Overview
Luke McHenry loves baseball. After repeated disappointments, he is determined to make the All Star team. Then his mother makes an explosive confession: 31 years ago she was involved in an antiVietnam War protest that went horribly wrong, and a student was killed. Mom has been in hiding ever since, but now she is ready to turn herself in. While her whole life in Alaska has been a masquerade, for Luke it is his only reality. Suddenly, everything—from the baseball season to his very identity—is in jeopardy.
As Luke witnesses his mother’s struggle to face up to the mistakes of her youth, he begins to understand his own hopes and fears—and who he really is. Free Radical is both a contemporary coming-of-age story and a moving depiction of a parent’s guilt and need for forgiveness.
In Fairbanks, Alaska, in the middle of the summer Little League baseball season, fifteen-year-old Luke is stunned when his mother confesses that she is wanted by the FBI for her role in the death of a student during an anti-Vietnam War protest thirty years ago.
Synopsis
Luke McHenry loves baseball. After repeated disappointments, he is determined to make the All Star team. Then his mother makes an explosive confession: 31 years ago she was involved in an anti–Vietnam War protest that went horribly wrong, and a student was killed. Mom has been in hiding ever since, but now she is ready to turn herself in. While her whole life in Alaska has been a masquerade, for Luke it is his only reality. Suddenly, everything—from the baseball season to his very identity—is in jeopardy.
As Luke witnesses his mother’s struggle to face up to the mistakes of her youth, he begins to understand his own hopes and fears—and who he really is. Free Radical is both a contemporary coming-of-age story and a moving depiction of a parent’s guilt and need for forgiveness.
Publishers Weekly
A 15-year-old boy in contemporary Alaska discovers that his mom is a fugitive, hiding out from the FBI because of her part in an anti-Vietnam War protest at Berkeley that accidentally killed a college student. Luke is even more upset to learn that she plans to turn herself in; she has been wracked with guilt for years but, widowed while pregnant with Luke, she felt bound to care for her son. Now that she has remarried and Luke is a teenager, she arranges a plea bargain that will involve a prison sentence. Luke, who has conveniently seen a television segment about victim-offender mediation (wherein criminals and their victims meet and talk for the purpose of achieving emotional closure), feels inspired by his new friendship with Amy, who has been through similar mediation herself. Amy was paralyzed when a drunk driver hit her, but she and her family have forgiven the driver. Luke prompts his mother and her attorney to meet the relatives of the boy whose death she helped cause. Murphy's (Gold Star Sister) research is evident her descriptions of a prison visit, for example, brim with detail. Her storytelling, however, relies frequently on coincidence (e.g., Amy moves to northern California shortly before Luke and his mother go there for her court appearance) and contrivance (Luke speculates, hollowly, on parallels between a raucous game of paintball and military combat). Earnest but ultimately artificial. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
A 15-year-old boy in contemporary Alaska discovers that his mom is a fugitive, hiding out from the FBI because of her part in an anti-Vietnam War protest at Berkeley that accidentally killed a college student. Luke is even more upset to learn that she plans to turn herself in; she has been wracked with guilt for years but, widowed while pregnant with Luke, she felt bound to care for her son. Now that she has remarried and Luke is a teenager, she arranges a plea bargain that will involve a prison sentence. Luke, who has conveniently seen a television segment about victim-offender mediation (wherein criminals and their victims meet and talk for the purpose of achieving emotional closure), feels inspired by his new friendship with Amy, who has been through similar mediation herself. Amy was paralyzed when a drunk driver hit her, but she and her family have forgiven the driver. Luke prompts his mother and her attorney to meet the relatives of the boy whose death she helped cause. Murphy's (Gold Star Sister) research is evident her descriptions of a prison visit, for example, brim with detail. Her storytelling, however, relies frequently on coincidence (e.g., Amy moves to northern California shortly before Luke and his mother go there for her court appearance) and contrivance (Luke speculates, hollowly, on parallels between a raucous game of paintball and military combat). Earnest but ultimately artificial. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.From The Critics
Combining an unusual theme with a well-developed and broad-ranging plot, Murphy has created an insightful and involving story.Children's Literature
Fifteen-year-old Luke McHenry is looking forward to this summer's baseball season in Fairbanks, Alaska. This could finally be the year he makes the All Star team. His hopes are soon threatened, however, by his mother's thirty-one year old secret. Protesting the Vietnam War, Mrs. McHenry's misguided zeal prompted her to take part in an act of violence that resulted in a young man's death. Luke is astonished to discover that his mother has been living underground for over three decades, the target of an FBI manhunt. As Luke's baseball season advances, so do his mother's intentions become known¾to turn herself in and pay the price for her criminal actions. Torn between wanting his mother to do the right thing and risking losing her to prison, Luke turns to his friend, Amy, who is wheelchair bound as a result of a drunk driving accident. Amy tells Luke about restorative justice, a program that puts victims of crime in the same room with the perpetrators in an effort to bring healing to both sides. There are no easy answers in this well-written, intensively researched novel. The conflict is exceedingly well drawn, highlighting political and social issues that often get overlooked today. 2002, Clarion Books,— Christopher Moning
VOYA
Recent headlines announced Minnesota mother Sara Jane Olson's sentence of twenty years in prison for crimes committed with the Symbionese Liberation Army decades ago. Her fourteen-year-old daughter sobbed in the courtroom. As fiction echoes reality in Fairbanks, Alaska, multiple lives, guilt, and lies jump to these pages narrated by teen Luke McHenry, who desperately longs to play on the all-star baseball team, enjoys paintballing with friends, and lives with his mother, a shop owner. Mystery already surrounds Luke: His father, killed by a drunk driver before Luke was born, is an unknown. Was he athletic? Does Luke resemble his dad? Suddenly question marks multiply exponentially when his mother reveals that she has decided to turn herself in to authorities for her role in a death that occurred in the bombing of an ROTC office on the Berkeley campus during the Vietnam War. Luke's life, identity, and future are jeopardized. A former Alaskan, Murphy deals skillfully with themes of forgiveness and redemption. When fear and anger consume Luke, his friend Amy, confined to a wheelchair because of a drunk driver, says, "You don't have a clue, Luke. This isn't about taking sides. It's about loss and trying to move on." Her insight helps Luke and readers learn more about the legal process of restorative justice. Whether describing the beauty of Alaskan summers or the visiting area at the Santa Rita Jail, Murphy provides a clear sense of place and a context for symbolism. Male and female readers should empathize with Luke's frustrations and value his eventual willingness to move on. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School,defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2002, Clarion, 198p,— Patti Sylvester Spencer