He’s taking a dangerous path in search of his missing granddaughter—the only part of his life worth saving.Oliver Cross is fresh out of jail. His plans for the future are to live out his days in regret, back pain, and a bottle of Lone Star. But when he finds out his granddaughter, a wild child who reminds him of his late wife, has vanished—bless her hell-raising heart—Oliver jumps parole. With a … jumps parole. With a sketchy teen and an abandoned dog, he hits the blacktop to find her.
On the road and on the run from a vengeful Russian drug dealer, Oliver finds himself on a trip across America and into his own past, fueled by fumes from a Ford F-250 and a reason to live. But from an exclusive club in Chicago to a seedy commune in the Rockies, a series of disastrous choices sends Oliver spiraling further from his goal and deeper into danger. It’s a journey that could all end in redemption or a hail of bullets. And either’s okay by him.
more
DNF – I go to the 35% mark when I decided I’d had enough of this story. Leftover hippie and refugee from the 60’s, Oliver Cross, gets out of jail for the assisted suicide of his wife of 40+yrs, who was dying of cancer. His snobby, yuppie son wants nothing to do with him and blames him for killing mom. Gramps then decides to go and try to find his Adderall/Ativan/Oxy addited granddaughter who’s run off with her drug dealing BF who has consequently stolen a bunch of drugs from the Russian mob.
Nevermind that Gramps is violating probation by leaving the state, “he’s never going back to prison”. This story was going nowhere and is bound to end badly for all even the dog Gramps stole from the drug dealing BF. Good grief!!! I’ve got waaayyy too many other books on my “to read” list that I’d rather be reading.
This is the first book by William Lashner I have read. I assure you, it will not be the last. Oliver is a marvelous creation. Brutally honest, not only with others but with himself. Having lost my dear wife a little over a year ago, I freely admit the ending made me weep.
Very slow read. I was disappointed and never finished this book.
What is freedom? This is an interesting read about a man and his family. The beginning was a bit slow (I almost deleted it) and the end was odd but the middle was mostly entertaining. I kept imagining Clint Eastwood being cast as the grandfather.
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.
You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere. – Ursula K. LeGuin
Oliver Cross was in his first year of law school when, in 1968 in Chicago, he attends a peace demonstration with a friend and his life changes forever. After his brother is killed in Vietnam, he leaves the life planned for him by his father, searches out the woman he loves, and heads to the hills.
Fifty years later he has become an embittered old man, alienated from his family for choices he made, when he learns his oldest granddaughter is missing.
And this is the story of his search for her and his journey back in time (figuratively).
I loved Oliver’s character. The author shows him as a complex man with a storied past. All the characters are well-drawn, not necessarily likeable, but we’ll-drawn.
The story takes us from the East coast towards the West coast, from dreary drug houses to a commune in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies.
This is a story of the good and bad in people, the weak and strong, and it’s well worth reading.
I received this book from Amazon Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.