other than a hard failure. I suspect that much of the text in this book was a quickie cut-and-paste job of info that pertained to these same components as installed in other Ford products. It really doesn't do justice to the model-specific problems of navigating the limited space of the engine compartment or tracing an intermittent electrical circuit. Proofreading was spotty at best. It's better than doing a repair job blind, but not by much.

Chilton's Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz Repair Manual 1984-94 is not for the average car owner. It is probably not even for the average mechanic. It is written in difficult language and at times seems to display unnecessarily complicated methods of performing simple tasks. From beginning to index it offers low quality information and instruction. There are too many diagrams and not enough photos. The photos available are poor. Overall this book was not very useful to me. I have used the Haynes manual for the same car and found it much more useful.