His novel, The Sportswriter, was named one of five best books of 1986 by Time magazine. Ford lives in New Orleans with his wife of twenty-eight years, Kristina. He also spends time on a plantation and at his cabin in Montana. Topics to Consider Haddam, New Jersey, is introduced as idyllic, but reality soon counters the idyll. His ex-wife, Ann, calls him cynical.
Real estate is a central metaphor in the book.