Freeman's: Love

Freeman's #7

by John Freeman

In a time of contentiousness and flagrant abuse, it often feels as if our world is run on hate. Invective. Cruelty and sadism. But is it possible the greatest and most powerful force is love? In the newest issue of this acclaimed series, Freeman's Love asks this question, bringing together literary heavyweights like Tommy Orange, Anne Carson, Louise Erdrich, and Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk alongside emerging writers such as Gunnhild �yehaug and Semezdin Mehmedinovic.Mehmedinovic contributes a breathtaking book-length essay on the aftermath of his wife's stroke, describing how the two reassembled their lives outside their home country of Bosnia. Richard Russo's charming and painful "Good People" introduces us to two sets of married professors who have been together for decades, and for whom love still exists, but between the wrong pair. Haruki Murakami tells the tale of a one-night stand that feels like a dying sun.

Together, the pieces comprise a stunning exploration of the complexities of love, tracing it from its earliest stirrings, to the forbidden places where it emerges against reason, to loss so deep it changes the color of perception. In a time when we need it the most, this issue promises what only love can bring: a solace of complexity and warmth.

Genres: Short Stories, Essays

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2020

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

[Yuri Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The major item in this anthology is a memoir-cum-essay – Snowflake, by Semezdin Mehmedinovic. It concerns the events following the writer’s wife’s stroke, which left her with large gaps in and impairment to her memory. It raises and attempts to address questions about the relationships between language, memory and identity; and how love and intimacy depend upon shared memories.
Among other excellent items in this issue is a great little short story by Olga Tokarczuk. Attention should also be drawn to Apples, a neatly done piece by the Norwegian, Gunnhild Oyehaug.
This publication has been consistently worth the price, and this issue is one of the best. Including many international writers in translation, Freeman demonstrates the breadth of quality beyond the domestic hothouse product that dominates too many English language literary journals.

[Kira V · Rating 5 out of 5]

I particularly enjoyed the stories by Semezdin Mehmedinovic and Olga Tokarczuk.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

via my blog:https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝- 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝’𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬- 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲. – 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧

With everything else happening in our world right now, this collection gives us an escape from ugliness. It is the latest book in Freeman’s series, none of which I have had the pleasure of reading and now plan to remedy. This newest arrival is about the force of love. The stories in this series beg the question “is love the greatest and most powerful force of all?” Love is often described as burning passion between two people, but that is not the only form love takes. Nor should all love be defined solely as romantic, for what about love between objects, friends, siblings, parent and child and all creatures big and small, especially the old and unwanted. Love through the big moments that act as a catalyst in the evolution of our relationships is worth telling but just as vital are those tiny, quiet memories we forget or take for granted. It is an intelligent, beautiful, moving series of stories from established greats like Anne Carson, Tommy Orange, Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, Haruki Murakami (just to name a few) and newcomers alike.

What ripped out my heart, and my guts, is the essay 𝘚𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘻𝘥𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘦𝘩𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘪ć. As he sits at his wife’s bedside in hospital, loyal as a dog, he sees everything he knows distorted, including her beautiful memories. Her memory slippage is like a time capsule and he the audience, this was my undoing. Such sorrow seems so far away from young lovers, those things happen to other people, that’s what we tell ourselves. Does he ‘reconstruct’ their reality or wait for his beloved Sonja to remember? I can’t go on dissecting his personal pain and the feelings it birthed within me without butchering its meaning, but I put the book down thinking ‘this is love, this is real love.’ Shared remembering is the meat of love, isn’t it, so what happens if one of us forgets? These lines about his beloved’s body took my breath away, “Her body is familiar territory for me; it has altered with time, and I remember it in various phases. I remember all her bodies.” Gorgeous, gifted writing that speaks of love and its intimacies. His pain, solitude that ‘laid me to waste’- I truly had to stop reading after this story and collect myself. Maybe feelings aren’t always translatable but he certainly succeeds. Not just about love but the agony of two worlds, of language, of being a refugee and all the misfortunes. Read it, oh do!

