Free Men audiobook

Katy Simpson Smith, once again, beautifully weaves nature alongside the lives of her characters in her second novel – this one based on actual figures in history – about a disparate group: runaway slave, white man, Creek Indian (and, to a lesser degree, a Frenchman tracking the trio).The novel introduces the characters of this unlikely grouping, present day (1788), but then circles back to separate sections telling the backstories of these men. All are told heartrendingly and create depth to the characters while aiding the central question of the story, which the Frenchman, LeClerc contemplates throughout: Is human existence both practical and predictable? Or are there exceptions to human interactions?The three characters will answer this question for you as they make personal journeys each, leaving you amused, sad, and contemplative.The writing (and period details) are simply gorgeous:BOB:My brother Primus was dark and shiny, like someone had wrapped an old brown sheet around a boy of gold.The rain catches in my eyelashes, making little bubbles of the road, the pines, the palmetto spikes. I don’t brush them off right away but let them play around with my sight, ballooning some things, washing others away.CATI heard a bird settle near. It sang like a wren and perched on my back. Its tail bobbed against my shoulder. I was its earth. I have sat and watched so many things, my legs are criminals.ISTILLICHAScars crossed faces like maps. Bodies smelled of dirt and decaying food caught between teeth. As men passed me, the pines breathed after them, exhaling a sweetness into their wake, washing the path clean of their scent.He’s like water the way his face holds moods.This is a story about the stories we tell ourselves, the dreams we chase, and the people we call family. Recommended for readers who love literary historical fiction and who want to learn more about this tumultuous period of American history when Native people were displaced, Africans were in chains, and the white man was spreading his beliefs and customs like a wildfire across the newly formed United States.

This was a 3.5 read for meI had mixed reactions to this compelling compassionately told story of four men from disparate backgrounds grappling for answers and their place in the late eighteenth century American South. The action of the book takes place over a couple of weeks in 1788 in what is now Alabama. I enjoyed how the author deftly guides us with her compelling storytelling skills as the characters try to make sense on how each should proceed and the tension builds and builds to heart-stopping and exhaling points. With remarkable frankness and nuances the time and place comes alive with a gripping richness not often seen in stories of this time. To appreciate the full experience of the main characters – an escaped slave, a Creek Indian, an abused white man, and a curious adaptable Frenchman – we needed to know their stories which are done through a lot of internal monologues and flashbacks which often had me not being as engaged in the story. I also liked how the story explores the female characters that affected each of the male characters and added a layer of realistic complexity.Overall this is a deeply moving gem that is sweeping in scope but intimate in its telling of human nature. It is a welcome addition to the southern historical fiction genre exploring issues that still speak to contemporary times.

. This book put me to sleep a couple of times, but in a good way. I'd stay up late reading it and the lyrical way Smith writes, especially about nature, would lull me to sleep. I could hear the creek and taste the clean water, hear the woodland creatures and smell the dirt. And then she builds up the underlying tension where there is always this fear, this uneasiness, you can sense, everywhere. Smith's other strength is she captures the different voices of her characters so well as they tell their story. And they are so different but so much the same."What is a free man except a man with money" is the sociological premise here and all four main characters are really trying to discover what a free man really is, all while they are trying to take another man's freedom while seeking their very own. A worthwhile read!Copy Provided by TLC Book Tours

Though Free Men is the story of a slave, an orphan, and Creek Indian, it is not so much a story about being a slave, orphan, or Indian. At its essence, it's really a very poignant story of relationships, injustice, loyalty, and how we perceive ourselves. It's 1788 and the unlikely trio of Bob (escaped slave), Cat (a misunderstood, fragile, and traumatized white man), and Istillicha (a Creek Indian who has been wronged by his tribe and his love interest) form a bond after their lives intersect by sheer coincidence. When what was supposed to be a robbery turns into the brutal murder of several men, the French tracker Le Clerc is dispatched to find them and bring them to justice. As they travel along together with no clear plan, we learn so much about them and their previous lives that we gain a solid understanding of who they are and how they came to be that way. The characters were very well-developed and described in a way that had me thinking I knew and understood them well. As with any good story, however, there are some things one just doesn't see coming. Katy Simpson Smith gives us a beautifully written story to reminds us that friendships and loyalty are not always based on the things we have come to expect, sometimes the most permanent love is based on mutual respect and friendship rather than wild romantic notions, and justice is frequently imperfect. Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers via Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The central themes for this one are disillusionment, despair, hopelessness, and for two of the characters, a push for a different future than the one that seems to be destined for them. Each of the three fugitives stories are heartbreaking. There is absolutely no joy for these men that wasn't eventually tainted by pain. What makes this book so painful to read is how easily I could imagine how easily these events could have happened to real people.Review to come.

