An original and thought-provoking novel

Crotchety old Oliver Cross thinks that his revolutionary days have been left far behind him since the death of his beloved wife, Helen. Estranged from his family and recently out of jail, he is content to live out the rest of his life alone, shutting out the world around him. Then he discovers that his rebellious granddaughter has gone missing and, with her parents distraught and the police out of leads, he sets out on a parole-breaking mission to track her down. Accompanied by a young wannabe musician and a friendly dog, his journey takes him across the US to the locations of his past – and straight into danger.

This was an enjoyable book with a fast-paced, engaging plot and an unusual and likeable hero. Grumpy and mean-spirited, Oliver doesn’t seem like the sort of character the reader would be rooting for, but through intelligent storytelling (and some hilariously blunt and profane dialogue from Oliver himself) the author manages to make him sympathetic, amusing and believable. As you learn more about his life through flashbacks to the 60s/70s and his dialogue with his travelling companion Ayana, the reader begins to understand why he has become the angry and resentful man he is and why he makes some of his reckless choices. The similarity of his granddaughter Erica to his late wife is also expressed through a combination of the flashbacks and snapshots of Erica’s life as a runaway, which also adds atmosphere to the story and helps transport the reader across the States to various settings, including a hippie commune in the Rocky Mountains and the bustling streets of Chicago.

As well as the unique hero, the secondary characters in Freedom Road were also well fleshed out and multi-dimensional, with a wide variety of colourful personalities. The over-arching themes of the story – rebellion, liberation and what it means to be free – are very well captured and give the reader a lot to think about after putting the book down, including what you would do in some of the situations Oliver finds himself in. This is by no means a perfect book - I found the reason Oliver was estranged from his family a bit unbelievable, and the ending felt a little rushed and didn’t tie things up as well as I would’ve liked – but it is immensely enjoyable and different to anything I’ve read before.

Overall, this was a hugely entertaining story that combines crime, adventure, nostalgia and humour to make a difficult to categorise but an easy to read the novel. I would recommend this to fans of any genre and would certainly not be averse to reading more by this author.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

A convict fresh out of jail plans on living out the balance of his life quietly, but then he learns of the disappearance of his granddaughter and best laid plans quickly change. During his journey he will confront his own storied past and a vicious Russian drug dealer. Good fiction.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Thomas and Mercer and the author, William Lashner, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Freedom Road in exchange for an honest an d unbiased opinion.
I thought this book provided a really good read. . The storyline was well thought out and written with well drawn characters.
Worth a read

This was quite a good book and well written, but it wasn't a book that had me gripped. It could be that i wasn't in the right frame of mind, so in fairness, i would try another book by this author.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review.

:Let me just say that I did not love this book. It moves a bit slow especially for a something that is supposed to be suspense. I did like it though and would check more by this author.

As I read Freedom Road, the story unfolded in my head like a Clint Eastwood movie, not the young shoot people and take names later, but the old, sick of the world and unsure of his place in it. Oliver is pretty clear about who he is. In his own words here he is " When you're a rebel, you want people to know it. Leather jackets, long hair, attitude. When you're cantankerous, you don't give a d@mn what anybody thinks." This is Oliver who sits at home, withdrawn from the world waiting to die but rushing headlong into danger to save the world when his granddaughter goes missing. Still grieving his wife, Oliver jumps parole and takes off with an unlikely sidekick and someone else's mutt on a cross country, hell for leather (minus a few naps) journey to save a part of his heart. Flashbacks to the past and the hippy that was Oliver further endears the old fart to your heart. In spite of his pi$$ and vinegar attitude, it is with bittersweet reluctance that you say goodbye to his story and close the book on a very memorable character. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley

I love when a book surprises me and becomes much more than just a story on a page. The last one was A Man called Ove and now Freedom Road. How a grumpy old man can become a hero takes a story that follows his life from youth through old age with several detours along the way. Oliver only has his granddaughter left and he will not let her disappear without a fight. His journey will take the reader from law school to parolee with many, many detours between but in the end, you'll find yourself rooting for him. The three evenings it took me to finish this book will have to do until I can find another that resonates as this one did.