𝘓𝘰𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘌𝘳𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩’𝘴 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 is a poem about constancy, waiting. What waits longer and more silently in devoted stillness than a stone? Short poem, but powerful. Then, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘺 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯 comes along just when I thought I was recovered, rings out more tears. 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘎𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 Ø𝘺𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘨 perked me up with its intelligence but took bites too. 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯’𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 is a moving collection that left me teary eyed but there was humor too. The order I mention each story is not to take away from the beginning of the book, it’s just as beautiful with 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴. The first story is about a bracelet and the unbreakable bond between a child and her grandmother that under no circumstance can be removed. It is about the promises we make with our hearts written by 𝘔𝘢𝘢𝘻𝘢 𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦. Then, there is the tale of sleeplessness as one is the watcher, alone in their solitude at night unable to sleep wishing for not just passion and fulfilling lovemaking but someone to share those long empty hours of insomniac nights with. In the tale of a visiting lecturer, there is mention of a ‘monumentally ugly man’ who wrote important books and as a man ‘is allowed to decay in public’, naturally as a woman is not. Every story in this series is engaging and not a page is wasted. Add it to your TBR list.

Publication Date: October 13, 2020

Grove Atlantic

[Bailey Tolentino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a nice read because the formatting is great (like the font, layout, varied lengths of stories/poems/excerpts)… I loved some of the stories and there were some I didn’t care for, but that’s not the editor’s fault so I won’t take it out on this rating. I liked that it was mostly about romantic love cuz that’s what I like reading the most.

[Sam K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a mixed bag but the stand out was easily Snowflake by Semezdin Mehmedinovic. Breathtaking.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection had a good mix of style and theme, and I appreciate the loose categorization of "love," as a majority of these stories could hardly be described as romantic. Because of the broad selection, there were definitely pieces that I loved and pieces I didn't really care about. My favorites were: "Apples" by Gunnhild Oyehaug, "A Future Hope" by Maaza Mengiste, and "Snowflake" by Semezdin Mehmedinovic. "Snowflake," being the longest story featured, also gave me the most to think about. The beautiful imagery and repetition combined with insightful philosophical observations were the consistency necessary in a story with such a meandering plot. Overall, this was a fun read, and I especially enjoyed searching for unrelated coincidences that connected the stories, such as the theme of memory and characters named Sonja.

[Micol Benimeo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freeman’s is a good way to see what is in the air. Is like being in a literary cafè and meet some writer you know and you like and some writer you don’t know and you may like. And even if you don’t like all of the stories it doesn’t matter, the coffee is good and the atmosphere is right.

This Issue is about love. Romantic love, familiar love, nature love. Love for a lifetime or one-night-love. Love for writing about love. Love as memory or love as forgetting.

The story I loved most of all is Apples.

[Esmée · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of the Freeman's so far. Definitely some great stories like Semezdin Mehmedinovic, Olga Tokarczuk and Louise Erdich, but overall not as interesting as the other two I read so far. It didn't help that I really disliked the Richard Russo story near the end, leaving it on a bad impression.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a treat! Usually I shy away from short stories and literary contemporary fiction AND poetry…yet this collection (comprised of all three genres) has completely changed my stance, as well as introduced me to an array of authors whose longer works I can‘t wait to read next. Similar to Granta, and Lapham‘s Quarterly, Freeman‘s draws together various literary talent to expound on a common theme, in this case: love, in its many, many forms.

[kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freeman's never fails. There were two male authors who seem to be obsessed with writing about women as though they've never met one in person, but with them aside this was a thoughtful collection.

[Kerry McManus · Rating 3 out of 5]

some were good! some were a real slog. not sure if I'd recommend it. more like a 2.5, but rounded up

[alessandra falca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi è piaciuto molto “Fiocco di neve” di Semezdin Mehmedinovič, scrittore bosniaco. E “Mele” di Gunnhild Øyehaug, norvegese. Non male “Gli Uomini” di Marco Rossari e “Brava Gente” di Richard Russo. Il più bello di tutti però è “Cuciture” di Olga Tokarczuk, premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 2018. Freeman’s è una rivista che raccoglie racconti e poesie. ve la consiglio. Ne sono usciti quattro numeri. Questo è l’ultimo, il tema di questo numero è l’amore.