Freeman's: Home

Freeman's #3

by John Freeman (Editor)

The third literary anthology in the series that has been called “ambitious” (O Magazine) and “strikingly international” (Boston Globe), Freeman’s: Home, continues to push boundaries in diversity and scope, with stunning new pieces from emerging writers and literary luminaries alike.

As the refugee crisis continues to convulse whole swathes of the world and there are daily updates about the rise of homelessness in different parts of America, the idea and meaning of home is at the forefront of many people’s minds. Viet Thanh Nguyen harks to an earlier age of displacement with a haunting piece of fiction about the middle passage made by those fleeing Vietnam after the war. Rabih Alameddine brings us back to the present, as he leaves his mother’s Beirut apartment to connect with Syrian refugees who are building a semblance of normalcy, and even beauty, in the face of so much loss. Home can be a complicated place to claim, because of race—the everyday reality of which Danez Smith explores in a poem about a chance encounter at a bus stop—or because of other types of fraught history. In “Vacationland,” Kerri Arsenault returns to her birthplace of Mexico, Maine, a paper mill boomtown turned ghost town, while Xiaolu Guo reflects on her childhood in a remote Chinese fishing village with grandparents who married across a cultural divide. Many readers and writers turn to literature to find a home: Leila Aboulela tells a story of obsession with a favorite author.

Also including Thom Jones, Emily Raboteau, Rawi Hage, Barry Lopez, Herta Müller, Amira Hass, and more—writers from around the world lend their voices to the theme and what it means to build, leave, return to, lose, and love a home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Short Stories, Anthologies

320 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2017

About the author

Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Freeman is an award-winning writer and book critic who has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. Freeman won the 2007 James Patterson Pageturner Award for his work as the president of the National Book Critics Circle, and was the editor of Granta from 2009 to 2013. He lives in New York City, where he teaches at NYU and edits a new literary biannual called Freeman's.

Reviews

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Freeman's: Home' by John Freeman (Editor)

4 stars/ 8 out of 10

This book is the third anthology in this series of John Freeman's.

There were several authors whose work I have previously read, (e.g. Juan Gabriel Vásquez and Edwidge Danticat), but many of the authors were new to me. Several of the pieces are extracts from books, (either recently published or about to be published).

There was much of interest in this book. The 'Short' by Juan Gabriel Vásquez was excellent, and whet my appetite for the rest of the book. 'Vacationland' by Kerri Arsenault was superbly written, and was both informative and moving. Many of the sections in the book looked at displaced people and refugees, and what 'home' means to them. For example, 'The Sound of Hemon' by Aleksandar Hemon explained clearly the importance of song for displaced people.

I found 'Freeman's: Home' a well written and thought provoking book, and I look forward to the publication of the next anthology in this series.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and to NetGalley for an ARC.

[ReemK10 (Paper Pills) · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't yet discovered Freeman's, get up right now and rush to your nearest Hudson News store and get yourself a copy! I purchase mine at the airport whenever I travel.This is Freeman's third theme-based anthology. I happen to believe that John Freeman is a superb editor who makes magnificent literary choices! Awesome, amazing, interesting, diverse, truly wonderful!

[Text Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Freeman’s is fresh, provocative, engrossing.’
BBC.com

‘A terrific anthology…sure to become a classic.’
San Francisco Chronicle

‘There’s an illustrious new journal in town…[with] fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by new voices and literary heavyweights…alike.’
Vogue.com

‘Freeman draws from a global cache of talent…An expansive reading experience.’
Kirkus Reviews

‘Freeman’s sets a new standard for literary journals…Refreshing.’
Chicago Literati

‘Arrival is not a gimmick; it’s a heartbeat. Listening for its pulse from one page to the next encourages dual enjoyment, first with each individual piece, and then the pieces in conversation.’
Australian on Freeman‘s: Arrival

‘Every piece in this collection has the potential to make jaded readers happy…You need very little time to read each piece but they linger exactly as Freeman intended they should.’
Sydney Morning Herald on Freeman‘s: Arrival

