In brief: A Ride Across America; This Motherless Land; Be Mine – reviews
A bicycle-led musing on the state of the US; a page-turning, Nigerian-inflected reworking of Mansfield Park; and a wistful final chapter for Richard Ford’s sportswriter Frank Bascombe
June 2023
Book of the day
Be Mine by Richard Ford review – America, the fool’s paradise
Richard Ford: ‘I just make up shit to worry about at 3am’
May 2021
Books blog
Lionel Shriver v Cynthia Ozick: hurrah for the new literary beef
The books world was growing worryingly well-mannered, but Ozick’s response – in verse – to a bad review by Shriver has revived the fine art of feuding
May 2020
Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford review – stories of discontent
Books interview
Richard Ford: 'I didn't finish a book until I was 19'
November 2019
Richard Ford’s literary honour questioned by peers after history of aggressive behaviour
The Paris Review’s decision to give Ford the Hadada prize has been criticised in light of conduct that has included spitting on Colson Whitehead
October 2018
Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan on their new creations - an acclaimed film and a baby daughter
The actors have written a film version of Richard Ford’s 1990 novel. Here they discuss giving each other notes and navigating parenthood
May 2018
Wildlife review – director Paul Dano luxuriously evokes smalltown woes
Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal’s marriage capsizes in 50s Montana in an impressive directorial debut by Dano, based on the Richard Ford novel
January 2018
Wildlife review - Carey Mulligan plays flirtatious under big skies in Paul Dano's directorial debut
Mulligan is an unhappy wife and mother looking to break free in this adaptation of Richard Ford’s Montana-set novel
July 2017
Best holiday reads 2017, picked by writers – part two
What to pack along with the aftersun and flipflops? From novels about gay footballers and updated Greek classics to biographies and poetry, our guest critics offer their holiday must-reads
June 2017
Books blog
Richard Ford should swallow his pride over Colson Whitehead's bad review
With slow-brewed, writerly rancour, Ford has reiterated his urge to spit on Whitehead over a 2001 notice. In the age of social media, he should be more careful
Critical eye
Book reviews roundup: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness; Between Them: Remembering my Parents; Queer City
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy; Between Them: Remembering my Parents by Richard Ford; Queer City by Peter Ackroyd
The Guardian Books podcast
Richard Ford discusses his family memoir – books podcast
The Pulitzer prize-winning author talks to Sarah Churchwell about his new memoir, Between Them: Remembering my Parents
May 2017
Between Them: Remembering My Parents by Richard Ford – review
The novelist makes no grand claims for this memoir, and it is his unembarrassed love for his mother and father that comes through
Book of the day
Between Them: Remembering My Parents by Richard Ford – review
Two essays on the deaths of the author’s mother and father, written decades apart, are extraordinary studies of how we experience loss – and recall it
Bookmark this
Yanis Varoufakis, Chris Kraus, Tracey Spicer: literary highlights for Australia in May
Haruki Murakami’s short stories, Tracey Spicer’s words of wisdom and Cory Doctorow’s utopian dreams are all coming to Australian book stores this month
January 2017
The week in radio: America Rewritten; FRDH; Geoff Lloyd with Annabel Port
From Marilynne Robinson to Richard Ford, six writers in search of Trump's America
August 2016
Richard Ford, Joyce Carol Oates, David Hare and more ... leading writers on Donald Trump
The Great Gatsby, Elmer Gantry, The Wizard of Oz – top writers choose books to make sense of the US election
