Fiction

August 6, 2004 11:55 AM

The Shore, a short-story by Richard Ford.
posted by semmi (4 comments total)

full text of Ford's heartbreaking 9-11 story

I remember very well the day my father died. It was the early morning of a Saturday in 1960. I was 16. My father was 55. I was awakened by the sound of his loud breathing - gasping, really - and by the sound of my mother's voice from the room beside mine. We lived in a new suburban house in Mississippi. "Carrol?" I heard my mother saying. "Carrol, wake up." Her voice was pleading, becoming uncertain, becoming afraid. My father's heavy, gasping breaths continued. I got up and walked down the short hall to the open doorway of his room and looked in. As it was so long ago now, I don't remember if my mother was leaning over his bed, or sitting on it, or if she was touching him, or standing beside him shouting. I only remember that my feet were cold because it was February. And I remember my pajamas being blue. And I remember that what I did was get on my knees in my father's bed and shake him, shake his shoulders, pat his face - he seemed to be sleeping, possibly having a nightmare - saying as I did the name I called him. "Daddy, Daddy, wake up."
(...)
posted by matteo at 12:57 PM on August 6, 2004

This is the first hint I had that a new Frank Bascombe novel was in the works. Thanks for sharing.
posted by .kobayashi. at 5:13 PM on August 6, 2004

Richard Ford is an excellent writer, but I can't take another Bascombe novel. I appreciate the link, but I might be in the minority in finding his recent work like watching expensive paint dry-- you have to admire the work that went into it, and you find the result aesthetically pleasing, but watching the process unfold is boring as hell.
posted by F Mackenzie at 6:31 PM on August 6, 2004

I really enjoyed that, thanks.
posted by Onanist at 2:27 AM on August 7, 2004