The Free audiobook

When Leroy Kervin was 24, a roadside bomb in Iraq parked him in a German hospital with fractures and a serious brain injury. Couldn’t talk. Couldn’t walk. Despite seven years of rehab and huge struggles to regain some of his normal functions, Leroy still suffers from acute PTSD, physical struggles, constant fear, and a fog-shrouded view of the world around him. So, when he wakes up one day miraculously clear-headed, and assumes that this respite is temporary, all he can think is that he will never return to the way things were. To make sure of that he decides to use this fleeting moment of personal reanimation to kill himself. Leroy’s decision brings together the main characters in Willy Vlautin’s look at what it is to be working class in 21st century America.I write, or hope to write, stories about the working class. I’ve always been a fan of stories about working people, and normal people and the day-to-day struggles they go through. – from interview at 13E Note Editions Freddie McCall was the night man at the long term care facility where Leroy was living. He is roused by the commotion of Leroy plunging down a staircase onto some wooden stakes. Freddie calls 911 and sees that Leroy is taken to a hospital.…he held two kitchen towels over the main wound and stared at Leroy’s face. There was a two-inch cut on his cheek leaking blood, and a growing welt on his forehead. Freddie wanted to say something to comfort him, but every time he tried to speak he began to cry.He’d always liked Leroy. For a man who couldn’t speak, whose brain had been caved in by war, he had a personality. He liked Cap’n Crunch and would watch the science fiction channel for days on end. He had never picked a fight or become violent towards the other residents. He would fall into fits of despair when he refused to leave his bed, but who wouldn’t? And there were times, dozens of them, in the two years that Freddie had been there, when Leroy would wake him in the middle of the night. He would pull Freddie to the back door and knock on it. Freddie would find the key, unlock it, and they would go outside and look at the stars. Leroy would move around the small lawn like an old man, his head back, staring at the faraway galaxies.Freddie has had a rough go of it himself, and gets why Leroy might want to end his suffering. McCall is the third generation living in his house, but he is among the many suffering under the burden of the number one cause of bankruptcy in the nation, medical bills. One of his daughters was born with dysplasia, required multiple surgeries to repair her hips and Freddie is sinking quickly in a quicksand of debt. And his wife took off with their kids to Vegas to live with her boyfriend. She didn’t take the bills with her. Freddie works two jobs, overnights at the group home and days at Logan’s Paint Store. He catches snatches of sleep when he can. There is no longer heat in his house because he was unable to pay the fuel bill. Desperate for money, he takes on a dodgy venture.In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread. – Anatole France from La Vie en fleur Pauline is a nurse at the hospital where Leroy is taken. She tries to help take care of her father, who declines to bathe, wash or eat more than a very narrow list of things. Her mother abandoned her when she was a kid, leaving her in the care of a man who was mentally ill. She did not understand that at the time, but does now. Pauline lives with her pet rabbit Darla, and gets lonely, sometimes. But she has a friend she has known since childhood, and a heart that pulls her to connect with people. the author - from Australian Broadcasting in 2010 One of the major elements in The Free is how just folks can care for each other in a pure way. I do believe in the kindness of strangers. One of the great things about being in a band is you find that out. People really help struggling bands. Over the years people have been so nice to me and my band, helped us out, fed us, put us up for the night…It’s easy to be scared and cynical. All you have to do is read the paper. I know I have a rough time that way. But I do believe humans, although violent and destructive, have a great ability for kindness. – from interview at 13E Note Editions Freddie looks out for the residents at the group home and their families, looking for ways to spare them unnecessary costs, even if it means having to do extra work himself. Pauline comes across a runaway teen girl, and goes to extraordinary lengths trying to save her from certain destruction. For all the hoopla given the wealthy when they make large contributions to this or that, it is the lower economic end that actually gives more, and Vlautin is well aware of that.One of the most surprising, and perhaps confounding, facts of charity in America is that the people who can least afford to give are the ones who donate the greatest