About halfway through this book, I didn't like any of the characters
very much. But by the end, although I'm not sure I would have liked any
of them any more, I kind of loved them. The first half of the book
dwells so much on the Berglunds' foibles, on the ways they drive each
other away and grate on each other and don't say the things that need to
be said.
And yet, as the book goes on, more and more is revealed
of why, of the issues standing in the way, and the ways that they
truly, awkwardly and often badly try to overcome divisions that have
torn their family apart. The characters who know what they want to do
with their lives flounder in excess, and those who don't flounder in
confusion. No one knows what to do with the freedom they have to live
their lives the way they want, and yet, by the end, some of them have
figured it out. And the answers have tended to be small.
Along
the way, there are some digs at people who want to Change The World, in
ways I was uncomfortable with, but lots of love for people who are
trying to figure out how to change their own worlds to become places
where they can live and work.
Work is an important issue -
finding it, avoiding it, taking on morally suspect jobs for money, or a
cause, with good intentions or mercenary ones.
I didn't adore Freedom. But I did enjoy it, in the end. It was just in the middle I was a little uneasy.
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