In his trio of bestselling novels ‎- The Sportswriter‎,‎ Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner‎-winning Independence Day‎,‎ and The Lay of the Land ‎- Richard Ford set out the zeitgeist of an entire generation‎,‎ through the divining and wit of his now‎-famous literary chronicler‎,‎ Frank Bascombe‎,‎ one of the most indelible‎,‎ provocative and anticipated characters in modern American literature‎.‎ In Let Me Be Frank With You‎,‎ Ford returns with four deftly linked Christmas stories narrated by the iconic Bascombe‎.‎ Now sixty‎-eight‎,‎ Frank resides again in the New Jersey suburb of Haddam‎,‎ and has thrived ‎- seemingly but not utterly ‎- amidst the devastations of Hurricane Sandy‎.‎ The desolations of Sandy‎,‎ which left houses‎,‎ shorelines and countless lives unmoored and flattened‎,‎ are the perfect backdrop and touchstone for Ford ‎- and Bascombe‎.‎ With a flawless comedic sensibility and unblinking intelligence‎,‎ these stories range over the full complement of universal subjects‎:‎ ageing‎,‎ race‎,‎ loss‎,‎ faith‎,‎ marriage‎,‎ the real estate debacle ‎- the tumult of the world we live in‎.‎ Through Bascombe ‎- funny‎,‎ profane‎,‎ touching‎,‎ wise‎,‎ often inappropriate ‎- we share the aspirations and sorrows‎,‎ longings‎,‎ achievements and failings of American life in the morning of the new century‎.‎ With his trademark candour and brimming wit‎,‎ Richard Ford brings Bascombe back in all his imperfect glory to say ‎(‎often hilariously‎)‎ what all of us are thinking but few will voice aloud‎.‎