My Life and Adventures: A Novel

by Castle Freeman Jr.

Fleeing the wreckage of a murky diplomatic job in a Chaotic Latin country, Mark Noon finds himself down-and-out and holed up in a hotel in Mexico. As a last resort, he claims an odd bequest from a long-deceased family friend named Hugo Usher, and comes north to move into a dilapidated hill farmhouse in rural Vermont.

There, Noon begins to rebuild the house and the fragments of his life. He comes to know the complex histories of the memorable residents of Bible Hill, including Orlando Applegate, the lawyer and town father who becomes Mark's mentor in his new life -- and Orlando's troubled daughter, Amanda, who captures his heart and begins to share her life with him.

Mark also discovers the journal of the farm's previous tenant, a bachelor named Claude Littlejohn whose cryptic diary of weather conditions he finds hidden in a trunk in the attic. As Mark pieces together the secret behind Littlejohn's lonely hardscrabble life, he embraces his new community, and learns to thrive there.

My Life and Adventures sets the haunted and transcendental New England of Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emerson side-by-side with the dope and llama farmers, survivalists, and leaf-peepers of our day. The result is a delightful, unusual novel of one man's estrangement and return.

Genres: Novels

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Castle Freeman Jr. is an American novelist and writer who lives in Vermont.

Reviews

[Alfred · Rating 5 out of 5]

A difficult read to process but please, don't let that turn you off from reading it someday. I have never encountered a story that so quickly glossed over what would be the most important aspects of any other story to dwell upon the typically insignificant. Hired as an undetermined spy of some sort to presumably topple an unnamed south American government in the 60's? Perhaps 10 pages all told. The biograohical history and topography of a rural Vermont town? Nearly half the book.

Do not let that discourage you either. There are moments of beauty and philosophy in this story of Mr. Freeman's that address the greatest things in life with such depth that I often found myself re-reading a single sentence three or four times; not because I did not understand it but because I felt like there was somehow more to learn from those dozen or less words.

This book was admittedly, difficult to read at times due to it taking me some time to acclimate to the chronology and pacing. Please though, (and again) please do not let that put you off from reading this book. This is a truly American story that addresses the passage of time, introspection and above all places and our relationships to them that accomplishes so much with so little that I am having a hard time coming to grips with the importance of those words scattered throughout the text. There is rare meaning here that should not be missed.

A difficult 5 stars, glorious.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read and difficult to sum up. At times, I was thinking that it was a little bit of LeCarre meets Thoreau with a little Wilder, but it always seemed to work for me. Some of the chapters absolutely blew me away. Freeman is one of my favorite authors, although this is not my favorite book of his, a little too melancholy. All in all, I would recommend it. Hope Mr Freeman has another novel in the works....it's been a while.

[GaiB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m writing a comment because this book only has three and it deserves so many more. This is not a straightforward task though. It is a fictional memoir, slow-paced but gripping, simple but also wise and mysterious – it can be as shallow or deep as you want to make it. The language is fairly concise yet quite poetic. The title is misleading, but also not. The characters are well drawn and sympathetic. I really recommend this book and am very pleased to have discovered this author.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Holt introduced me to the work of Castle Freeman, Jr., a few years ago. I am indebted to her.

My Life and Adventures is an amalgamation of Vermont history, snippets from what is basically a weather journal maintained for over 60 years by a semi-hermit, and the story of the young man who came to inherit the hermit's broken down old house. Freeman is funny, insightful, cryptic, and sly this time around. He made me think about what drives people to put down stakes somewhere and what community is all about.