Independence Day

Independence Day Summary | Plot Summary

Independence Day follows its protagonist and narrator, Frank Bascombe, through a long holiday weekend that turns out to be a pivotal point in his life. At the outset of the novel, Frank Bascombe is entrenched in a period of his life that he calls his "Existence Period." After the death of his son and his ensuing divorce, Frank had flown the coop, left his job as a sports writer, and even left the country, in hopes of leaving the pain behind. Eventually, Frank had returned home to Haddam, New Jersey, and attempted to resume a somewhat normal life. His return to Haddam marked the beginning of Frank's Existence Period, in which his life strategy consists of avoiding emotional extremes by floating along through life in a semi-detached fashion. This is where we find Frank at the beginning of this long holiday weekend.

Frank has become a real estate agent, and takes pleasure from helping other human beings find shelter in the town of Haddam, which he believes to be a great place to live. He still is tenuously holding onto a connection with his ex-wife, Ann, and two surviving children, Clarissa and Paul, although Ann has remarried and moved to Connecticut with them. Upon hearing the news of her remarriage four years before, Frank had purchased her home in Haddam, where he now lives - ostensibly to provide continuity for his visiting children, but actually because he's still living in the grim shell of his former life.

Frank's son Paul has become troubled of late, and Frank plans to spend the holiday weekend with him to try to help this distressed child. Frank also spends time with the Markham family, his troublesome clients who have looked at 44 houses without making a buying decision. Indeed, they are one house away from crossing the statistical threshold of no return for prospective buyers. The Markhams have been living in motels for months, eating into their savings and losing hope for their future; if they don't buy a house soon, they may well lose everything they have, including their marriage. Frank has one more house to show them, and he believes it is the ideal compromise between their dream home and the reality of what's available to them on the market. Meanwhile, Frank is rushing to squeeze in his standard Friday night date with Sally, his girlfriend of ten months, before leaving on his two day road trip with Paul.

Over the course of this holiday weekend, Frank begins to see himself in the Markhams. Like them, his inability to commit to a relationship - either with Sally, his former wife, or any of the innumerable women which he's known in between - has nearly put him past the statistical point of no return as well. When the Markhams waffle on the 45th house - the best house Frank has to show them - he begins to realize that his own indecision regarding Sally mirrors the Markhams' inability to recognize a good thing when they see it. However, it takes a tragic injury to his son Paul to re-engage Frank fully in his emotional life. When Paul's eye is flattened by a 75-mile-per-hour fastball at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Frank is rudely jolted back to reality, and emerges at long last from his Existence Period.