‘A sturdy journal with a throwback vibe…Comforting; fond, familiar and warm.’
Saturday Paper on Freeman‘s: Arrival

‘The writing is excellent. A powerful and thought-provoking meditation on home.’
Australian Financial Review

‘These are intimate, heart-rending stories leavened with humour and hope.’
Toowoomba Chronicle

‘A stunning collection.’
Anna Funder, Sydney Morning Herald’s Year in Reading

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The right topic for the right moment in life…
Favorites: Hope and Home (Rabih Alameddine), Germany and Its Exiles (Herta Müller), All the Hone You’ve Got (Edwidge Danticat), Stone Houses (Amira Hass), The Sound of Hemon (Aleksandar Hemon), Being Here (Marie Darrieusseq)

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of the houses, stone or others, that Israeli bulldozers and-no less Israeli-bombs have and will destroy, rescue from the Israeli national ethos of return to the homeland the naked essence of our state. And this is how I meant to continue the sentence and write: that essence is the erasure of the other's existence for the sake of our own existence. We make the Palestinian disappear so that we Jews can prosper. But I have changed my mind and am writing: the real essence of our state is an ongoing attempt to erase the existence of the other for the sake of our own existence. An attempt to make the Palestinian disappear so that we Jews can prosper. The houses no longer stand. But the majority of their dwellers and carriers of their memory -down to the second and third and fourth generations- are alive and kicking, alive and resilient. In exile or in refugee camps a walking distance from their demolished homes, in rented apartments, in Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank and in villages inside Israel, whose land has been stolen from them. Displaced, but very much alive, they never cease to belong to The Home. The Israeli attempt at erasure succeeded only in part, hap-pily. But the partiality of that "success" does not halt the conveyor belt moving the state's essence in its repeated act of destruction and attempts to depopulate. Every additional demolition, every takeover of land is another knife plunged, and the unceasing continuity since 1948 only grows heavier. And with every knife, another question mark is raised about the "home-ness" of home and the reasons that I have to remain in it.
- Stone Houses by Amira Hass : Freeman’s: The best new writing on home
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To be honest, the short stories by POC writers in this anthology are much stronger in execution. The plots are compelling, and with simple ideas, they carry the stories with excellent writing. I recognized some of the authors and had high expectations, having enjoyed most of their novels. The topics range from war and political persecution to immigrant insecurity and ideological divides. While some non-POC writers also contributed well, some stories seemed to focus on 'first world problems' - superficial for the most part. However, Kerri Arsenault's "Vacationland" stands out for its haunting portrayal of the impact of a paper mill factory on a rural community, highlighting the contradiction of dependence on it for income despite the health risks from its toxic materials. I was unsure about the inclusion of two Israeli authors in the collection, given current events. One story seemed to dehumanize Palestinians which seems to be what Israel has been doing with the complicit of Western Media, while another discussed their connection to land although when they first came to Palestine decades ago as a guests, which raised conflicting feelings and ideas. Most of the poems featured in the collection were the translations of famous poets but unfortunately i am not familiar with them simply because the literary world itself has been Western-centric. Overall, "Home" is a powerful collection where writers explore varied interpretations of what 'home' means—tangible, in memories, in people, or in a fleeting, uncertain existence. I put some of the titles that i think people should read from this collection :
1. Germany and Its Exiles By Herta Müller.
2. All the Home You've Got By Edwidge Danticat.
3. A Land Without Borders By Nir Baram
4. Pages of Fruit By Leila Aboulela
5. Vacationland By Kerri Arsenault
6. Fishermen Always Eat Fish Eyes By Xiaolu Guo
7. The Committed By Viet Thanh Nguyen
8. Stone Houses By Amira Hass.
9. Hope and Home By Rabih Alameddine
10. The curse by Emily Raboteau