percentage of their income. In 2011, the wealthiest Americans—those with earnings in the top 20 percent—contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid—those in the bottom 20 percent—donated 3.2 percent of their income. The relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns. – from Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity by Ken Stern in the April 2013 Atlantic And this does not even take into account the in-kind contributions people make with their time and labor.Leroy’s suicide attempt was not successful and he hangs on in a hospital room. Awake, he is in constant pain, so he decides to remove himself from the realm of the real. Most of our experience of Leroy is in his sci-fi fantasies. I was reminded of Billy Pilgrim’s escape to Tralfamador in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Leroy’s adventures contain elements of memory and of fantasy. They are also where Vlautin becomes most metaphorically direct in his critique of 21st century America. This is a world in which people are marked as military-worthy or not, but the mark eventually becomes a mark of Cain and bands of vigilantes hunt them. There is a lot in here about racism, the media, the mean-spirited world in which we live. Leroy’s real-world girlfriend, Jeannette, is a major character in Leroy’s dream-life and nurtures him there the way she nurtured him in real life. It is sometimes difficult to tell where memory leaves off and fantasy picks up.Religion comes in for some attention here, and not in a supportive way. Religious faith in Vlautin’s universe is a bludgeon used by the unscrupulous, the ignorant, or both to inflict their demands on the young and the powerless. Christian charity in the land of The Free is an oxymoron.One of the core problems of our economy is personified by an owner who is completely incompetent, but owns and benefits from having a business only because his father left it to him. Detroit is like rich people. You always hear stories where the dad comes up the rough way, struggles and works harder than everyone else. He builds something, something of value. He spends his whole life doing it. Then his kids come along and take over. They’re so well off that they don’t understand how hard it is to create something good. They just see the money and run with that until it quits. Then everything is lost and even the good idea gives out…I was most moved by the stories of Freddy and Pauline. Leroy’s story is certainly compelling, but I found it the least engaging of the trio. The one-step-removed methodology used for him kept me feeling one-step–removed as well. If the option were available, I would have knocked my rating down to a 4.5, but the power of the rest moves me to keep this one at five stars. I expect that Willy Vlautin will begin to gain recognition as one of America’s finest artists, a modest guy who embraces his humble beginnings and works to offer us a look at what is becoming the real America for increasing numbers of us. To all of you who are not doing so great in our new two-tiered economy, I strongly encourage you to get into Willy Vlautin. He has been into you for a long time. Posted – October 10, 2013Publication date - February 4, 2014 (Trade Paperback) ============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal and FB pagesWilly Vlautin, born in 1967, grew up in Reno, Nevada. He was a working class kid, raised by a single mom. He was never a great student but had a feel for music and for story. He is one of the founders of the alt-country band Richmond Fontaine . Vlautin’s stories make up much of the lyrics used in the band’s songs. There is a fair bit of crossover between the songs and Willy’s other writing. The Free was his fourth novel. His first, Motel Life has been made into a film with Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff and Kris Kristofferson, among others. It was released in November 2013. His second novel was the award-winning Northline, and the 2010 release, Lean on Pete, was also widely praised. Vlautin continues to write songs and stories. He lives outside Portland, Oregon these days, when not travelling with the band, but would love to return to Reno someday. His writing calls to mind John Steinbeck and his musical work summons images of Woody Guthrie. He is one of the best writers of his generation.A promotional vid for The FreeWiki page on WillyA short story by WVInterview with 13eNote Harper Audio has posted four short audio bits on Soundcloud in which Willy talks about how he came to write The Free. Vlautin, talking about the book, and reading a few excerpts, is backed by haunting clips of his own music. This is must-hear stuff if you have read the book, and might inform a decision on whether or not to read it if you have not. 2/18/14 - attended a reading. Willy is amazing.Other Vlautin books I have reviewed-----Don't Skip Out on Me-----Northline

