Born Free

By Laura Hird

Book Overview

Punchy, acerbic, sharp-witted and above-all, acutely observed, Born Free tells the story of an ordinary family who are all trying to escape from something - and each other. The interactions between Jake, Joni, Angie and Vic reveal a hellish cocktail of asdolescent and mid-life crises; the savagery of sibling rivalry; the waking nightmare of a marriage gone cold - and, naturally, the unbridgeable, infernal chasm between the generations. It's a story of everyday life. SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2000 BOOK OF THE YEAR - THE FACE '99 NOMINATED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841950483
• ISBN13: 9781841950488
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Mining the Depths of Family Misery

As she did in many of her short stories in the collection entitled NAIL, Laura Hird has once again mined the depths of a dysfunctional family. Vic and Angie, a bus driver and bookie's assistant respectively, have two kids, Joni, 15, and Jake, 14, neither of whom is happy. The story of this family, who live in Edinburgh, Scotland, is told from all four characters' points of view, and Hird captures their voices perfectly. Jake's longings, Joni's petulance and savagery, their mother's alcoholic binges and affair, and their father's resignation to his empty life are all rendered flawlessly.The prose is energetic and cutting; the story, by turns, ugly and bleak. But the novel is also darkly comic, rising up into moments of hilarity. You can't resist laughing while at the same time feeling appalled and uncomfortable by the events and attitudes of the characters.Hird's take on this Scottish family is a frightening look at the characters' failure to connect with one another, to escape their dismal situations, or to even imagine rising above the circumstances they face. They are alienated, angry, and unable to see any alternative solutions. In that way, there is a universality in the theme Hird is illuminating: that of the desperation and lack of hope some families face and the destruction and misery that follows in their wake. ~Lori L. Lake, Midwest Book Review

Sad but True

I first came across Laura Hird through her story "The Dilating Pupil" in the Children of Albion Rovers collection. In this, her first novel, she tells the depressing story of a wreck of a family living in Edinburgh. The chapters alternate between the voices of Vic, Angie, Jonie, and Jake (father, mother, 15-year-old, and 14-year-old), as they each seek escape from the shell of domestic life. Vic and Angie are going through agonizing midlife crises and a marriage that's totally dead. He's a bus driver on Prozac struggling to be decent and win the love of his family, she's a bitter, contemptuous bookie's assistant who's having a blast falling off the wagon. Meanwhile, their two teenagers are caught up in their own selfish angst of sex, friendships, drugs, and avoiding their parents. The book is like a Mike Leigh film, brilliantly put together, but totally depressing. There are many moments of humor and recognition throughout, but ultimately there's not a whole lot of hope to be found anywhere. Given how awful the women act, it's hard to imagine a man being able to write this book without getting attacked as a misogynist. In any event, Hird's obviously got loads of talent, and this book should put her right there with her male Scottish peers like Welsh, Warner, McLean, Legge, and the like.