Cates’s third novel (after Hunger in America and X Out of Wonderland) is a gritty, sweeping work of historical fiction, written in the first person, about the adventures of Freeman Walker (aka Jimmy Gates), a cherished mulatto child born to a black slave woman and a married white farmer in 1840s Maryland.

When Freeman turns seven, his wise and caring father makes his only son a “free man” with papers and sends him to a British boarding school. When his education in England ends several years later, Freeman finds himself in a Dickensian situation. At age 18, he returns to America, hoping to fight as a heroic Civil War soldier and also to find his mother. However, he soon flees the horror of battle and heads west.

How he copes with his roller-coaster destiny is a testament to his strength of spirit and to his father’s guiding conviction that “we do not live for ourselves.” Contending with his mixed heritage and later with becoming crippled, Freeman exhibits a sharpened outlook concerning human nature.

The novel’s other characters are sometimes likable and sometimes not, but all are originals. Recommended for larger fiction collections.—Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