The Freedom Maze

The most evocative historical time travel story I've read since Connie Willis's Doomsday Book, this is a heartbreaking and compassionate novel about American slavery. I liked so much about it - the evocation of a very specific time and place (1860s Louisiana), the subtle, tricky speculative elements, and the painful, honest portrayal of slavery that's still accessible to younger readers.

The Freedom Maze follows Sophie, a white girl who is sent back in time and mistaken for a slave by her own ancestors. In the wrong hands, this story could have been deeply problematic (and indeed, the tragically enslaved mixed-race girl with lily white skin was a popular, regrettable subject of antebellum American melodrama). But Sherman makes show more storytelling choices that deliver, in my view, a sensitive and nuanced narrative about racial identity that acknowledges the shared history (and, often, ancestry) of black and white folks.

Highly recommended for young readers and adults alike. show less

Finding a well-written and captivating story within the first few pages, after plodding through other various other books or even giving up on occasion, is such a reward. While re-reading Emma, for want of anything better, I found this little gem buried way back on my Kindle carousel, and was instantly drawn in. I only wish I could have continued listening to Robin Miles' delightful narration, but my free sample ran out.

Part The Secret Garden, part The Wizard of Oz, Delia Sherman's fantastic novel is about a young girl called Sophie who is taken by her cold and forbidding mother to stay on her grandmother's plantation for the summer. The days of Gone With The Wind are long since past for Oak River, but the crumbling ruins, overgrown show more garden and neglected maze are fascinating for Sophie, who spends most of her time with her nose buried in classic fiction. When a magical creature like the samiad - about the only part of the story I didn't take to - grants Sophie her wish of finding friends and going on an adventure, she is whisked back in time one hundred years to 1860, when the sugar plantation was run by her mother's ancestors, the Fairchilds. With her summer tan and frizzy hair, Sophie is mistaken for a slave, and only her 'Fairchild nose' keeps her from being sold or punished outright.

I'm never sure whether to be outraged or merely instructed when reading books about the history of African Americans - I really enjoyed The Help, for instance, which set all the PC readers into an uproar - but I don't think Delia Sherman could be accused of sugar-coating the past. Perhaps passing Sophie off as a slave, and one instantly accepted and protected by the other, real field hands and servants, could be seen as making light of how life really was, but then again, this contrivance was inspired by a poster for a runaway slave who 'could pass as white'. Sensibilities aside, I loved the whole book, both the 1960s and 1860s settings, and only found the ending slightly rushed in comparison to the evocative scenery and vivid imagery packed into the rest of the story. show less

An amazingly good book! I very much liked how the time travel element was handled, and that it was not an easy transition to the past for the protagonist.

The slavery at the plantation was probably about as "good" as slavery could get, with a mistress who preferred not to have her slaves whipped. The book brings out that even with that, slavery is pretty horrific. One of the slaves comments, wisely, that the overseer's job was to bully and beat people so the mistress could remain kind.

It's worth noting that I am white, and that the author did have beta readers of color.

It's 1960, and thirteen-year-old Sophie is having a hard time living up to her mama's expectations. Sophie's mother is a Southern socialite, though recently divorced and now contemplating entering the workforce. While her mother attends school, Sophie is to be left at Oak Cottage with her aunt and grandmother. Oak Cottage is all that remains of the once-proud plantation that Sophie's mother's family has owned since the antebellum era. And, though Sophie's aunt is brusque and her grandmother imperious, Sophie enjoys the freedom of summertime, exploring the hedge maze and swimming in the bayou . . . until she meets an extremely strange little creature who whisks her through the hedge maze and back 100 years. Barefoot, sun-tanned, show more bedraggled, and strangely dressed, Sophie is taken for a slave by the 1860 residents of Oak River Plantation. It's assumed that a relative in New Orleans sent her to Oak River, and she is given a place as a house slave. At first Sophie hopes for a quick return to 1960, but as the days turn into weeks and then months, her life in the twentieth century fades in her memory, and she is caught up in the stories that unfold around her as she gets to know her ancestors from the perspective of the slaves who serve them. When a young slave woman is threatened by a young man who is courting the daughter of the family, will Sophie risk everything to help her escape? And will her efforts be enough?