Smith’s strange, ruminative story develops with a cycle of monologues - a demanding narrative strategy that she deploys somewhat unevenly. With this collage of experiences twisted together and soaked in blood, Smith cuts to the bone of our national character. Then, as now, for all its violence and desperation, it’s noble and inspiring, too.Read more about "Free Men" at The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1oqfrls

Exquisite.

This story is based on actual documented historical characters:Bob is a black slave who escapes from his Spanish master in Pensacola, Florida, leaving behind his wife Winna and daughters to seek his freedom. Bob and Winna didn’t choose one another, but were put together by his master, after Bob was denied the woman he loved to begin with. On the run, he meets up with a white man called Cat who has labeled himself a killer, as well as a Muskogee Indian by the name of Istillicha, or "Man-slayer".Cat is a rather enigmatic character, not speaking much of his past, but Istillicha is seeking revenge of the woman who wronged him. The three join up together and wind up involved in a mass murder and robbery, which leads to them being hunted by a Frenchman by the name of Le Clerc who has been living with Creeks (otherwise known as Muskogee, the same tribe as that of Istillicha), where he has been documenting "the divergences of man". Le Clerc has a history as a bounty hunter, and meter of justice, all while studying the very men he is hunting.The book shifts perspectives between these men, as well as that of Bob's wife Winna. Bob begins with his story as a young slave boy and life with his mother and big brother in Virginia. He is later sold, and finds himself in Pensacola, owned by a master who decides to pair him up with a female slave from a neighboring plantation. Bob and wife Winna make due, finding a certain comfort and solace in one another, but Bob is restless. He remembers his brother's tales of freedom and of a black man on a donkey.Eventually he gains his master's trust and is given the freedom to ride a horse to trade rum with the Creeks, taking him from the plantation for days at a time. This trust and freedom is what allows Bob to escape undetected one day.Oh, this is such a hard review for me. I wanted to love this book. I was introduced to the author through her last novel The Story of Land and Sea, which I enjoyed, and I'm a fan of slave narratives and southern lit. But this is a tough one for me. At times there was beautiful prose, and other times it was very trying and even boring.The narrative of Cat (which was unfortunately one of the longest chapters) was very difficult for me to get through. The writing used to relay his tragic narrative was stilted and draining, and oftentimes rambling. I know it is symbolic of his mind, and a useful tool toward that end, but knowing that didn’t make reading it any easier. But then I really enjoyed reading Winna’s narrative, as well as Istillicha. Le Clerc and Bob were okay, but Cat was almost unbearable. If I hadn’t had a commitment to read the book, I may have given up on it during Cat's long period. And that would have been a shame, because it would have meant missing out on Winna, and Istillicha, and a really clever story wound up in there.I know a lot of this is my own fault. I’m a relatively lazy reader. I don't want a challenge. I don't like to read a book heavily symbolic or laden with descriptive text. I'm not going to read a lot of the classics for that reason. I don't care for stilted writing (which is what most of Cat's narrative was), which is why I have yet to get through Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I just like a good story to get lost in. This book wasn't a victim of “bad” writing, but much of it simply wasn't "fun" for me. I just didn’t enjoy reading half of the story. Much of the time it felt arduous, like a textbook. I had to trudge through Cat's chapter like it was quicksand. The first half of the book was a trial; the second half was a pleasure.My final word: I'm so torn. I recognize what a clever story this was, and how inspired. It was full of emotion and compassion, heartache and tragedy. And ironically, despite the fact that I barely made it through Cat's narrative, he actually wound up being my favorite character: the boy who only wanted to be loved. So the author was very effective in her writing, and I grew to love him despite myself. A religious theme develops throughout the story, one of redemption and sacrifice and forgiveness. So it comes down to this: If I were rating this book based on my enjoyment of it, I'd probably give it a B-. I just didn't enjoy it enough. But for the author's clever weave of the story, for her effectiveness in getting me to care so much for Cat, and her development of the characters...for that I have to boost my rating to a solid B+. Muted and austere, it was a good effort full of heart.I'd give this about 3.5 stars.

