{"id":272,"date":"2021-07-14T07:41:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T07:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minimal-kritikak.hu\/?p=272"},"modified":"2025-06-16T21:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T19:48:17","slug":"wildlife-by-richard-ford-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minimal-kritikak.hu\/en\/2021\/07\/14\/wildlife-by-richard-ford-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife by Richard Ford – Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Wildlife<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I’m not saying Wildlife is boring, but I don’t know why<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Richard Ford’s novel, which has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN Award, cannot be definitively declared boring or completely uninteresting. Instead, you might simply say that Wildlife is not particularly engaging. The story of a slowly unraveling marriage, observed through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old boy, is quite ordinary and could happen to any of us. There are no major dramas, and perhaps not even any real reasons for the breakdown. Maybe it’s an escape from the mundane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(And as a book review blog author, I must note that those facing such issues might find fewer problems by enrolling in a library. Hello, Great Falls Public Library<\/a>!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young Joe analyzes the unfolding events with a Vulcan-like detachment reminiscent of Lieutenant Spock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildlife isn’t gritty enough for “dirty realism”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In Richard Ford’s fluent, yet otherwise detached and colorless writing, categorized under “dirty realism,” there is nothing particularly dirty\u2014it’s not even what you might call off-white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setting of 1960 doesn’t add anything significant to the plot; Wildlife<\/em> could easily be set in the present day. The only difference might be that Joe, instead of reading a newspaper, would be fiddling with his phone. The wildfire raging in the background is a detail that has become increasingly relevant today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story, which feels like more than a novella but less than a full novel, consists of only a few scenes. It is a typical so-so read – neither particularly good nor particularly bad, and it\u2019s your curiosity that keeps you going: will the fire be extinguished, and will the characters part ways? Or not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wildlife by Richard Ford
177 pages, Paperback
Published in 1991 by Vintage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not saying Wildlife is boring, but I don’t know why Richard Ford’s novel, which has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN Award, cannot be definitively declared boring or completely uninteresting. Instead, you might simply say that Wildlife is not particularly engaging. The story of a slowly unraveling marriage, observed through the eyes … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[152,54,78,72,153,301,154],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book","tag-1960s","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family-drama","tag-literary-fiction","tag-marriage","tag-minimalist-prose","tag-realism"],"yoast_head":"\nWildlife by Richard Ford - Book Review - minimal-Critiques<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Richard Ford's colorless Wildlife isn't a very wild place. 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