I was completely wrapped up in this story. Sherman does a good job of creating nuanced characters, both in the slave quarters and in the big house. Both the 1860 story and the 1960 frame story are well-researched and have a ring of authenticity. The plot moves at the speed of a lazy Louisiana summer afternoon, but I felt that was all right for this book. Readers who enjoy historical fiction such as that written by Ann Rinaldi should give this story a try. show less

Friends, I’ve been looking forward to THE FREEDOM MAZE for simply ages. I added it to my wishlist shortly after THE FALL OF THE KINGS, Sherman’s 2002 collaboration with Ellen Kushner, convinced me to read everything she’d ever written. The wait was long--this book took Sherman eighteen years to write--but worthwhile.

The story follows Sophie, a young girl who’s been banished to her family’s ancestral plantation for the summer of 1960. Sophie’s unhappy about the move; not only is she still upset about her parents’ recent divorce, but she feels rejected by her mother and ill-used by her tyrannical grandmother. When she meets a strange creature straight out of one of the children’s fantasies she loves so much, she jumps at show more the chance to wish for a true family and friends who love her.

The creature complies by sending her back to 1860--where tanned, curly-haired Sophie is mistaken for the biracial illegitimate child of the family’s New Orleanian son, and is promptly enslaved by her many-times great grandmother.

The resulting story is slow, careful, and absolutely worth the time you’ll take with it. Sherman gradually develops both Sophie’s character and the family dynamic with which she lives. We spend a fair amount of time in Sophie’s present before we return to the past, a narrative choice that does slow the story down, yet makes the contrast all the stronger when she meets her ancestors and their slaves.

Her life in the past is much better than what many slaves endured, but that’s not to say it isn’t horrific. Her family no longer merely disregards her; they believe they own her and can dictate her every action. She is robbed of her autonomy. She can’t even reference her parents, as everyone who overhears her assumes she’s taking liberties in speaking of her white, wealthy father.

Sophie doesn’t make a fuss at first because she believes her stay in the past will only last a couple of weeks; however, this soon becomes her life in every sense. She’s so fully immersed in her slave’s role that she acquires false memories of her early life in 1850s New Orleans. She begins to doubt she was ever anything but someone’s property.

But even as her biological family treats her as a possession, she makes new connections among her fellow slaves. The bonds she forms with the large family that all but adopts her are stronger than those she shares with with her parents, aunt or grandmother back in 1960. Her close connection to them fulfills her wish and shows her the lie behind everything her birth family says about people of colour. She learns to judge people based on how they act, not what they look like.

She also learns that her white family and their slaves are far more entwined than her mother would have her believe. Sherman doesn’t go into great detail, since this is a book for young readers, but Sophie becomes aware of the horrific reality of slave rape, and of the many, many white fathers who refused to acknowledge their biracial children, let alone free them. It's sobering stuff, even for readers already well acquainted with these historical truths.

On a much lighter note, both adults and widely-read children will appreciate the many ties THE FREEDOM MAZE has to earlier works of children’s literature. There are clear parallels here with E. Nesbit’s FIVE CHILDREN AND IT, most notably between Sophie's creature and the Psammead, and I’m sure there are even more ties to THE TIME GARDEN by Edward Eager, which Sophie loves and often references. These elements, combined with Sherman’s prose style, render the book suitable for either young adults or mature members of the middle grade set. Big Mouth House states that their books are appropriate for readers ten or older, and I think that's fair.

This is quieter book, to be sure, but one not to be missed. I was almost at the end before I realized how deeply involved I'd become, and how strongly I felt for Sophie and her adopted family. It’s one of those books that crashes into you, all at once. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina. show less

I really liked this tale. A young girl, Sophie Fairchild Martineau, who is visiting her aunt at the now-shabby site of the once-prominent family's plantation, meets a mysterious creature who transports her back in time to the antebellum south, where she takes on the persona of the slave love-child of one Robert Fairchild - her ancestor! The plot is neatly put together - the creature needs Sophie to fill an historic role - but the details of life on a plantation as a young slave girl are what made the book engrossing for me. It wasn't the inhumanity of the slave-master relationship - we're all familiar with that, although The Freedom Maze did bring it to life - but the humanity of the slaves as they made do and managed their withering show more oppression with irony, gallows-humor and plain courage and grit. show less

The story is so dated I was surprised to see it was published in 2012. I guess I should commend the author for depicting the stereotypical southern belle lifestyle so well, but the 'helpless female' attitude began to grate on me.
Sophie has her own family troubles, and wishes she could live in another time and have adventures. Little does she know what that entails!
The plot of a white girl being mistaken for a slave might help turn readers assumptions upside down, which could be a good thing.