Writer In Focus: Richard Ford
Writer in Focus Assignment
ENGL1205
“Writer in Focus: Richard Ford”
In literature class we read two short narratives by author Richard Ford: Rock Springs and My Mother in Memory. Rock Springs is about a criminal automobile theft and his girlfriend running away to get away from their pasts, but ironically end up living the same life because of their continued life of crime. The second story was based on a man’s Reflection on his relationship with his mother whom had passed on.
What I enjoyed most about these short stories was Ford’s detail to characterization, and the way he used very in depth physical descriptions, and very detailed portraitures of their thoughts and values to fully let us get big a picture of who the characters really are. This to me is a quality of a good book because I feel like when readers have a strong feeling of a character’s values and opinions, we can more easily empathize with them, which, in my opinion, is one of the beauties of reading. I also enjoyed the particular attention to imagery and Ford’s descriptions of the settings his stories took place in. In the lecture he explained that understanding a characters setting is also a big part of understanding who they are.
In the memorial lecture we attended, we had the opportunity to hear Richard Ford read some of his new material, and read parts from his novel “Canada”. We also had to opportunity to listen to questions about his writings afterward. I particularly enjoyed the way in which Ford read his stories with such enthusiasm. After hearing him speak and re-reading his stories I could almost hear him reading them. His novel Canada is about a teenage boy whose parents commit a bank robbery and he is forced to flee to Canada. In the question and answer period, a lady asked Ford why he had named his novel “Canada”, and I found his response to be rather interesting. He explained that when you are writing something sometimes a word just sticks out to you and it feels right,
ENGL1205
“Writer in Focus: Richard Ford”
In literature class we read two short narratives by author Richard Ford: Rock Springs and My Mother in Memory. Rock Springs is about a criminal automobile theft and his girlfriend running away to get away from their pasts, but ironically end up living the same life because of their continued life of crime. The second story was based on a man’s Reflection on his relationship with his mother whom had passed on.
What I enjoyed most about these short stories was Ford’s detail to characterization, and the way he used very in depth physical descriptions, and very detailed portraitures of their thoughts and values to fully let us get big a picture of who the characters really are. This to me is a quality of a good book because I feel like when readers have a strong feeling of a character’s values and opinions, we can more easily empathize with them, which, in my opinion, is one of the beauties of reading. I also enjoyed the particular attention to imagery and Ford’s descriptions of the settings his stories took place in. In the lecture he explained that understanding a characters setting is also a big part of understanding who they are.
In the memorial lecture we attended, we had the opportunity to hear Richard Ford read some of his new material, and read parts from his novel “Canada”. We also had to opportunity to listen to questions about his writings afterward. I particularly enjoyed the way in which Ford read his stories with such enthusiasm. After hearing him speak and re-reading his stories I could almost hear him reading them. His novel Canada is about a teenage boy whose parents commit a bank robbery and he is forced to flee to Canada. In the question and answer period, a lady asked Ford why he had named his novel “Canada”, and I found his response to be rather interesting. He explained that when you are writing something sometimes a word just sticks out to you and it feels right,