The Ultimate Good Luck

I've read most of the works of Richard Ford, and remain an immense fan. His prose style is appealing, and his books contain incisive and unsettlingly depictions of America's middle class Independence Day and The Sportswriter as well as achingly powerful descriptions of the despair which is dominant in the lives of America's underclass Rock Springs. I first read "The Ultimate Good Luck" 25 years ago; remember that at the time I did not consider it the equal to his other works. But perhaps it was only those "externalities" that were life back then that colored my opinion, so I just re-read it in the spirit of a re-evaluation. The story is set in Oaxaca, Mexico, and involves the interactions of Americans with the Mexican ruling class as well as their underworld, which, as is so often the case, are intertwined and interdependent. Sonny is in jail, the result of his involvement in the illegal drug trade. Sonny's sister Rae, along with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Harry Quinn, are attempting to spring Sonny, and that involves money. Their principal Mexican contact is the lawyer Berhardt, who may be playing it straight, in his efforts to have Sonny released, but then, of course, may not. Deats, an American hustler in the drug trade, plays a scene with Quinn that could have been ripped from the movie, Pulp Fiction except for the fact that the movie was produced 13 years after the book, so it very well may have been the other way around, and I'd welcome comments from the more knowledgeable about that. Ford saw so many of the elements that have only grown exponentially over the last 30 years: the violence inherent in the trade of illegal drugs that is ripping Mexican society apart, with the corresponding "collateral damage" to the Americans who venture too close, and whose appetite for these drugs is the root cause. And everyone is corrupted. Ford's style is literary "pointillism," the depiction of one aspect of the character's lives, then shifting to another, and in the end, hopefully when you step back to enjoy it all, you are dazzled by the luminance. There are a fair share of Ford's pithy insights woven into the tale: "All the colleges he'd been in didn't teach him what he'd learned in two years out of the world, that once strangers you couldn't see started shooting guns at you and trying to set you on fire up in the sky, plans didn't take you too far." "It was never verifiable if most Mexican houses were half finished or half torn down." "It was what made them tourists. They looked and didn't see." Nothing remarkably original; and certainly the latter two are a mutual exchange of prejudices. Harry Quinn is a "troubled-Vietnam-War-veteran" and yes, there are some in the real world, but their stereotypical depiction in books and movies is near universal. So, this time around I paid particular attention to how well Ford did on this issue. Alas, he relied on a pastiche of those Hollywood images, subtly woven into the story for sure, but

I was inspired to read some early Richard Ford after reading an essay about him by Elizabeth Hardwick. I'd previously read the frank Bascome novels: The Sportswriter and Independence Day, but haven't read anything by him in probably 10 years or more. I really enjoyed The Ultimate Good Luck. It had a sense of foreboding menace throughout but was also a fast moving thriller about a Vietnam vet who goes to Mexico to try and help his estranged wife Rae get her drug mule brother Sonny out of Mexican prison. This takes place in Oaxaca among student protests, corrupt soldiers and cops, drug lords, hippie tourists, and violent guerrillas. There is plenty of drug, taking, violence, and betrayals to fuel the adventure. It reminded me of novels like Dog Soldiers, Dog of the South, and No Country For Old Men. Hippies in malevolent Mexico chasing drug money and you know it's not going to turn out well for somebody.

Richard Ford is an incredible writer. His works dig deep into the character's psyche. Ford usually finds his characters in the midst of a down cycle in their lives and explores their personal experience as they deal with life's trauma. Not the usual novel nonsense where everything ends happily ever after, but a real life portrayal as an individual encounters the nitty gritty essentials of life and confronts the tough choices offered.Ford is among the best American writers alive today and I think that this is his best book.