Free Bird [Paperback]

Greg Garrett (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An ex-lawyer travels from his small North Carolina hometown to New Mexico, where he comes to terms with his troubled past in Garrett's entertaining debut. When Clay Forester learns that his father, an artist living in Santa Fe, has just died, he is shocked, believing his absent dad had kicked the bucket a long time ago. But the news of his father's death rouses him from his lethargic existence playing in a mediocre bar band and maintaining a half-hearted relationship after losing his estranged wife and son in a tragic, alcohol-related accident and he sets out on a road trip to attend the funeral. The road trip comes with plenty of twists and turns, starting when the softhearted hero picks up a three-legged dog, then a hitchhiking Bible-thumper trying to make it back to California for his wife's surgery, and finally a troubled stripper with her young son in tow. Clay's adventures take yet another turn in Texas, where he meets a former law school colleague turned priest and protester, and the surprises continue to mount in New Mexico as he discovers his father's formidable legacy as an artist and local philanthropist. Garrett is a fine storyteller with a deft comic touch, and his compassion for his well-drawn characters shines through from start to finish. He gets a bit heavy-handed when he articulates Clay's epiphany, and with the subsequent reconciliations he engineers after describing the pivotal legal case that tore apart Forester's marriage, but overall this wide-ranging novel makes for a very enjoyable and occasionally thought-provoking read. Agent, Jill Grosjean. 5-city author tour.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758201400
• ISBN-13: 978-0758201409
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Garrett is the author of over a dozen critically-acclaimed books of fiction, memoir, translation, and criticism. His debut novel Free Bird was chosen by Publishers' Weekly and the Denver Rocky Mountain News as one of the top fiction debuts of 2002, and many have been moved by his autobiographical writing on depression and faith, Crossing Myself and No Idea, but he is probably best known for his books on religion, politics, and culture. These works include One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter, We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2, Stories from the Edge: A Theology of Grief, Holy Superheroes!, The Gospel According to Hollywood, and The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix (with Chris Seay). His newest book is The Other Jesus, a personal work of theology examining how to be a thoughtful and faithful follower of Jesus in the 21st Century. You may have heard (or read) him talking about religion, politics, and culture in the media. His work has been covered by The New Yorker, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Radio, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, msnbc.com, The Bob Edwards Show, The National Review, Commonweal, and many other broadcast, print, and web venues.

Greg writes a weekly column on religion and politics, Faithful Citizenship, for Patheos (http://patheos.com), blogs on religion and culture for The Thoughtful Christian (http://blog.thethoughtfulchristian.com) and blogs for the Christian Century (http://theotherjesus.com). In addition to his ongoing work in fiction, he is currently doing thinking, research, and writing for book projects on post-9/11 literature and culture, American religion and politics, and Christian wisdom traditions. Greg is an award-winning Professor of English at Baylor University, Writer in Residence at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest and at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Wales, and a licensed lay preacher based at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas.

He lives in Austin with his two sons, Jake and Chandler. His heroes include Martin Luther King, Barbara Jordan, Henry David Thoreau, Robert F. Kennedy, Desmond Tutu, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. His favorite authors include Lee Smith, Walker Percy, Graham Greene, Nick Hornby, Barbara Brown Taylor (are you really still reading this?), Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Merton, Rowan Williams, and Anne Lamott. His favorite color is blue (No, yellow!), he plays Taylor GS-7, Fender Stratocaster, and Epiphone Casino guitars, and he likes both green and red chile on his blue corn enchiladas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make time to read this book, April 3, 2002

By 

Jill (Sag Harbor, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Bird (Hardcover)

Reading Greg Garrett's novel FREE BIRD is like taking a journey with an old friend. He brings you into his life, and asks nothing of you but to listen to his story. A story so full of universal appeal that it can speak to every reader regardless of age or gender. It is ultimately a story of redemption; of how men can get lost when life, when love, fails them. Yet it also speaks to women -- how we fight for the men we love, for our children, for the life that feels right. FREE BIRD reminds us that we can have a second (or third or fourth) chance at the life we so desperately want if only we're willing to allow the past to remain just that -- the past. FREE BIRD is one of those rare books that will remain with you for a long, long time.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Elegant, engrossing, entertaining, and enjoyable, May 9, 2002

By 

"rvega122068" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Bird (Hardcover)

Mr. Garrett has given us a wonderful gift of a first book. The effortless, relaxed writing style is a pleasure to read on its own merits, let alone for the excellent story and characters. It's been a long time since I've come across a character as sympathetic and likeable as Clay Forester. His journey -- both across the country and through his wounded heart -- is a compelling, deeply moving one. I can't remember the last time I read a book that made me laugh and then want to cry all on the same page as Free Bird did on more than one occasion. Read this book and then pass it on to your friends. Better yet, buy it for them. Mr. Garrett deserves all the rewards he gets!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A review by one of Garrett's students, March 26, 2002

By 

Roger D Metcalf (Waco, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Bird (Hardcover)

There is an excellent mix of character/personality types in this novel, and they all bring something new to the story. Garrett definitely feels for all his characters, and you can tell in this book that he really poured his heart out into all of them, in the search for their humanity.

What Garrett is best at is creating the world and the story-- all of which come across as entirely realistic-- What Garrett has always helped me with, was knowing what to cut, and knowing what to keep, and this intrinsic understanding of Garrett makes for a clean, well thought-out prose which moves along nicely, and delivers the story in such a way that you are left with a good understanding as to what has just occurred, and where to go with your own life from there.

As a musician myself, I couldn't help but laugh at the numerous musical references in this novel, and the ways he tells some of the more well-known "Spinal-Tap-esque" jokes in new ways.

And one definitely gets the feel of being an on-the-road musician with Clay, the 1974-Les Paul player who refuses to play Skynard...