Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant [Paperback]

Michelle Cliff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

In 1858, two black women meet at a restaurant and begin to plot a revolution. Mary Ellen Pleasant owns a string of hotels in San Francisco that secretly double as havens for runaway slaves. Her comrade, Annie, is a young Jamaican who has given up her life of privilege to fight for the abolitionist cause. Together they join John Brown’s doomed enterprise and barely escape with their lives.

With mesmerizing skill, Cliff weaves a multitude of voices into a gripping, poignant story of the struggle for liberation that began not long after the first slaves landed on America’s shores.

Michelle Cliff is the author of No Telephone to Heaven, among other books of fiction, and a forthcoming essay collection, Apocalypso. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cliff's acclaimed novel centers around the life of 19th-century civil rights activist Mary Ellen Pleasant.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-The lives of American women in the mid 1800s and early 1900s are vividly portrayed in this challenging montage of stories that centers on two fictional collaborators in John Brown's failed raid. Mary Ellen Pleasant is a cigar-smoking feminist who rises above race and gender, escapes to San Francisco after Brown's defeat at Harper's Ferry, and continues to use her significant influence to work toward integration. Annie Christmas is a privileged Jamaican who flees her plantation home to join the Cause and is captured by a Confederate chain gang. Her spirit is broken, and after the war she retreats to the isolation of a leper colony. The struggles of other women are richly described in this brilliant mosaic of mystery and myth. Eccentric Alice Hooper, who would do nothing more for the Cause than apologize, provides insight into the wealthy society of the day as does the story of unstable Clover Adams, whose statue still weeps in a Washington cemetery. Not every reader will recognize the historical, artistic, and literary allusions, but those who put forth the effort will be rewarded with a deeper understanding of the history of feminism, racism, and civil rights.
Jackie Gropman, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers; First Edition edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872864375
• ISBN-13: 978-0872864375
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #821,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michelle Cliff was born in Jamaica and is the author of two previous novels, No Telephone to Heaven and Abeng; a collection of short stories, and two poetry collections. Her fiction, poetry, and esays have appeared in numerous publications, including Parnassus and the VLS.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Regrets, December 22, 2004

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant (Paperback)

Most of us have heard of John Brown and his unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry. But how many of us have heard of Mary Ellen Pleasant? Mary Ellen Pleasant was a civil rights leader before there was an official movement, yet she is often omitted from history books. In FREE ENTERPRISE Michelle Cliff uses a mixture of historical fact and fiction to create a complex tale that highlights the life of this often overlooked phenomenal woman.

The book takes place in the mid 1800's and focuses on the lives of Mary Ellen Pleasant, a wealthy hotelier from California, and Annie Christmas, a young Jamaican who left her home to make a life in the United States. In addition, special attention is paid to the relationship the two women shared and their involvement in the abolitionist movement. The story is not told in a linear fashion; instead the author takes readers back and forth in time. In addition, the story is told from through the voices of several different characters in a series of vignettes. The result is a complex and richly detailed story told with a strong literary flair.

I thoroughly enjoyed FREE ENTERPRISE; it is a thought-provoking and enjoyable tale. It is a weighty read, and requires full attention and thought. As Michelle Cliff alternates from time to time, place to place, and voice to voice, she provides intricate details that when woven together result in a powerful tale. I particularly loved the fact that all of the major characters in the book were women, and that the author depicted them as strong, intelligent and well-rounded, especially considering the time period in which the story took place. FREE ENTERPRISE is a well-written, literary read with strong female characters, and a pleasant mixture of history and creativity. This is the kind of book you could read several times and each time take something new away; definitely a story to savor.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Catch it if you can, May 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Free Enterprise: A Novel (Paperback)

'Free Enterprise' is fabulous. There are many counterpoints in this novel which is filled with historical reconstructions. Catch this novel if you can, as soon as you can. It offers almost a perfect balance between historicity and creativity.

If you have some literary theory behind you then the novel is particularly suited to a postcolonial readng.

so you'll want to read the novel several times so as not to miss anything.

The novel presents a perfect balance between historicity and creativity. Catch it if you can.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs more MEP & plot, May 3, 2011

By 

Jessica Jenkins (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant (Paperback)

I found out about Mary Ellen Pleasant on a San Francisco historical tour. She sounded like a fascinating person, and I was eager to learn more. Unfortunately, I found this book pretty disappointing. A few of my beefs:
1. Despite the subtitle, Mary Ellen Pleasant is a relatively minor character in the book. Considerably more space is devoted to Annie, a different fictional (I think) character. Pleasant's (short) wikipedia article contains more information and gives a better picture of who she was than this entire book.
2. Pretty lacking in the plot department, which seems unusual for historical fiction.
3. The modern writing style & turns of phrase seemed jarring in a book set in 1850-1920. A skilled wordsmith may have made it work, but I was not impressed by the prose.

Perhaps Cliff was going for something along the lines of Toni Morrison's Beloved -- a meditation on slavery inspired by a historical figure. But Toni Morrison she is not, and this book does not do justice to a person as intriguing as Mary Ellen Pleasant.