(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)A trilogy of brilliant novels8212;The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land8212;that charts the life and times of one of the most beloved and enduring characters in modern fiction.When we meet Frank Bascombe in The Sportswriter, his unguarded voice instantly wins us over and pulls us into a life that has been irrevocably changed8212;by the loss of a marriage, a career, a child. We then follow Frank, ever laconic and observant, through Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, witnessing his fortune8217;s rise and his family8217;s fragmentation. With finely honed prose and an eye that captures the most subtle nuances of the human condition8212;all its pathos and beauty and strangeness8212;Ford transforms this ordinary man8217;s life into a riveting, moving parable of life in America today.