More Jeffrey Ford

I just finished Jeffrey Ford’s novel The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, which is set in New York City in 1893. It’s ingenious and entertaining, and combines the wildly improbable with some well-researched details on portrait painting, old New York, and other matters. If you liked Time and Again, Ragtime, or The Alienist, you should like this—and Ford doesn’t bring on as many distracting cameo appearances by famous names as the latter two books. (The artist Albert Pinkham Ryder does appear as a character, and his painting The Race Track is one of the book’s key images.)

Meanwhile, Jenn has created a website bringing together Ford’s works in a more complete and accessible way than has been done before—and with many links to work that’s available online. It’s called Jeffrey’s World, but the URL is www.thedrownedlife.com, after Ford’s latest collection (discussed here recently).