Freedom Road is the story of Oliver, a grumpy old man. His wife is dead but he still talks to her. One day, his teenage granddaughter goes missing. Oliver decides to get up and do something about it. On a cross country trip, Oliver finds more than he was looking for. Full of shenanigans and heart, this is a good read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

FREEDOM ROAD
William Lashner
Thomas & Mercer
ISBN 978-1503904460
Trade Paperback
Thriller

You won’t need a bookmark to read FREEDOM ROAD. That is because you will want to read it in one straight sitting from its paragraph to its last. Author William Lashner makes that quite easy. Where most novels might seem to run out of gas, however momentarily, a third or fourth of the way in Lashner demonstrates that he has a few auxiliary tanks strapped onto his brilliant, addictive narrative and never comes close to running low.

This is quite an accomplishment, particularly when it is almost crystal clear after the first couple of chapters of FREEDOM ROAD that things are going to end badly. Oliver Cross, the craggy septuagenarian protagonist, bears emotional and physical scars and injuries incurred recently and remotely, the greatest of those being the death of Helen, his wife. Cross is a man alone in every sense of the word. He was transformed in the fires of the riots at the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention into a man who rebelled against his father and whose son rebelled against him in a most ironic fashion. Fifty years later, he is a newly minted ex-convict whose closest relationship is with his (almost) unrelentingly patient and cheerful parole officer. He spends his days sitting and drinking and drinking and sitting, full of bitterness and anger while occasionally stroking the lump on his neck which is the equivalent of a carcinomic petri dish. What gets him up and moving is the sudden disappearance of his teenaged granddaughter Erica, last seen in the company of Frank Cormack, a sometime folksinger and failed drug dealer. Erica and Frank are making their slow way towards the West Coast, with vague plans of traveling to and living in Europe. Erica’s motivations are idealistic while Frank’s are out of necessity, given that he has stolen money, a drug stash and a computer from a very dangerous Russian criminal. This is not the first time that Frank has embarked upon a foolish course, but this time he is dragging an unsuspecting Erica into terrible danger. Oliver --- accompanied by Ayana, a streetwise teenaged friend of Erica’s and Hunter, an all-but-abandoned dog --- follows the all but obvious trail of Frank and Erica to Frank’s old stomping grounds in Chicago, hoping that he can get there and retrieve Erica before the Russian does. It was in Chicago where Oliver’s physical and emotional slow slide from grace began, and the circle of his life becomes all the more apparent when he ultimately finds Frank and Erica at the remnants of the organic farm where he and Helen made their tentative steps toward crafting the Utopia they sought. First steps lead to a last stand which is full of twists, turns, and redemption before the final enigmatic ending is played out and the last secret of FREEDOM ROAD is revealed.


FREEDOM ROAD is beautifully written and wonderfully told, with neither element sacrificing or distracting from the other. As I stated earlier, you won’t need a bookmark, but there are passages throughout the book that you will want to mark, underline, or write down. One is a paragraph about high school seniors on the cusp of their own futures. Another paragraph discusses a classic rock band and contains so much truth in a few sentences that it is a wonder it does not burst the binding of the book. An extended passage at the midway point of FREEDOM ROAD describes an impromptu gathering of friends where old wounds, rather than being healed, are ripped open. It’s been done before, but never so well.

Lashner over the course of fourteen or so book has proved himself incapable of writing badly. FREEDOM ROAD is a cut above, however. It’s a keeper, a tale that neither age nor the fleetness of memory will erase from you. Oh, and let the chapter titles --- each taken from popular songs of the last century --- be your background music as you read. Set all else aside for this bittersweet tale. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2019, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

William Lashner’s Freedom Road is the complex, riveting story of Oliver Cross, who at 72 embarks on a road trip that careens through time, the country, and his psyche. Oliver is tough, bitter, cantankerous, and beset by the losses and ailments of old age. He also is on parole and determined to save his young granddaughter who found herself a loser, who has failed at everything except getting into trouble with the law and the lawless.

The story covers fifty years, from the 1968 Chicago anti-war demonstrations, at which point Oliver experiences an abrupt change of direction, to the present decision to find his granddaughter. What happened to the protestors, the communes, and the anti-establishment youth of the 60’s are subjects rarely explored in fiction. Defying classification, this novel has all of the elements of thriller, crime, family dynamics. Ultimately, however, this is a book about the universal values that drive any person’s life. Lashner’s writing is rich, the dialogue spot-on, and the characters nuanced and unforgettable. I very rarely expect to read a book more than once, but Freedom Road is one to which I hope to return.

Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really great novel with a very original story, and I loved it. The characters are wonderful and the dialogue is just great. I had a smile on my face every time Oliver spoke.
As to the deeper meaning, you have to think for yourself, and that's also a good thing.

Oliver is a survivor of the '68 Chicago Viet Nam anti-war demonstrations. He is the product of a wealthy family, first-year law student, destined to follow in his father's footsteps. But two things happen that will totally change the course of his life: He meets Helen, who will become the love of his life, and his brother, a soldier in 'Nam dies a hero.

Now fifty years later he gets a call that his granddaughter, so alike his Helen, has tried the same route of tuning in, turning on, and dropping out with a young and failing fledgling would-be musician, Frank Cormack. But unlike the trip out west that he and Helen took, his granddaughter, Erica, has unknowingly joined up with a loser, and no one is happy with him.

This thriller envelopes the reader almost immediately in the crusty, bitter old man, estranged from his family. His wife is gone (with the help of his own hand), now forever free of cancer. He loves his granddaughter and agrees he'll find her and confirm she is safe. Recovering Hunter, the dog Frank abandoned, takes him along with Ayana, a tip line to their whereabouts.

The POV begins to flip between Oliver and Frank. Getting into the head of Frank is disturbing. And the dialogue from Oliver between characters is always curt, profane, short-tempered, and ill-mannered. It is on the road west with Ayana and Hunter that he begins to reflect on his life in flashbacks. His tortured character reveals a sense of bittersweet humor, the losses suffered, choices made and regretted--or not. Support characters are well-developed and many empathetic.

The prose is poignant, in your face soul-stirring, emotional. The plot is well paced. Not really a crime novel, more of a family noir thriller? Definitely awesome literary fiction that will resonate long after you've finished that somewhat disturbing, mostly satisfying, but surprising conclusion. Yes, there is some crude language--but again--this story is so well laid out, so compelling, the reader is fully invested, engaged from page 1 through "the end." I received an ebook download from the publisher and NetGalley and thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Heartily recommended. 5 stars

Avery unusual story- sad and funny with colorful characters that we can all relate too. It has a lot of twist and turns some expected but mostly surprises. It does raise the question of family relationships and how we view death. Most importantly it explores how how day to day decisions effect us through out our life and the importance of forgiveness. It also made me wonder why it isOK to end our beloved pets suffering but illegal to give the same options to humans that actually have a say in the matter.

Freedom Road is, by all intents and purposes, a coming-of-(old-)age story, and the plot was nothing like I had imagined. That said, I still found it compelling, and it made a refreshing change to read a different type of crime novel. It was a delight to join grumpy, cantankerous old boy Oliver on his cross-country road trip across the States as he desperately searches for his missing granddaughter Erica. On the way, we meet a variety of characters - some good, some bad. We encounter drug dealers, musicians, Russian mafioso, hippies and even a dog named Hunter. All of these people teach Oliver vital lessons and help him to self-reflect, which, in turn, initiates a mellowing in Oliver whereby he ponders life's most important philosophical questions.

This is a well-written story that pretty much defies categorisation, but I think that's exactly why I liked it as much as I did. The characters, whether bad or good, are superbly drawn, interesting and they each play their part in the plot. I also really enjoyed the humour used throughout, as it fits snugly into the plot and never comes across as forced or inappropriate. This is essentially a novel that focuses on universal themes of love, loss, family and relationships. This is my first time reading William Lashner, but I have absolutely no qualms about trying more in the future, as it was a very entertaining experience.

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer for an ARC.

William Lashner’s latest book Freedom Road may be my favorite of his and one of the best books I’ve read in the last year or so. Oliver Cross is not a well-liked neighbor as the kids avoid him and like to egg his Philadelphia-area house. Cross doesn’t care and efforts by his patrol officer don’t make the miserable 72-year old wife-murderer change his ornery ways. That all changes though when his daughter-in-law convinces him to look for his missing granddaughter Erica.

When Oliver Cross was young, he went to Law School in Illinois to be just like his very successful and rich father. While at a protest in 1968 with a friend, he meets Helen, a Bryn Mawr College student in town for the protest and falls in love with her. He quits law school to be with Helen and eventually they move to a commune in Colorado where they raise their son Fletcher, named for Oliver’s brother who died in Viet Nam. Their son somehow ends up being more like his grandfather, a lawyer in Philadelphia. His daughter, however, decides to be more like her grandparents and, leaves town with her part-time folksinger, part-time small-time drug dealer boyfriend Frank Cormack. Oliver Cross follows the steps Erica and Frank Cormack make as they head west, eventually back to the same Colorado commune. Cross (and the reader) learns more about himself along the way. Great story, great characters. I guess this would be characterized as Noir but I’m not sure. Certainly not a typical crime novel though.

