Freeman is one to read again and again. It is a saga of love, hatred, hope, and pain. Also interesting how a leader is described exactly as a modern radical person, but this was published ten years prior to our more recent insurrection... ( )

I read enough (about 1/4 of the 400+ pages) to know that this is a powerful novel, dealing with a difficult subject---the plight of freed men and women in the South immediately after emancipation. I grasp the enormity of the problem, and thought it terrific material for fiction, but felt these characters were a bit one-dimensional, their actions predictable after a few incidents, and I couldn’t feel terribly sympathetic to the single-minded cluelessness of two of the major players, so I gave it up.
January 2023

This was heartwrentching in the best way possible. Pitts is a wonderful writer who draws you into the world of suddenly emancipated slaves in the South immediately after the Civil War and hooks you completely. ( )

Such a wonderful thought-provoking book ( )

This was SO good. It offers a compact view from the pov of the formerly enslaved primarily, about what freedom in the immediate wake of the civil war looked like. Powerful and harrowing. What a beaufitul and haunting novel. ( )