Go With Me: A Novel (P.S.)

By: Castle Freeman

Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley

A young woman recently relocated to a tiny Vermont logging town, Lillian is menaced by a mysterious stalker named Blackway. This one man - who kills her cat, forces her boyfriend to flee the state in terror, and silently threatens her very existence - is a force little understood by the local figures to whom she turns for help. Yet, in this spare and powerful tale, Lillian enlists the powerful brute Nate and the curmudgeonly Lester to take the fight to her tormenter as a raggedy quartet of town elders ponders her likely fate.

With simple strength and extraordinary force, Go With Me is a riveting modern fable of good provoked to resist evil.

©2008 Castle Freeman Jr. (P)2011 Steerforth Press LLC

Critic reviews

"A gripping, taut tale of suspense.... a spare, tense novel set within the desolation and desperation of the Vermont woods.... That things will eventually turn violent is a given. Even before a punch is thrown or a shot is fired, the dread is as thick as maple syrup. Freeman, a perceptive, enticing writer, isn't bloodthirsty. When violence erupts, it's sharp and succinct. Still, this isn't some heady novel about violence or its various consequences. It's about an America - insular and self-defined - that exists beyond the media's gaze. These are hard people, but they're also infused with humor, humanity, and a sense of right and wrong.... Go With Me is a gem that sparkles with sly insight and cuts like a knife." ( The Boston Globe)

"Like its young heroine, Lillian, Freeman's trim powerhouse is a pistol.... Freeman's beautifully cadenced dialogue is rich with humor, philosophic depth and a near-mythic sensibility." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not Worth the Time

Would you try another book from Castle Freeman and/or Steven Roy Grimsley?

Probably not. This book was a large disappointment. The reason I downloaded it was because of a favorable review on NPR. It did not live up to it's review at all.

What could Castle Freeman have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I found the dialog plodding, tedious and uninteresting. The only thing Freeman could do is to learn how to write dialog. characters repeating the same words back and forth to one another is third grade quality writing. character 1: He did it ; character 2: Yes he did ; character 3 Yep, that's what happened ; character 1 : That's what I said ; character 3: Yep, he sure did it ; character 2: Never thought he'd do it ; character 1: Oh I knew he'd do it ; character 2: Yep, you did ; reader: shoot me now.....

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Steven Roy Grimsley?

Grimsley wasn't to bad given that he didn't have a lot to work worth.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disapointment. I stayed with it because I kept waiting for it to get better. A waste of time.