Richard Ford 
Independence Day 

Frank Bascombe, in the aftermath of his divorce and the ruin of his career, has entered an »Existence Period» – selling real estate in New Jersey and mastering the high-wire act of normalcy. But over one Fourth of July weekend, Frank is called into sudden, bewildering engagement with life.
Independence Day is a moving, peerlessly funny odyssey through America and through the layered consciousness of one of its most compelling literary incarnations, conducted by a novelist of extraordinary empathy and perception.