Free Fall [Hardcover]

William Golding (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: London; Faber & Faber; 1959;; Second printing edition (1959)
• ASIN: B000UE02Q8
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,176,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Cornwall, England, William Golding started writing at the age of seven. Though he studied natural sciences at Oxford to please his parents, he also studied English and published his first book, a collection of poems, before finishing college. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, participating in the Normandy invasion. Golding's other novels include Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, The Free Fall, Pincher Martin, The Double Tongue, and Rites of Passage, which won the Booker Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, October 17, 2000

By 

A. Temple "fiber_optiq" (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Free Fall (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

This is one of the most beautifully-written books I've read. There are only maybe two or three moments where every word is not perfect. It's like reading poetry, only it lasts for the entire length of a novel. Furthermore, everything that Mountjoy describes, tangents though they may seem, fits perfectly into our understanding of his character. And, to top it all off, the last sentence is one of the least predictable I've ever seen.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars . . . turning freedom outside-in . . ., November 2, 2000

By 

Jonathan Stone (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Fall (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

Here is a mind-boggler of literary art. Golding takes you in--in through the portals of the main character's mind. And then the true adventure begins. This is an exploration on the theme of freedom lost, which goes into an existential search, taking you through a labyrinth of broodings and memories deep, deep within the psyche, and in the end you (together with the protagonist) will experience something stirring and substantial. It is the turning of freedom outside-in, and in and in and in, and then out again. Just read one chapter. That's all it will take to enter uncharted territory.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars General Irrational Fear, October 16, 2010

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Free Fall (Paperback)

Samuel Mountjoy is an artist. Does it matter if he is a Christian, a Marxist, a rationalist? He is the narrator. Samuel doesn't know his father. His mother bets on horses and drinks. She is enormous. He doesn't dislike dirt, begins school barefoot, and his house is in the vicinity of the area called Rotten Row. It is a slum.

Sam's escort to the infant school, Evie, is more interesting than the school. (Later things change. There are housing estates and tellies.) Sammy and Johnny Spragg play at the airfield. The kids are caught and police action is threatened. They are chased from a hill where there is a general's house. The narrator carries around with him a load of memories. It seems that Johnny and Sam are bullies, but the third pal, Philip,

is not necessarily a victim. He can run fast, for one thing.

When Sam is hospitalized for a mastoid operation, his mother dies. This is a case of happenstance. Next Sam, now in foster care, is nineteen years old, attending art school, and in love with Beatrice Ifor, a model. Sam and Philip draw Beatrice. They are Communists. In the party there is generosity, martyrdom, and a sense of purpose.

Beings of awful power determine the fate of some of the characters in this interesting, Dickens-like book.