Reading, Writing, and Leaving Home

July 18, 2005
Freed, author of five novels and, most recently, the story collection The Curse of the Appropriate Man
, offers insights into her writing and her life in 11 clean, incisive essays that mix the personal with the instructional without going too deeply into either. How autobiography shapes fiction particularly interests her: in "Sex with the Servants," Freed describes how her novel Home Ground
caused a scandal in her native South Africa (at the few book-related events that weren't cancelled, all anyone wanted to know was if she'd really touched her garden boy's penis). Her family, who also appeared in print, were not nearly as outraged, and for would-be writers, Freed offers several firm pronouncements ("Writers themselves are natural murderers"; "The real writer... is a moral reprobate"), which suggest that to worry about others' feelings cheapens one's art. This apologia for the way writers skewer those around them shares space with a careful consideration of her own work's themes—alienation, family, home, travel, performance—episodic but interesting glimpses into Freed's life (a larger-than-life mother, a wild family, a troubled marriage, a difficult gig teaching writing). Freed's honesty is always tempered by what feels like cool reserve, but this nevertheless is an instructive, enlightening book. 10 b&w photos.

July 15, 2005
Like a polished diamond, Freed's exploration of her writing life throws color in many directions. These 11 essays give the reader a look at her emotional calisthenics as she writes autobiographical fiction about the human condition, drawing on her family background and childhood in South Africa. It also examines the impact of autobiographical work on a writer's family and friends. The entire book is subtly infused with Freed's relationship with her father, who often jokes that she didn't give him much of a fictional funeral. The chapter "Sex with the Servants" explores the controversy behind Freed's novel, "Home Ground" (1986), which details an incident between a young white girl and a black garden boy. An essay on men and snoring illustrates the role of writers as storytellers, while other pieces emphasize the writing teacher as editor. Freed also quotes other authors explaining why they do or don't augment their writing with pinches of true experiences. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries. -Joyce Sparrow, Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas Cty., FL

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2005
It's entirely possible some wag somewhere has said that reading about writing is akin to watching paint dry. If so, then that wry wit has clearly never read Freed's take on the subject. An acclaimed novelist and short story writer, Freed turns the same careful introspection that defines her imaginative work to herself, her craft, and the forces that have inspired her. As much a personal memoir of her childhood in South Africa as it is a treatise on the pitfalls of publishing, Freed, the daughter of artistic parents who enjoyed a minor reputation in the theater, credits much of her own penchant for the dramatic and predilection for travel to their early influence. Though many writers work hard to deny the dominance of such personal muses, Freed openly acknowledges their place in her work, and her contemplative examination on the moral and creative tightrope writers walk when blending two such highly charged worlds reveals the mark of a truly cerebral and focused writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)