This is my second book by Ms. Stimpson Smith. I read her debut, The Story of Land and Sea and just loved it. Like that book, Free Men is complicated, messy and not at all easy to read. But you are richly rewarded for diving in to this beautifully bound novel. I love when a publisher takes the time to present a book rather than just printing it up and shoving it out the door.This is the story of 4 men and they each tell their tales in their own voice. That is part of the brilliance of the book – each character has a very distinct voice and that does not waver. Three of the men Cal, a white man, Bob, a slave and Istillicha, a Creek Indian are running from separate yet somehow similar problems. They come together through force and murder, not by choice.The fourth man is LeClerc and he is, if not the law, the man that is charged with catching them and bringing them to justice – which really means killing them. But he is a man of curiosity and he wants to know the men’s histories and why they did what they did. He is a man that studies everything around him and writes it all down in “reports.” So while he will do what he is charged to do, he will do it his way.Free Men is a delightfully long book, rich in character and long on development. It’s actually based in fact and that, to me always makes a novel more interesting. Ms. Simpson Smith has a way with words – I wrote this in my review for her first book – that just draws you into the world of the characters until you just don’t feel like you are reading any more. You are immersed in the world and walking, eating and living with the characters. I was drawn in from the first sentence. There is a lot of ugly in the book; it was not a graceful time in this country’s history particularly for people of color. I will keep this one on my “to read again” shelf because I do believe it deserves a second go round. Now to just find the time to do so.

This is a historic fiction tale of events that took place in 1788 in present day Alabama, Georgia and Missippi. It begins when 3 desperate men meet up on the road. Bob is a runaway slave who wants to get far away from his old Florida plantation and start a new life as a free man. Cat is man who was a former indentured servant to a doctor and who had recently lost his wife and unborn baby. He is wandering to get away from the town where they lived and which was destroyed by illness. Finally there is Istillicha, a Native American who left his tribe when he was not chosen the chief.The three men are heading west when they encounter another group of men traveling with a large supply of silver coins. The three men kill six of the second group and steal the silver. LeClerc, a Frenchman with a talent for hunting down criminals, sets out to find the silver and return it to its rightful owners.Smith uses each main character to show what was life was like for an orphan, a slave , a Native American in the South and a Frenchman who left his country to make his fortune in the new world. She examines the plantation, the orphanage and indentured servitude as well as tribal life and life of a minor nobleman in France. The reader will learn about the backgrounds of these men as well as life on the trails and villages in the South. History buffs as well as current residents of the South will enjoy learning about that period in history as well as the geography of the areas the group traveled through.

"Free Men" by Katy Simpson Smith, tells of the convergence of four men in the spring of 1788. Cat, a young, damaged white man; Bob, a young runaway salve; Istillicha, a Creek Indian cheated out of Chiefdom, and Le Clerc (aka The Clerk), a French bounty hunter and amateur sociologist. The Indian, the White Man and the Slave have committed a crime. Bound together in escape, how long with these three stay together? During the pursuit Le Clerc has several epiphanies; what will happen when he finds the fugitives? Will he stick to his plan of justice and vengeance? Le Clerc muses: "Three men, none alike...Each pursuing a wild fantasy that only this country, with all its contradictions, can permit."Told from each character's perspective, this compelling story explores what it means to be free and asks how much of ourselves do we actually "own". It also muses on the history of American individualism, and the concepts of the family verses tribes.Smith's prose is gorgeous and evocative and her ability to switch among the characters is a strength in this well-paced novel that is at times a historical piece, a suspense novel, and a character study.

This was my book of the month from Parnassus books. I have to admit I put off reading it because I didn’t thinkI’d enjoy it. I got sucked in pretty quickly. It’s 1788 and three men are on the run. One is a white man, one an escaped slave and one an Indian. Le Clerc is the Frenchman sent to track the murderers. How they met up and their stories is the gist of the novel. Gripping.

This is the second novel of Simpson Smith that I've read and it's just as lyrically beautiful and wonder-full as I remember the first one. She takes a strange, little known historical violent crime and subsequent retribution, muddied by inconsistent contemporary tellings and (now) centuries of racism, and re-imagines it from a deeply human grounding. The four main characters come from different cultures and ethnicities with sharply divergent personal histories and find themselves converging in the humid southeastern forests of what-is-now the United States in the continued socio-political turmoil of the late 1700's. That turmoil seems to reflect in the discordant emotions and thoughts of the main characters and despite it all, three of them come together as companions. How that could happen only writers like Simpson Smith can explain.