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some were particularly powerful and surprisingly impressive, but the rest I sort of (had to) skimmed quickly and didn't get much out of them. Unforgettable ones (or what I think were worthy of full five stars) for me personally were written by : Xiaolu Guo (bit shocking to me, knowing that I one-starred one of the things I've read by her years ago), Rawi Hage, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and (admittedly I have a soft/weak spot for) Aleksandar Hemon. RTC later

[Suzie Agustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never know where to start when it comes to contemporary literature. I have my go-to authors but of course, there's this endless noise of who is the next big thing or is a must-read. I get wary since I don't know how much of the new writings being pushed have inclusive machinery behind them. So, to my delight, this Freeman's collection allowed me to explore contemporary writers from diverse homelands, experiences, and styles.

From this volume on Home, what clung to my soul was the poem by Danez Smith about an encounter at a bus stop, Kerri Arsenault's Vacationland, and of course the myriad of tales that have sprung from histories of migration—from Aleksander Hemon, Herta Muler and Xiaolu Guo.

I'm truly excited to get my hands on more of the Freeman's anthologies.

[Rasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthology is the future of writing.
reading this book seemed to me like finding a box of old love letters in a desk drawer you just bought from an antique store. with every turn of the page, I wanted to read more.

My favorite is by Xiaolu Guo, in addition to the pieces by Herta Muller and the brilliant Alexander Hemon.

the few parts that i didn't enjoy were some of the poetry. probably since I almost never enjoy poetry that is not written in my mother tongue.

Highly recommended. I will look up the coming issues with anticipation

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a series of long essays and poems (with one or two fictional pieces thrown in), focusing on the theme of home.

Maybe 3.5 stars. I got this book for Christmas from my sister-in-law. There were some very good pieces in this anthology. I especially liked Vacationland, Fishermen Always Eat Fish Eyes First, hope and Home, Pages of Fruit, The San Joaquin, and the Red House. I did not care for the poetry or some of the other essays.

[Kenneth Chanko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stellar thematic collection -- memoir, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photo essay -- around the idea of "home." Among my favorite pieces collected here are those by Edwidge Danticat, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Alexandar Hemon, Barry Lopez, and Velibor Božović.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

of course I am always pulled into the theme of home so perhaps i expected more from this collection. and there were a few pieces i liked but most of them I found I couldn't connect to

[Arja Salafranca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third literary anthology in this series, edited by John Freeman, centres on the question of home in a range of mostly memorable and heart-felt non-fiction pieces, with a few poems and fiction pieces. Some of the stand-outs include:

The first is one of the six shorts, included in the book, by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, which rests on a series of fate, coincidences or destiny around the writer Mario Vargas Llosa. To say more would be to spoil the delightful twist and surprise, which is thought-provoking, so say the least.

Kerri Arsenault’s excerpt from a book she is writing about Maine, titled ‘Vacationland’ is a chillingly brilliant and humane account of the effects of environmental pollution in the paper mill town of Mexico, Maine, where she grew up.

Another memorable and astonishing piece is the evocatively titled ‘Fishermen always eat the fish eyes first’ by Xiaolu Guo is a marvellous, poignant story about growing up with her grandparents in a remote Chinese village. Rich in detail and pathos and memories, this is a definite highlight of the collection.

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s short story, ‘The Committed’ is a harrowing account of refugees fleeing Vietnam after the war, ‘the wretched of the ocean’.

Rabih Alameddine’s ‘Hope and Home’ is both a mediation on what home means to this writer; and detailed, intricate descriptions of visits to Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Leila Aboulela’s piece tells of her adoration of a favourite author, a fan letter never responded to, and the eventual disappointment of coming face to face with someone you have admired from afar. A special story.

Gregory Pardlo’s ‘Marine Boy’ is another brilliant account, in which he Edescribes his decision to join the Marine, and his experiences there.

Emily Raboteau’s ‘The Curse’ is a wonderful description of time spent with her Ugandan mother-in-law – a story of cultural divide, that is delightfully witty in the telling.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5