Independence Day

I read this for my book club, and despite feeling really bogged down for the first half, I am glad that I was asked to read this. I wasn't familiar with Richard Ford, and I gather there is buzz about his latest installment which is coming out now. (or came out recently?) The novel takes place over the course of a weekend, and the detail (minute by minute) is astonishing and impressive. Ford is attentive and accurate. The dialog and interpersonal relationships, assumptions and everyday American despair and hope, are all captured masterfully.
However, it was a SLOW story, so anyone who likes to zip through a novel (as I do) may get frustrated. Also, the language (around race & gender & sexual orientation) is dated, which I found a bit disconcerting and unpleasant. Similarly, there is an unsolved crime that involves a black woman that I felt didn't get adequate attention in the book. Perhaps that will be addressed in a later sequel. The last lines of the book have me wondering (and eager to talk to my book club about it), and perhaps that will be explained in the sequel. It will be a while before I am ready to take on the next book, though. I also want to talk to my book club about the themes of independence, marriage, parenthood, social class mobility, race, and (casual?) violence throughout this book.
Also, I caught a few mistakes – or at least I found them to be oversights – including when he refers to a “chapter” of the Declaration of Independence and doesn't explain how he got a woman-friend to a hotel when he was going to miss her at a public meeting place, but no one had have a cell phone.
Still, the fact that I have so much to say, and I want to write it down for book club discussion, is an indication that this is an important book.