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    Free Men: A Novel
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    Free Men: A Novel
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    Free Men: A Novel
    Ebook368 pages7 hours

    Free Men: A Novel

    By Katy Simpson Smith

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    From the author of the highly acclaimed The Story of Land and Sea comes a captivating novel, set in the late eighteenth-century American South, that follows a singular group of companions—an escaped slave, a white orphan, and a Creek Indian—who are being tracked down for murder.

    In 1788, three men converge in the southern woods of what is now Alabama. Cat, an emotionally scarred white man from South Carolina, is on the run after abandoning his home. Bob is a talkative black man fleeing slavery on a Pensacola sugar plantation, Istillicha, edged out of his Creek town’s leadership, is bound by honor to seek retribution.

    In the few days they spend together, the makeshift trio commits a shocking murder that soon has the forces of the law bearing down upon them. Sent to pick up their trail, a probing French tracker named Le Clerc must decide which has a greater claim: swift justice, or his own curiosity about how three such disparate, desperate men could act in unison.

    Katy Simpson Smith skillfully brings into focus men whose lives are both catastrophic and full of hope—and illuminates the lives of the women they left behind. Far from being anomalies, Cat, Bob, and Istillicha are the beating heart of the new America that Le Clerc struggles to comprehend. In these territories caught between European, American, and Native nations, a wilderness exists where four men grapple with the importance of family, the stain of guilt, and the competing forces of power, love, race, and freedom—questions that continue to haunt us today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 16, 2016
    ISBN9780062407603
    Author

    Katy Simpson Smith

    Katy Simpson Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She attended Mount Holyoke College and received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She has been working as an adjunct professor at Tulane University and has published a study of early American motherhood, We HaveRaised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750–1835. She lives in New Orleans.

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    Reviews for Free Men

    4/5

    28 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      In Free Men, Smith offers us an intriguing look at West Florida during the 1780s, a time when the area was occupied by a mixture of Spanish, British, and American settlers as well as escaped slaves and warring tribes of Native Americans. The set-up may sound far-fetched: an escaped slave, a Muskogee and an emotionally battered white man meet up and band together to steal money from another traveling group. When the theft goes badly, people are killed and the three stick together to attempt an escape to the west. The story of each man unfolds in a series of first person narratives that explain why each man chose to leave their own community. We are also privy to the viewpoint of the Frenchman who is sent to track the group and bring them to justice. Smith writes beautiful prose and the story-line alone would be compelling. Who doesn't love a great wilderness adventure? But this book stands out for the psychological insight into each man's character. The tracker is a self-styled social scientist hoping to publish an academic study of the human condition, and his European up-bringing provides a nice counterpoint to the desperation of the three fugitives. Read this novel as an adventure story or read it as a deeper examination of the common desires and needs of all humans. It is haunting and heartbreaking and luminous. Two big thumbs up!
    • 4/5
      Katy Simpson Smith opens her latest novel, Free Men, with a quote from Albert James Pickett's 1851 book, History of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period."About this time, a bloody transaction occurred in the territory of the present county of Conecuh....The part consisted of a Hillabee Indian, who had murdered so many men, that he was called Istillicha, the Man-slayer --- a desperate white man, who had fled from the States for the crime of murder, and whom, on account of his activity and ferocity, the Indians called the Cat --- and a blood-thirsty negro, named Bob."And this is the jump off point for Smith's novel. 1788. She puts this unlikely trio together, on the run from not just their pasts, but a murder they all have a hand in. Smith creates detailed back stories for each of them even as they run towards what they hope will be a better life. Chasing them is another white man, just as determined that they be captured.I loved that Free Men was based on documented historical fact. Each man is given a chapter and a unique voice. Smith's prose are rich with details, descriptions, emotions, hopes, dreams, fears and more. Freedom, guilt and relationships with women are themes Smith explores through each set of eyes. Free Men is not a book you can rush through. Smith's pacing is slower and her work is quite beautiful, but I did find myself having to put the book down every so often, returning later to pick up the story, as I found it to be a heavy read. But a good one.
    • 5/5
      Three men meet on the road in Southern Alabama. Bob is fleeing slavery. Istillicha, a Creek Indian, has left his village after being pushed out of leadership. Cat is a white man who has suffered a trauma. Together, they commit a crime. As their story unfolds, we learn their history through flashbacks. It is these sections, even more than the action of their crime and escape, that I found most compelling. I'm a fan of character-driven novels, and understanding what brought these three men together kept me reading. My only mild complaint was with the ending. The multipart epilogue wrapped up some of the threads too tightly for me. But overall, I really enjoyed this one.
    • 3/5
      I will admit, it takes a lot for a southern writer to impress me and the fact that this book didn't shouldn't go against the author's excellent writing and storytelling abilities. I could tell the author had done plenty of research and character development to form this tale, but I just couldn't get into the story.
    • 4/5
      . 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
    • 4/5
      A very good novel of the American frontier. Really interesting pacing and character development from various perspectives.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      I 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.I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      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 was 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.There's a clever story there, but it can be a hard path to get to it.
    • 4/5
      I love that this story was imagined from a tiny piece of early American history where three men with the names of Bob, Cat and Istillicha committed a crime along the now named Murder Creek. This was an intricate look into the lives of three desperate men from three very different social classes that find that they are not so different. All three men are running from something and are able to find peace within one another’s understanding. Each man’s story unfolds slowly as the author weaves through their current journey and their backstory. I personally fell for Cat’s story the hardest, his story was gripping and heartfelt and he seemed to be the most damaged. His revelations and friendships with the others seemed to be the most inspiring. Le Clerc was another surprising character, although sent to capture them; he was truly interested in what brought these men together. Free Men offered an intense, emotional and unique look into well-developed characters.
    • 5/5
      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.