Library ebook...In-your-face-simple realistic writing..dialogue so real - it’s like I wasn’t reading at all...However....I also felt like I was hit by a Mac Truck! Words that ran through my head when I finished this easy reading dreary gloomy book was: “Life’s hard and then you die”. Depressing? Yep.. you got the idea! It’s a good book - don’t get me wrong....but not an ounce of it was upbeat.

I give a lot of books that I really like five stars on Goodreads, but I don't mean it the way I mean it with Willy Vlautin's books. He's the patron saint of the sick and the sad, and this is another damn beautiful novel. He tears you down and builds you back up the way only he can. I broke down crying at least ten times but walked away from the book feeling happy to be alive. My review is up at the L.A. Review of Books: https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/pa...

In the land of the free and the home of the brave, are we really all that free…or all that brave? The Free is a hymn of sorts to the working-class American…the man or woman who grew up placing one foot in front of the other, ever hopeful, ever courageous, despite being left behind in the dust. The characters are so authentic and big-hearted – the dialogue so pitch-perfect and real – that I wanted to leap into the pages and give them a hug. Willy Vlautin has placed his finger on the pulse of America and found its heartbeat.Three stories are interwoven. Leroy Kervin is an Iraqi War veteran whose brain has been caved in by the war, a man who hasn’t had a minute of clarity. One day he awakens and it was “like his mind had suddenly walked out of a never-ending snowstorm…Was he finally free? Was he really himself again?” In the first few pages, we learn that as Leroy gains clarity, death becomes the most sensible option. In his eventual stupor, his mind creates sci-fi reveries that center on a group called The Free, who hunt down those with a green mark that reveals they are unpatriotic.The night man at Leroy’s group home is Freddie McCall, a caring and honest man who has fallen victim to the American nightmare. His younger daughter needed major medical care and since then he’s been drowning in debt, struggling to make ends meet with two jobs, not free from the memories of when he was on top of things with a wife and kids (who have since left) and a non-mortgaged home.And finally, there’s Pauline Hawkins, a nurse who is shut in emotionally – caring for her mentally disturbed father, turning her back on opportunities for connection. That is, until a young down-and-out teen named Jo shows up at the hospital and reminds Pauline of the promise within each of us.Individually, these characters are beautifully rendered – real, heartbreaking, relying on inner strength and the kindness of strangers. Together, they compose a portrait of today’s America – the scars of war and the soldiers who come home maimed and wrecked, the collapse of the American dream and the looming bills, the struggle with medical and housing costs that are always just out of sight.Each character will eventually discover his or her wn definition of freedom. With the exception of the sci-fi reveries – which distanced me from the immediacy – I was totally absorbed, reading at a fast clip. And at some junctures, the characters broke my heart. Any book that can do that is worthy of 5 stars.

Three poignant stories of working class Americans struggling against the backdrop of The Iraqi War and economic stagnation.The characters are sympathetically drawn with attributes of dignity and decency.Vlautin reminds me of Steinbeck.

In a quiet and simple way, Willy Vlautin is able to write an emotionally morose novel about the suffocation of the lower-middle class. He uses three main characters to tell his tale: Leroy is an Iraq-war vet who came back to the US with physical and emotional damage. He was persuaded to sign up for the National Guard before the war, thinking he’d be safe. He never dreamed that the National Guard would be called for service in a war. Freddie works two jobs to try and keep himself afloat. He is divorced, after having a severely handicapped daughter who’s bills drained his emotional and financial resources. His wife left him because he didn’t give her enough emotional time. He was exhausted trying to work two jobs to pay for the medical bills. Vlautin uses Freddie to showcase the trauma of Americans who fight regularly with the Insurance industry. Pauline is a nurse who compassionately cares for the sick and wounded (Leroy is a patient). Her mentally ill father keeps her busy when she is not at work. The three characters are living existences, which are smothering and sad. In fact, I was drained just reading about the characters. Vlautin’s character development is concrete; the reader feels the pain of each sad life.

I might make this a five star -- this might be perfect writing, or it could be just very good, carrying a second punch of empathy that knocks the wind right out of me. We follow three interrelated characters, all struggling, all damaged, but with such dazzling moral character that the reader sits in awe of the richness of their hearts. We're forced to unpack a definition of "free" from our conceptions of "prosperous", "happy", "satisfied", "patriotic", and any relations to our American idealism that relates to God and Country. Most of what we know of each character comes from overhearing their dialogue and observing their day-to-day motions, and how Vlautin has packed each gesture with so much truth I'll never know. I hadn't read Valutin's work before, and was completely unprepared for such an experience. I've got half a dozen people to recommend this to...

Thanks to The Willoughby Book Club for sending this book my wayThis was a quiet reading experience, capturing everyday life through the actions of the characters. Following three perspectives: A paralyzed ex-military (Leroy) on the verge of suicide, A nurse (Pauline)  who tends to Leroy after his suicide leaves his health at a critical state but we also see how disconnected Pauline is and her complex relationship with her father and the patients at the hospital. We also follow Leroy's home attendant (Freddie) who is on the verge of bankruptcy and still healing from the divorce. They are all connected and haunted by their past and the snapshots of everyday life humanize them and I really enjoyed the sombre atmosphere. Being a huge fan of contemporary settings with interwoven narratives this little short book didn't have the most flowery of writing or over the top plot but the simplicity of the dialogue and the tinny moment really did stick with me. For just 288 pages the book did a lot with the limited space... I highly recommend it.

This is a novel about freedom. Not hard to guess that from the title, but The Free is actually a symbolic ship in a sub story within the plot. The story is of a group of characters all seeking freedom or escape for one reason or another. Pauline, the nurse on night duty with her ward of drug affected and terminally ill patients. Leroy, injured physically and mentally in Iraq, has just attempted suicide. Freddie, a divorced father living without his children, working two jobs and owing large amounts of money but surviving on scraps. This is the third of Willy Vlautin's novels I have read, and though bleak, it isn't as dark as This Motel Life, or Lean On Pete. It offers hope to its small cast of characters. Like his other two books, its brilliance lies in it giving the reader a short insight into the lives of some pretty rough characters. He conjures a real feeling of life at the lower end of society. It's an appropriate time in the world at the moment also to consider freedom and what it means. Vlautin asks exactly that question. Having just very much enjoyed the movie Captain Fantastic, which deals with a similar theme, it is appropriate to finish, as the movie does, with a line from a musician who very much influences Vlautin,"How good, how good does it feel to be free? And I answer them most mysteriously-Are the birds free from the chains on the skyways?"