Lashner is always very good at creating interesting and realistic characters, especially using dialogue and he certainly continues that in this book. Not all are likeable characters and that’s true if real life too. Some are characters you initially do not like until you learn more about them.. That’s certainly true of Oliver Cross, even though he’s a murderer. Lashner gives clues along the way about how and why Cross murdered his wife, but it’s not fully revealed until the end.

Another characteristic of a Lashner novel is humor which, although subtler than most of his books, is still present. He also usually includes some local Philadelphia color, and that is also used less in this book as most of the book takes place in other areas -- Illinois, Ohio and Colorado. As a Philadelphia-area native, that was always something I enjoyed about his books, but I didn’t mind the small part it played in this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for a complimentary copy of this book for this honest review.

It's late in the summer of 1968 in Chicago, and Oliver Cross is ready to start his second year of law school, on track to follow in the footsteps of his legal eagle father into the upper class. Until he meets a red headed, freckled faced girl and follows her into the revolution across the bridge on Courtland Street and headed for Lincoln Park. Politics in Chicago are never boring. In 1968 they were mostly dangerous.

When he came to with a permanent nightstick crease across his skull Oliver dropped out of his life and followed this girl he loved until he finally caught her. Across the years, he often regretted their circumstances, but never their decision to make a simple, uncomplicated life. Oliver and Helen traveled then, across the wide United states from hither, to yon, until, heavy with their son Fletcher, named for Oliver's Vietnam war casualty brother, they found the place they could call home, a commune in Colorado called Seven Suns. And it fit the three of them to a T - until it didn't.

But moving on wasn't the radical foregoing of freedom they had anticipated. A house in town, a steady job wasn't the joy of working the farm, but they still had one another. And when push comes to shove that is all that really matters.

This life story, told in the first person of an ancient and alone Oliver, is one to keep you up nights. Chapter headings are songs from those long ago 1960/1970's and keep you in the spirit of the tale. It was fun to relive those days if only in the heart. William Lashner is an author I will follow.

I received a free electronic copy of this excellent novel from Netgalley, William Lashner, and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

In “Freedom Road,” Lashner offers us a well-told, although hard to categorize story. It’s a story about a foolish kid —let’s call him Frank—on the run from mobbed-up tough guys, a kid who can’t stay out of trouble no matter what he does.

But, Frank decided to take Oliver’s pain-pill-addicted granddaughter Erica with him and that’s a problem. It’s a real problem because Oliver is a mean spirited cantankerous old codger, almost a shut-in, on parole after killing his wife and doing his time. And, Oliver isn’t putting up with nothing, nohow. Even if his family no longer speaks with him. Even if the terms of his parole have him tied in knots. Do, it’s a crime fiction on the run caper with crotchety old granddad and his depends to the rescue with a 🐶 dog and not much more.

But, the story isn’t exactly or only a crime caper as it is also about families and independence and estrangement going back to Oliver’s college years in 1968 in Chicago and the hippie commune farm he planted himself in.

It sounds like a mess in concept but the storytelling works and it’s a hard to put down tale.

This was a heck of a road trip! Meet Oliver, the grumpiest of old men. He misses his dead wife constantly (although she still talks to him) and is estranged from the rest of his family members. Long ago, after an eventful day protesting the 1968 Democratic convention, Oliver gave up on conventional life to live more authentically. Unfortunately, he didn't become the man he hoped to be. But when his teenage granddaughter goes missing, Oliver decided to get off his ass, stop yelling at Fox News, and try to find her. What follows is a glorious cross-country adventure full of musicians, drug dealers, hippies and the Russian mob. Oh, and a very sweet dog named Hunter. Lashner has written a fantastic book that will make you explore the purpose of your own life while judging everyone else's. What could be more fun?

A different kind of coming-of-age story as Oliver Cross decides not to live out his years in despair and self-pity, but instead skips parole and heads cross country in search of his grand-daughter.

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It is my first book read by this author. I hope to read more books by this author.