Let Me Be Frank with You was published by Ecco in 2014. Four linked novellas find Frank Bascombe at sixty-eight, living on the New Jersey shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (October 2012). Each novella concerns an encounter that forces Frank to confront aspects of ending: his own mortality, the destruction of neighborhoods he knew, the fading of old relationships, and the question of what (if anything) remains permanent.
In “I’m Here,” Frank visits a former client whose house Sandy destroyed — the man is living in a FEMA trailer on his empty lot, and his determination to rebuild forces Frank to consider what attachment to place means. In “Everything Could Be Worse,” a woman Frank doesn’t remember claims they had a relationship decades ago — forcing him to confront the fragility of memory. In “The New Normal,” Frank faces his own medical frailty. In “Deaths of Others,” he encounters mortality directly.
The novellas are Frank Bascombe at his most philosophical — stripped by age of the professional roles (sportswriter, realtor) that gave the earlier books their social texture, left with nothing but consciousness itself. The prose is even more digressive than in the earlier books: Frank’s mind wanders, circles back, makes connections that seem random but accumulate into meaning. The hurricane provides the perfect metaphor for late life: everything you built can be swept away overnight.
Collecting Let Me Be Frank with You
First edition (Ecco/HarperCollins, New York, 2014): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$30
- Signed: $30–$60
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
Bascombe After Sandy
Let Me Be Frank with You (2014) is the fourth and final Frank Bascombe book — four linked novellas set in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Bascombe, now retired and in his late sixties, visits a destroyed house on the Jersey Shore, receives a visit from a former colleague, confronts his own mortality, and deals with a former wife’s decline into dementia. The tone is autumnal and valedictory. Ford handles the material with characteristic intelligence, and the hurricane serves as both literal disaster and metaphor for the late-life losses Bascombe can no longer deflect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I read the Bascombe books in order? Yes — while each can be read independently, the emotional weight accumulates across the four books. Start with The Sportswriter and read chronologically to feel the full arc of Bascombe’s life.