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Sunday, February 17, 2002

By Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor

Richard Ford turned 58 yesterday. He would probably cringe at the term "elder statesman" of American letters, but at a time when the major male writers of the last century are slowing down, Ford is poised to replace them.

Since 1976 when his first novel, "A Piece of Heart," appeared, the Mississippi-born writer has worked steadily at the fickle craft of fiction writing. The hard work has paid off.

He is the only writer to win the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in the same year, for his 1995 novel, "Independence Day."

And while Ford's output -- eight books in 26 years -- is modest compared to Updike's or Roth's, his quality has never wavered.

From his fellow writers:

Scott Turow calls him a "memorable stylist" who writes "flawless prose."

Chuck Kinder calls him "a real writer."

From the critics:

The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani compares his writing to the "up close and personal detail of a painting by Lucian Freud and the moody resonance of a canvas by Edward Hopper."

The Boston Globe's Justin Cronin calls Ford's writing "vigorous, unfolding with the leisurely confidence that is the practiced craftsman's best illusion."

Ford himself takes great pride in his craft. Speaking from his home in Maine last week, he said he tries to construct his stories like "a Calder mobile, balancing in the air, pretty from all angles, full of counterpoise.

"I don't tell stories, I make them."

His latest book, "A Multitude of Sins" (Knopf, $25), is his second collection of short stories in a row. "Women With Men" was published in 1997.

The format, while a popular one for writers of all talents, makes great demands on its practitioners. There's very little margin for error.

Ford raises the ante by insisting on putting his personal stamp on each story. "I say to myself, 'This is a thing I made. I made it for you to read.' "

But, Ford understands that writing is more than constructing pretty sentences. They have to be about something important. For Ford, that something is the emotional space between two people and whether they succeed or fail in bridging it.

His latest cast of lovers isn't having much luck. They're either married to someone else or wish they were. Either way, there's a void.

"These stories are about failure -- failure of patience, failure to tell the truth, failure of affection -- and what the consequences of those failures are. These people have failed utterly with each other and it leaves them in a spiritual nowhere.

"The consequences are real and dire. There is a moral dimension to what they do."

Ford portrays his fellows as "creatures of impulse" who begin love affairs more out of curiosity than out of love.

"These people believe that what they do will not affect their lives, that there's no ramification outside of the circumstances.

"What interests me as a writer is finding how to contrive a way to say, 'We should care for one another. There must be a measure of affection.'

"My agent said this book might threaten people. Maybe, but that's not what I intended. I only hope they read my stories to the end."

In his major novels, "The Sportswriter" and "Independence Day," Ford wrote in the voice of a character common in 20th-century American fiction -- the middle-aged white male -- but there was a difference.

Frank Bascome, for all his confusion, is intelligent, caring and engaged.

And, while Ford is not his character, he himself is intelligent, caring and engaged in the world around him. "I need enough fuel to have a life" is how he puts it.

He also has the talent to touch other lives with his writing.

Richard Ford will speak at 7:30 tomorrow night at the Carnegie Music Hall as part of the Drue Heinz Lectures. For tickets, call 412-622-8866.