Run Wild, Run Free
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Growing up in a 1950s mining village in the English midlands is hard for someone like Joey, who's known he was different since he was a kid. All he wants to do is run wild on the hills, watching nature and indulging his love of art. All his parents want is for him to settle down: marriage, a home of his own, a steady job down the mine, and not so much as a whiff of art college. But none of that appeals to him.
Everything changes the summer he turns eighteen, when the travellers come to town. They're here for the local farmer's beet harvest, but the villagers resent them and Joe's mam won't even let him speak to them. Dirty, lazy, good-for-nothing layabouts, she calls them. But when Joe meets Billy on the hill behind the village, the man isn't dirty at all, just good-looking, good-humoured and surprisingly kind. Best of all, Billy shares his love of the natural world.
Unbeknown to his family the two become friends, and then more than friends. But when the farmer's barn burns down and Joe's brother Rob puts the blame on Billy, Joe must decide whether to stay loyal to his family, or grow up fast and risk everything he's familiar with to help the man he's come to love.
Customer Reviews
WORTH THE READ!!
Joseph ‘Joey’ Cooper has turned eighteen and his family has forgotten his birthday. He’s felt that he no longer has a place in his family, in fact he feels invisible. He lives with his Mam and Dad, older brother Rob and sisters Meg and Molly and a baby on the way. As much as he get’s treated like a child, he still does his chores that help keep the home running. Joey didn’t do well in school except for biology and art. He loved to draw but there was no money for Joey to go to college to take art. He was destined to work in the mine, like his brother and father and grandfather. But working in the mine was not for him. When Joey was done with his chores he loved to spend time on the hill overlooking the hustle and bustle and noise of the village. He loved nature, it was quiet and he loved being alone, where there was no one always talking at him.
One day when he went to the village with his Mam. He sees a group of people that his mother called “gypsies”. She warned Joey to stay away from these dirty, lazy, good for nothing gypsies. But Joey saw them differently, they were colorful, fun, filled with laughter, especially one dark haired, young man that caught his eye. That afternoon, after his chores were done, Joey headed for the hill and continued to think about the young man he saw. He dozed off while lying in the grass, until he was kicked. Looking up he couldn’t believe he was seeing the gypsy man.
The young Irishman, Billy Doyle, brings something new into Joey’s life. It’s not just a friendship but a special chemistry grows between them. Billy introduces Joey to a life of traveling, working in the fields and how a man can live on his own and take care of himself. But he also tells of the hardships and harsh treatment of being a gypsy.
As their relationship grows, there comes trouble. Joey will have to dig deep and find the courage to stand-up for what is right.
Fiona Glass brings her own version of a small village in England in the 1950’s. I highly suggest reading “Author’s Note” that explains the sources she used to create this wonderful and at times sad, coming of age story. The author also gives clarification to the word gypsy and the stigma that it reflects in this story.
I really felt for Joey as he had low-self esteem and even had dark thoughts. He thought he didn’t know how to take care of himself, when in essence he did. Just doing the chores and even taking care of the family when his Mam got ill, shows that he knew how to be responsible. I don’t want to say his parents were mentally abusive, but it was just the time and place and how things were for them. They treated Joey like a child and then thought he should marry and move out. It was more like he was a burden because he was different. No matter how he was treated he struggled with the loyalty he had for his family.
As for Billy Doyle, he showed Joey how to really come alive and live the life that he wanted.
“Run Wild Run Free” may be a short story but Fiona Glass packed it with lot’s of emotions and so many things to think about. Well, worth the read!