The Free, by Willy Vlautin, is a beautiful and disturbing novel about three good people smacked down by life. They are each trying to survive in their own way despite horrific odds.There is Leroy Kerwin, a young man and National Guard volunteer, who was sent to Afghanistan after 9/11. He was hit by and IED and is suffering extreme traumatic brain injury. He lives in a group home and his mind is clouded and he can't perform his activities of daily living. One day, inexplicably, his mind clears and he feels for the first time since his injury, like his old self. Fearful that this new state won't last, he attempts suicide by throwing himself down a flight of stairs and onto a wooden stake which pierces his chest. He survives the injury, just barely, and is hospitalized. While intubated and restrained, he retreats deeply into his mind where he manufactures a science fiction life which, to some extent, mirrors what is happening to him in real life. For instance, the protagonist of Leroy's inner world often has chest pain and trouble breathing. Like Leroy, he is fighting a barbaric war that is difficult to make sense of.Freddie McCall, who works the night shift in the group home, is the one who finds Leroy after his suicide attempt. Freddie is a truly decent and good man who, in every sense, is at odds with circumstance. He works two full-time jobs, barely eats or sleeps, and is in debt over his head. He has two daughters who live with his ex-wife in another state. One of his daughters has serious health problems and has incurred extremely high medical bills, creating the need for Freddie to twice morgage the home he once owned free and clear. Freddie is the epitome of goodness, often visiting Leroy in the hospital and showing kindness to everyone he comes in contact with.Pauline is a nurse in the hospital and she cares for Leroy. She has walled herself in to spare feeling too much for her patients. However, her wall is broken when Jo, a young runaway, is hospitalized with leg abscesses secondary to heroin injections. Pauline reaches out to Jo in a way that is new and different for her. "But the girl reminded her too much of herself and the way she'd felt at her age. Alone and voiceless and unwanted and worthless." Pauline's mother left when she was five years old and she was raised by her mercurial and mentally ill father who she cares for to this day, though with obvious anger and resentment.The book mentions the singer Amalia Rodrigues several times so I purchased two of her CD's. She is a Portuguese Fada singer. Fada is a type of passionate music usually sung in a minor key and reminds me of Eastern European folk songs and music by Edith Piaf.The novel does a fine job of intertwining the lives of all three protagonists and painting a picture of these damaged souls who are trying to thrive when it's often impossible to even survive. Each of them has a thin web of hope that permits them to hang on. For Leroy, it's his inner life and his memories of his girlfriend Jeanette. For Freddie, it's the hope of being reunited with his daughters in the future and his strong moral center. Pauline connects with Jo and realizes that sometimes one doesn't get to stand solely by oneself. Walls are built to climb over or shatter.Mr. Vlautin is a singer/songwriter as well as a novelist. One could look at this novel as an operatic creation with its pathos and character-driven plot. I highly recommend this book.

Willy Vlautin’s 4th novel is an extraordinary and deeply compassionate story, heartbreakingly real and quite unforgettable. He’s a writer who is nowhere near as well-known and appreciated as he deserves to be, and I hope that this beautiful book will enhance his reputation and bring him to a wider audience.The book follows three main protagonists, whose lives intersect as they struggle to find the courage, decency and strength to combat the raw deal life has thrown at them. It opens with Leroy Kervin, a wounded young Iraq war veteran waking to momentary clarity in the group home in which he has been living for some years. Realising that this moment of clarity may not last, and full of despair when he contemplates his future, he attempts suicide. Discovered by the night-time guardian Freddie McCall he is rushed to hospital where he is nursed by Pauline Hawkins. All three of them are trapped in difficult and seemingly hopeless circumstances largely beyond their control, and have to cope with the problems that beset modern day America – the aftermath of wars, poverty, expensive medical care, drugs and unemployment. But in spite of this they hold onto their basic goodness and decency, they refuse to be defeated, and this portrait of a small community, with chapters alternating between the three of them, interspersed with Leroy’s nightmares, is a haunting and unforgettable tale that cannot fail to move the most hard-hearted and pragmatic of readers.I’ve only recently discovered Willy Vlautin myself and have now become quite evangelical about his writing. This is a powerful and disturbing book, but its grim storyline is infused with tenderness and empathy for ordinary people doing their best, unsentimental but always gentle and ultimately uplifting. Highly recommended.