''Free Live Free'' is a novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, first published in 1984.

Plot

Mr. Free has a house which is slated for demolition. He puts an ad in a newspaper advertising free living quarters to anyone who helps him find a mysterious lost object hidden in the house. Four strangers (a mystic, a private eye, a prostitute, and a salesman) arrive.

Publishing history

The novel was initially published as a limited edition small press item in 1984, then mass market published by Gollancz in 1985. In 1999, it was republished by

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

, with an appendix intended to "untangle some of the more serpentine elements of the plot."Manic intensity rivals the Marx Brothers: 'Free Live Free', by Gene Wolfe
at

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

; by L.D. Meagher; published August 3, 1999

Reception

In ''

Starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...

'', David Langford called ''Free Live Free'' a "fine, delightful book", while emphasizing that it is ultimately "unclassifiable". Dave Langford reviewed ''Free Live Free'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'' #71, and stated that "the final surprises aren't even the kind of surprises anticipated. I refuse to say more. It's a breath of fresh air. Read it." ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' described it as "an uneasy, lurching mix of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery", stated that the conclusion was "a bust", and asked why Wolfe "can't put together a book that fully convinces and satisfies." At the SF Site,

Jean-Louis Trudel Jean-Louis Trudel (born 1967) is a Canadian science fiction writer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and has lived in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal before moving to Quebec City, Quebec in 2010. He teaches history part-time at the Unive ...

called it "deeply engaging", with "a compassion not always evident in Wolfe's other books", but felt that its conclusion was "a bit of a letdown", with certain revelations and explanations being "not entirely persuasive".Free Live Free
by

, at the SF Site; published 1999; retrieved June 15, 2014

states that it is "outrageous", "ingenious", "highly entertaining", and "masterful", but concedes that the ending is not only "contrived", but "confusing", and that only "Wolfe's mastery of the written word" prevents the novel from being entirely

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

References

{{Gene Wolfe American science fiction novels 1984 science fiction novels 1984 American novels