A Free Man

by Michel Basilières

An unusual and remarkable dystopian novel A Free Man is a satirical tall tale presented as the drug and alcohol fuelled conversation of two old friends getting reacquainted over one night. It’s also a boy-meets-girl story of the worst kind and a time travel story about a future where the world is ruled by robots and humans are vermin. When timelines cross, the world as we know it bends . . . Skid Roe is completely self-absorbed and delusional. His struggle to exercise free will is constantly hampered by the physical manifestation of his inner demons and by the norms and rules of contemporary life. He’s both aided and hindered by Lem, a robot from the future whose good intentions leave Skid on the run from a shadowy state security agency. A surreal, beautiful, and powerful literary mash-up, Basilières’ long-awaited sophomore effort is inventive and darkly funny.

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Michel Basilières was born and raised in Montreal’s Milton Park neighbourhood and now lives with his son in Toronto. He is the author of Black Bird, a magic realist novel set during the October Crisis.

Reviews

[Lady Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun, short read. I’ve been very busy and distracted lately, so I needed something digestible to capture and hold my attention. This certainly did the trick. It’s set in our time and it’s a bit bizarre. I imagined the story being told in some writer’s dank studio in Downtown L.A. where I live, though it’s actually Canadian. I guess hipsters are the same everywhere and human concerns about freedom and time travel transcend time.

[Joana Felício · Rating 4 out of 5]

READ THE ORIGINAL REVIEW ON MY BLOG: http://thebookaddictsblog.blogspot.pt...

I got this ebook from Netgalley in return of an honest review.

My first impression of this book was a bit mixed and I couldn't help but feel rather confused and, to be honest, turned-off by the beginning. However, from the very first page there is just something in A Free Man that makes you keep reading, something so obscure and fascinating that you can't realise it until you finish. That something, for me, was the thought-provoking message that was deeply rooted in the overall story, which was as weird and bizarre as it was possibly the most provocative idea I have read about in a very long time.
The main idea of this book is to consider and ponder about the future and what it may hold for us, humans, as a species, through the story of an extremely curious set of characters. That theme was dealt in such a peculiar way by the author that you are kind of distracted from that plot in favour of another major theme: drug use. I couldn't help but wonder, all the way through, if that was actually a real story lived by the main character, Skid, or just product of his drug-fueled delusions.
There was a massive group of bizarre and almost grotesque characters, sub-plot lines and elements all throughout the story and I must give kudos to the author, Michel Basilières, for his extraordinary storytelling technique that he demonstrated in A Free Man.
There is a lot going on, but it felt like it just went by in a flash, leaving us there to deal with the aftermath of what we had just witnessed. That was one of the best parts about this, as I'd never before felt like I did after finishing this story. I felt almost like I should keep it hidden, not tell anyone I'd read it because it was so strange and rude.
As far as characters go, they were all definitely flawed and incredibly complex in a way that is impossible to describe, not to mention utterly cringe-worthy and detestable.
When it comes to thinking about the future, I believe this book adopts a certain Orwell-esque approach while thinking of what will be of our world and ourselves in hundreds of years. Like I mentioned before, this was one of the most thought-provoking dystopian books I have ever experienced and I reckon it will feel that way for a lot of people. Absolutely recommend this, despite it's strong language and heavy themes.

[Rand]

Inherently subjective fun provoked from the manifolds of objective (hyper)reality.

Whether this book is a sober work of immaturity or a mature output of intoxication is as irrelevant as the concept of a
target audience". Basilières deftly pokes fun at Canada, internet, porn, time, AI, sex, money, "free will" and other sundry topics such as CONTROL/anarchy/quantum shit. The parts that are good are great while the parts that are not are easily skimmed over.

There are footnotes. There is a confusing nested-narration thing which allows the telling to jump time, which is confusing given that this is a story about time-travel. There's this one page which lays out the relationship between Time and Motion and Gravity in a really clear, overly-simplified way that is worthwhile for the sake of Thought.

I'm not rating this in the GoodReads star system because I don't really understand how that stuff works. My copy was given to me as a courtesy by the publisher, who recognized the sheer winning luck of my entry in the FirstReads pogrom.

Overall a positive use of cognitive effort/time-expenditure though not at all something to be read All At Once as you kind of have to be In The Mood for something silly. And the cover art is rather apt to boot.

[Emlikescake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was like getting super high with a buddy and taking about crazy shit. Which is essentially what the book is about.

I dug it, though I'm not sure it really matched the jacket description? Dystopian seems not to quite match this. Though having worked in retail, that part was bang on.

[Rana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is trying to be deep and philosophical, but the narrator spends most of the time ruminating on his own decisions, complaining, and describing situations with an intense male gaze; every woman is described in a sexual way for absolutely no reason. The book was short enough that I breezed through it, but was making a grossed out face 80% of the time.

At the point when it was time for Skid to explain his thoughts on human nature after the big event of the book, AKA, time traveling into the future with the robot, Lem, who wants to breed humans and start a civilization so they don't go extinct, Skid just brushes it off and says it's not important. Skid's friend even replies, "that's the part I've been waiting to hear about!" Same, Skid's friend. Same.

[Paul B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reads itself. Basilieres makes writing look easy. Ridiculously clean and complicated and brave but comes off as goofy if you aren't paying attention. Loved it. Laughed out loud many times. Gasped many times. Shook my head at the beauty of it many times.

[Dre · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really care for this book, but I don't typically care for the dystopian genre. It was easy enough to understand and follow, but contains quite a few explicit scenes.

[N C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it in a day, super interesting.

[Bruno Agustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read, fun at moments, full of slang. Crazy and surreal.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Free Man, is an interesting but uneven science fiction novel by Michel Basileres. Skid Roe is a misfit who works at a bookstore. He has a romantic interest: a female coworker named NaNa. A robot named Lem, who might or might not be real, visits Skid at unexpected times. Basileres seems to borrow much of his writing style from Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Adams. There's satire here, along with some interesting insights into human behavior; however the book has a loose, meandering and almost unfinished quality to it.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soooo not what I expected, but not a bad read. A lot more smutty than the blurb suggests so be wary of that if you're easily offended or if that makes you uncomfortable. Otherwise, not my favorite, but definitely not bad.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

2-2.33. Mid-century blandness without much originality (no, I don't think I could write any better), corrupting old ideas, rehashing old thoughts, not much of anything although there is the occasional amusing bit.

[Sprinkle Sugarsocks · Rating 2 out of 5]

did not enjoy this

[Teressa James · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the hell did I just read??

[Library Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF