Customer Reviews

Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant

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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

'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.

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.

Michelle Cliff has an uncanny ability to make the reader feel the characters' emotions. This book is definitely not for the passive reader, but for those who want to walk away enlightened and changed, which is what good historical fiction is meant to do. While this novel doesn't shy away from depicting the brutality and horror of slavery and oppression, Cliff creates two strong female leaders who defy the restrictions placed on them and rise above their circumstances.