VOICE on September 22, 2015Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )'Free men' is an elegant and beautifully written novel, filled with depth, complexity of characterization and philosophical questions. While most likely it would be classified as a historical novel, the themes it deals with and the questions it asks are as timeless as civilization itself.On the surface, the novel deals with the lives of four men, each of whom carries dark and painful issues from their pasts. Three of the men are running away towards their freedom and the fourth man is hunting them down. Each one is a protagonist in their own right and the book is divided up into sections about each of them from their perspectives.The novel takes place in 1788, primarily in Florida. Bob is a black man who has not known any life outside of slavery. He has seen his idolized brother, Primus, take his own life rather than live the life of a slave. Bob is able to see the circularity of life and knows that the life he lives as a slave is the same life that awaits his two daughters. He realizes that he must escape. He had heard Primus talk about land in the west, land that can be farmed and owned by freed slaves. Bob talks to his wife, Winna, and tells her that he must leave her and their two daughters to seek his fortune. He doesn't see any way that he can take them with him.Cat is a white man who has grown up never knowing a woman's touch. He has been brought up by a cold and cruel father who has used the whip unsparingly. Eventually he ends up in an orphanage where, though not treated poorly, he never develops a true sense of family. He meets Anne, who becomes the love of his life, and they start farming in a small community that is rapidly deteriorating and wasting away. Soon, he and Anne will be the only residents left. Anne dies during childbirth and Cat carries his guilt within him in a place where words cannot reach. It is deep down and buried but always there.Istillicha is a Creek Indian who once had hopes of being the Mica (chief) of his tribe. This dream has been stolen from him and his rage and despair carry him along as he tries to find a way towards accomplishing a successful revenge to get back what he believes is rightfully his. He leaves his tribe knowing that one day he will return and take over as chief.These three men meet up while on their journeys and somehow connect with one another. Passing them on the road, they see a group of men carrying bags filled with silver and, in the dark of night, commit a heinous crime in order to steal the silver. They are more deeply connected through their participation in this crime as well as by their shared anguish and pain.LeClerc is the hunter that is sent to find these men and bring them to justice. He is not what one would picture as a typical hunter and executioner. He is more like an anthropologist, trying to find out the whys and wherefores of the crime, what binds these men together, and how they manage to share their lives despite their disparate cultural backgrounds. He plans to kill them, but not before understanding them first.Each section of the book is written in a different style that reflects the inner life of the character that it is about. Istillicha is described in strong language wrought with anger and rage. Cat is poignantly lost and perhaps mentally ill. He is living in the past and perseverating on a choice he did not make. He uses words so sparingly that one might think he was mute. Bob is focused on the life he knows he would have had to live if he didn't escape the plantation, a life of beatings, stolen options, and continuous cruelty without relief. He loves to talk and, through his words, we hear the story of his life and the mythologies of his ancestors. Each man hopes for a better life, one that will make them better men, more of who they truly are. LeClerc is trying to understand America, this new land rife with individualism, opportunity, and violence. What could hold men together in a place like this where war is rampant and loyalty is rare.Smith writes with a beautiful sense of place and a clear understanding of her characters. She tends towards magical realism in the best sense and her ability to intertwine the rational with the otherworldly is chilling and beautiful. I enthusiastically recommend this wonderful book to everyone. It is a gem that I hope gets the wide readership it deserves.

