Title: A long, weary slog.
Product review: Tedious, overwritten and overlong, Independence Day tackles one great theme; the existential human predicament of 'being in the world in time' and misses the mark by miles. To centre one man's crisis around two or three relatively mundane situations is risk enough, and Ford is no E.M. Forster. He lacks the subtle judgement that Forster used to sustain the narrative structure and his use of language, though often clever and evocative disappears in a mire of inaction. This is a hard book to get through, partly because of backward nods in the direction of experimental fiction but mainly because of its length and lack of narrative pointers. Ford's descriptive talents are good and his characterization excellent, but character development over 450 pages isn't much of a challenge if that's all you're doing. Where's the novel?
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