Sammy Mountjoy, artist, rises from poverty and obscurity to see his pictures hung in London's Tate Gallery. Swept into World War II, he is captured and confined to a prison cell in total darkness. He emerges from his cell like Lazarus from the tomb.
Free Fall
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Sammy Mountjoy, son of a slattern, child of London's Rotten Row, looks back on his life seeking forgiveness, needing to forgive. Somehwere he ceased being the object of circumstance and became the subject. And in becoming the mover, attaining freedom, he irrevocably lost freedom. For as a child, subject to nightmares, clamoring at the pub door for his mother, accepting blows from the prim spinster teacher, learning "security" from the clergyman who adopted him, the young painter was free. But as the lover of a simple lower class woman whom he betrayed or of Taffy for whom he lusted and married, he was not free, but driven by the world of objective reality into a nightmare of grasping and destruction. And as a prisoner in a concentration camp, close to mental and physical death, the whole terrifying pattern of his existence reveals itself in a symphonic form. Themes are introduced, slowly, logically, until at the climax they merge, and Sammy, who knows that within him lies a dark force that bids him live, stands at the pinnacle of reality, a reality that embraces two worlds which will never be reconciled. Written by the author of Lord of the Flies, this chronicle of a modern man is reminiscent of Kafka. For here is a thematic novel of existence in which humor is filled with horror and order is the mask that chaos wears. Recommended for readers who seek more than entertainment from fiction. (Kirkus Reviews )
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"I was standing up, pressed back against the wall, trying not to breathe. I got there in the one movement my body made. My body had many hairs on legs and belly and chest and head, and each had its own life; each inherited a hundred thousand years of loathing and fear for things that scuttle or slide or crawl." from Free Fall Sammy Mountjoy, artist, rises from poverty and an obscure birth to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War II, he is taken as a prisoner-of-war, threatened with torture, then locked in a cell of total darkness to wait. He emerges from his cell like Lazarus from the tomb, seeing infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour. Transfigured by his ordeal, he begins to realize what man can be and what he has gradually made of himself through his own choices. He determines to find the exact point at which the accumulated weight of those choices has deprived him of free will. Born in Cornwall, England, William Golding started writing at the age of seven. Though he studied natural sciences at Oxford to please his parents, he also studied English and published his first book, a collection of poems, before finishing college. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, participating in the Normandy invasion. Golding's other novels include Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, The Spire, Rites of Passage (Booker Prize), and The Double Tongue. A Harvest Book Harcourt Inc. 525 B. Street, San Diego, CA 92101 15 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010 www.HarcourtBooks.com
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First Sentence
I have walked by stalls in the market-place where books, dog-eared and faded from their purple, have burst with a white hosanna. Read the first page
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I have walked by stalls in the market-place where books, dog-eared and faded from their purple, have burst with a white hosanna. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback
Here is a mind-boggler of literary art. Golding takes you in--in through the portals of the main character's mind. And then the true adventure begins. This is an exploration on the theme of freedom lost, which goes into an existential search, taking you through a labyrinth of broodings and memories deep, deep within the psyche, and in the end you (together with the protagonist) will experience something stirring and substantial. It is the turning of freedom outside-in, and in and in and in, and then out again. Just read one chapter. That's all it will take to enter uncharted territory.
By A. Temple
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most beautifully-written books I've read. There are only maybe two or three moments where every word is not perfect. It's like reading poetry, only it lasts for the entire length of a novel. Furthermore, everything that Mountjoy describes, tangents though they may seem, fits perfectly into our understanding of his character. And, to top it all off, the last sentence is one of the least predictable I've ever seen.
By Jaime Huling
Format:Paperback
If you enjoy literature for literature's sake, and do not mind forsaking a traditional plot, you must read this book. Golding presents a flow of conciousness masterpiece in Free Fall, examining the "shuffle, fold, and coil of time" on a quest to find the protagonists fall from freedom. the imagery is remarkable, and the obscurity is challenging but rewarding, as it is immensly constructive to the overall understanding of the piece. It is books like this, rather than the more obvious Lord of The Flies which won Mr. Golding a Nobel Prize in Literature. It is nothing short of thought provoking and conducive to self-examination, even if you hate it.
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