Men have been murdered for the silver they carry in 1788 Alabama. Frenchman Le Clerc is on the trail of the murderers, an unlikely trio of an escaped African American slave named Bob, a Native American named Istillicha, and an escaped white murderer on the run, Cat. What has made these three very different men bond together and commit this crime?Free Men tells the tale of each of three men interspersed with the tale of the manhunt and Le Clerc’s past. The story of these characters is the story of America. Le Clerc was raised as a wealthy man with little love from his mother in France. He decides he wants to explore the wider world and leaves his wife in France for America. He travels around America taking different Native American wives and doing tracking work for different tribes.Bob is a slave who is split up from his family in Virginia and sent to a plantation in Florida. He grows to manhood working sugarcane fields and falls in love. He is not allowed to follow his love and she is sold. It is arranged that he will take a new slave, Winna as his wife. They have two daughters, but Bob continually feels the call for freedom.Cat grew up dirt poor with a moonshiner father and no mother. After his father’s death, he lived a vagrant existence at an orphanage, a surgeon, and then a pastor’s house. He falls in love and carves out an existence for him and his wife, but then tragedy visits the young family which sets Cat on a path of desperation.Istillicha was the nephew of a great chief, but growing up he saw an enemy kill his Uncle, his brother who was next in line to be chief, and then takes over the tribe. Istillicha spends his growing years plotting vengeance, but then he falls for his enemy’s niece and works on saving up enough money to marry her. When he returns home one day to find both Polly and his money gone, he sets off on a path of revenge. Free Men is both a thriller tale of tracking down the murderers as well as a deep look into what caused the murder and theft. I loved the background of each character and what brought them to this place. I also loved how it was a slice of America in 1788. The Revolutionary War was brought up in the story as the characters grew up, but it seemed to exist around the characters who were not a part of the fight. Each man had a different experience, but it was not an easy life or world to live in. I felt sorry for all of them in their own way. I can’t imagine being Bob and to not even have the freedom to marry who you loved, but to be basically breed with another human being that your master bought for that specific reason. Cat lived a completely lonely life without much affection and when he finally found it, he couldn’t keep it. Istillicha focused his life on his vengeance and when he started to take a different path to love, it didn’t work out. Le Clerc was very self-important, but leaving his wife and life behind in France, he was a lonely individual as well.Overall, Free Men is an intriguing historical fiction novel with an interesting mystery and fascinating portrayals of characters living in America in 1788. It takes a deep look into the meaning of freedom. What are you free from? I would highly recommend it.Some of my favorite quotes:Le Clerc writing in his journal, “My singular obsession with the anthropology of men, my ability to predict their movements with ease, led me to the enemy, the errant wife, the fugitive slave.”Another Le Clerc gem, “Each of them has some sin in his heart which he wouldn’t wish me finding.”Bob, “I tell you, you just think of all of my people, all of your people, who’ve been cut down for nothing, not even so men can be better so they can be richer, and richness just twists their hearts so after all, they're worse men they were.”Le Clerc, “There is something of America in all this . . . . There is a desperation about these men that suggests they do not reside on the rung of the criminal but, like all men here, are pursuing what might be called advancement or hope.”Cat, “I don’t think being free means being alone.” Book Source: I received this book for review as part of the TLC book tour.This review was first posted on my blog at: http://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2016/...

From the richness of the character’s stories, to the lingering sadness and emptiness revealed through clever recalls of fleeting memories, the author has created a phenomenal tale of four (seemingly) different men, socially, culturally, economically, and religiously in a world that was still building itself. The further the reader gets into the book, the more you realize that these four men from different worlds are actually not at all that different or that far removed from one another.This book is probably the most lyrical and poetic historical fiction book I have read in a really, really long time. There were so many passages and sentences I found myself going back to re-read them for their beauty, sadness and philosophical truth.While I do not want to give too much away, I feel I should comment on the intricate design, characters structure and pacing Ms. Smith has built for this book. From Cat, the forever burdened martyr, who has never fully been able to out grow his stunted, child-like mind or behavior. “I could not tell if we were damned or saved. They did not make that clear. If what my body did mattered. Forgiveness, though, was like a wheel going around. My body moved out into darkness, my body moved back in. As long as it got on the wheel in time. In time being before my body died.” –Cat To Bob, the naïve wanderer, forever searching for his own dream, sense of direction and purpose, with a desperation you can understand but also be worry of. “The people I have loved aren’t taking this walk—my mother, stolen from me; my brother, who stole himself; my children, who don’t know what it means to steal”—Bob And Istillicha, the loose feather in the wind, ghosting seemingly day by day, clinging to the hope of one day achieving his goal of taking back his home, striked me as being clear minded and the most inquisitive of the trio even with Le Clerc flush on their trail. “I have nothing to do with these men. I met them two nights ago, and I’m not even sure that the white man’s name is his name. But my skin flinches at the thought of parting, as though they’re the blanker between my body and the ghosts. They’re the sticks that need arranging…If I leave them who will understand me? And where will they go without me?”—Istillicha With Le Clerc, the forever curious science/social behavior philosopher whose own like bore no excitement or clear purpose as a nobleman in Paris, sets out as a sort of bounty hunter in America. On a quest for justice to locate Bob, Cat and Istillicha, he discovers that his thirst to understand the men behind the crime and their connection to one another to be greater than his desire to capture them.“There is a desperation about these men that suggests they do not reside on the rung of the criminal but, like all men here, are pursuing what might be called advancement, or hope. Their success or failure will, I can’t help but believe, be a reflection on the project of this country. And yet I am the only man on their trail, the only man who may behold their fates. This strikes me as peculiarly lonely.” –Le Clerc Besides the clear and obvious message of freedom this book explores, it simultaneously presents the message of togetherness and a bond of these bloodless ‘creeping’ brothers forging onward in search of a better future for themselves.It was so wonderful how Bob, Cat and Istillicha subconsciously and unknowingly gravitated toward and looked out for each other even before the incident on the creek and how their time together seemed to linger with them after they split apart. The ending was a little mixed; kind of open ended, with a bittersweet level of closure for everyone. It is definitely a book I would enjoy re-reading. :-)Originally posted on my blog here.