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Freedomland by Richard Price
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Freedomland (original 1998; edition 1999)

by Richard Price (Author)

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7371130,392 (3.51)14
The celebrated author of Clockers delivers his most compelling and accomplished novel to date. A white woman, her hands gashed and bloody, stumbles into an inner-city emergency room and announces that she has just been carjacked by a black man. But then comes the horrifying twist: Her young son was asleep in the back seat, and he has now disappeared into the night. So begins Richard Price's electrifying new novel, a tale set on the same turf--Dempsey, New Jersey--as Clockers. Assigned to investigate the case of Brenda Martin's missing child is detective Lorenzo Council, a local son of the very housing project targeted as the scene of the crime. Under a white-hot media glare, Lorenzo launches an all-out search for the abducted boy, even as he quietly explores a different possibility: Does Brenda Martin know a lot more about her son's disappearance than she's admitting? Right behind Lorenzo is Jesse Haus, an ambitious young reporter from the city's evening paper. Almost immediately, Jesse suspects Brenda of hiding something. Relentlessly, she works her way into the distraught mother's fragile world, befriending her even as she looks for the chance to break the biggest story of her career. As the search for the alleged carjacker intensifies, so does the simmering racial tension between Dempsey and its mostly white neighbor, Gannon. And when the Gannon police arrest a black man from Dempsey and declare him a suspect, the animosity between the two cities threatens to boil over into violence. With the media swarming and the mood turning increasingly ugly, Lorenzo must take desperate measures to get to the bottom of Brenda Martin's story. At once a suspenseful mystery and a brilliant portrait of two cities locked in a death-grip of explosive rage, Freedomland reveals the heart of the urban American experience--dislocated, furious, yearning--as never before. Richard Price has created a vibrant, gut-wrenching masterpiece whose images will remain long after the final, devastating pages. From the Hardcover edition.… (more)
Member:Kakiyama
Title:Freedomland
Authors:Richard Price (Author)
Info:Dell (1999), Edition: Reissue, 736 pages
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Freedomland by Richard Price (1998)

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» See also 14 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 11 (next | show all)
I got the one with the playground swing on the cover, but I'm sure it's the same. Got it at a yard sale on a five for $2 deal- Score! At 700+ pages it's going to take a while to read!
  therestlessmouse | Nov 28, 2023 |
This is a good well written novel but I think goes on a bit.
Main character is Lorenzo Council who is Police officer in fictitious town of Dempsey New Jersey, Mainly Black Housing project sits next door to Gannon the mostly White area.
He is in charge of finding a kidnapped boy called Cody. His Mother Brenda says she was car jacked and her son was taken. Lorenzo feels he needs to tread carefully here. He also enlists the help rather reluctantly of a reporter called Jesse she befriends and helps Brenda.
There is lots or Racial tension that is ready to implode at anytime.
People offer to help Brenda find her son she isnt to bothered really with their offer help.
Later Brenda confesses she found Cody dead at home he took to much medicine then she with the help of Billy Wiliams she was having an affair with buried his body in wasteland that used to be an old themepark.
There is a riot once Brenda is arrested. (She made up a story about a black man stealing her son)
Brenda is convicted she goes to jail she kills herself. Sad really.
Lorenzo and Jesse become quite good friends. Good strong characters with lots of background. ( )
  Daftboy1 | Dec 11, 2022 |
The first page-turner I've read this year, Freedomland follows a police detective and an up-and-coming reporter on the frontlines of a racially charged kidnapping case in a poor New Jersey town. Price's characters are well-drawn (I could read another 3 books with Council and Haus bouncing off of each other), and the plot almost never lets up. I gave Price's other novel Lush Life five stars last year - Freedomland is so good that I feel like I might have to knock Lush Life down to four. ( )
  skolastic | Feb 2, 2021 |
I book that I found slow moving at first, but realized that it is just deep. A mystery wrapped up in a psychological thriller. A over seven hundred pages it's a marathon read, but feels more like a middle distance race, the pages fly by. ( )
  charlie68 | Aug 14, 2014 |
Freedomland is a "ripped from the headlines" story from 1998 obviously based on the Susan Smith story of 1994. Brenda Martin zombie walks to a hospital with bleeding hands and tells police she was carjacked in the projects by a black man and her son was in the car. It's obvious from the start that she's lying. But detective Lorenzo Counsel and reporter Jessie take turns babysitting her and keeping her from self-destructing while trying to get her to tell the truth.

I listened to the audio version, not realizing I had checked out the abridged version until part way through. But now that I know the book was over 700 pages, I'm glad I had the abridged version. I don't think I could have taken a lot more of Brenda's quiet suffering and non-cooperation.

I was really into the book at the beginning, but the characters seemed to become stereotypical partway into the book. I didn't like the cop out ending. I thought, "Are you serious?" I'm wondering if something was lost in the abridgment. ( )
1 vote bohemiangirl35 | Apr 10, 2011 |
Showing 1-5 of 11 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Richard Priceprimary authorall editionscalculated
Morton, JoeNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou will not despise.
Psalms 51:17
Dedication
To Judy, Annie, and Gen
with all my love
First words
The Convoy brothers, hanging in the soupy stifle of the One Building breezeway, were probably the first to spot her, and the spectral sight seemed to have frozen them in postures of alert curiosity-Caprice, sprawled down low...
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (2)

The celebrated author of Clockers delivers his most compelling and accomplished novel to date. A white woman, her hands gashed and bloody, stumbles into an inner-city emergency room and announces that she has just been carjacked by a black man. But then comes the horrifying twist: Her young son was asleep in the back seat, and he has now disappeared into the night. So begins Richard Price's electrifying new novel, a tale set on the same turf--Dempsey, New Jersey--as Clockers. Assigned to investigate the case of Brenda Martin's missing child is detective Lorenzo Council, a local son of the very housing project targeted as the scene of the crime. Under a white-hot media glare, Lorenzo launches an all-out search for the abducted boy, even as he quietly explores a different possibility: Does Brenda Martin know a lot more about her son's disappearance than she's admitting? Right behind Lorenzo is Jesse Haus, an ambitious young reporter from the city's evening paper. Almost immediately, Jesse suspects Brenda of hiding something. Relentlessly, she works her way into the distraught mother's fragile world, befriending her even as she looks for the chance to break the biggest story of her career. As the search for the alleged carjacker intensifies, so does the simmering racial tension between Dempsey and its mostly white neighbor, Gannon. And when the Gannon police arrest a black man from Dempsey and declare him a suspect, the animosity between the two cities threatens to boil over into violence. With the media swarming and the mood turning increasingly ugly, Lorenzo must take desperate measures to get to the bottom of Brenda Martin's story. At once a suspenseful mystery and a brilliant portrait of two cities locked in a death-grip of explosive rage, Freedomland reveals the heart of the urban American experience--dislocated, furious, yearning--as never before. Richard Price has created a vibrant, gut-wrenching masterpiece whose images will remain long after the final, devastating pages. From the Hardcover edition.

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