David Allan Cates

It was a bit of a let down, after a while waiting for it, in anticipation. It was interesting though, to see how a slave boy reacts to freedom, after his father sets him free.
As he grows older and advances through different stages of his life, he changes a bit, to reflect the situation. After a series of coincidences, he also fancies himself to being a faery, or a gifted man, with the ability to make things happen. His transformations were definitely the most interesting bits in the story, however. Other than that, I wasn't as thoroughly impressed with it as I had hoped it would be.… (plus d'informations)

"When I was a boy I had little interest in freedom, but my father did, so when I was seven years old he freed me, and I was sent across the sea with a change of clothing in a little black maw and a rolled-up copy of the Declaration of Independence that I could not read".

I was hooked by this opening line in David Allan Cate's third novel from Unbridled Books.

Jimmy Gates is sent to England for an education and to escape the racial constraints of the States. However when his father dies, he is sent to the workhouse. He passes some years in the company of thieves and prostitutes. He listens to the speeches of an Irish revolutionary named O'Keefe and dreams of returning to the States as a warrior himself, to find and rescue his mother.

The young Jimmy Gates is an innocent, completely unaware of slavery and what the colour of his skin means to some. He is a gentle, thoughtful boy. As he grows into a young man, his personality changes and he displays a violent, calculating, angry demeanour. At this point I didn't like him very much.

Upon his arrival back in the States, he is surprised to find himself held in such low regard, even though he is a free man. Violence, anger and intolerance is visited upon him. He ends up 'enlisted' in the Civil War, still hoping to find his mother.

He crosses paths with the Irishman O'Keefe again. Their futures seem to be inextricably intertwined. Jimmy Gates renames himself Freeman Walker.

I had expected this novel to be more historical in tone. Although it certainly uses historical events and attitudes, they are simply the vehicle. It is the characters and their dreams, ideas and passions that drive the novel. Freeman Walker is a memorable protagonist, discovering the harsh price paid for freedom.

However, I found my interest waning in the latter part of the novel. An element of magic, faeires and ghost armies is introduced which I felt detracted from what I had already read. I was looking for more about the search for his mother. This is reduced to almost a footnote at the end of a chapter.

The ending is satisfying though.

"Yet out here there was nobody left to see me, nobody left to name me but me."… (plus d'informations)

I read Freeman Walker (2008) by David Allan Cates on the tails of completing The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, both of which feature young men in slavery in extraordinary situations, but their tales diverge rapidly from that similarity. The life story narrated by Jimmy Gates, later to rename himself Freeman Walker, tells of a boy born to a slave mother and her master. At 7, Jimmy is freed and sent to school in England. When his father dies, Jimmy finds himself in a workhouse in London. Returning to America in the midst of the Civil War, our protagonist joins a Union brigade, is captured and returned to slavery and is only able to regain freedom by participating in an atrocity.

The rest of the novel is something of a meditation on this sullied freedom as Freeman Walker heads west to the lawless gold rush country. There he finds himself increasingly bizarre situations supporting Irish revolutionary come Civil War colonel come Territorial Governor Cornelius O'Keefe in his efforts to bring civilization and justice to the west. Late in the book, a certain element of magical realism descends upon the book with Walker himself deciding he's a faerie.

It's a compelling, but odd book, which kind of misses the mark for me. It just seems like it should be better than it is.… (plus d'informations)

This novel features an interesting character, a child born to a black slave and her owner. His seemingly idyllic childhood moves to England when his father enrolls him in a private school where he is comfortable and popular with his peers. His only regret is that his father took him precipitously from the plantation without an opportunity to say good-bye to his mother. The segment of his sheltered life in the English school ends when his father dies aboard a ship that sinks en route to visit him. With the loss of his father, the means to support him in school also end and he is subjected to the third and heretofore most dire circumstances of his life. What follows is his return to America and a search for his mother, who had been traded to another slave owner.

The perspective of someone who is half white, half black (and a legally freed slave) at the beginning of the Civil War is the most interesting aspect of this book. He had one green eye and one brown eye, and wearing a hat seemed to guarantee that he could "pass." I never felt fully engaged with the man who changed his birth name to Freeman Walker, but could empathize with his increasingly difficult plight and encounters during the Civil War.

The concept and meaning of freedom are constantly examined in this book, with the first explanation given to the boy by his father when he left for England. What Freeman Walker discovered about freedom during his journeys is worthy of reflection.… (plus d'informations)