This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
A Canadian by birth, a high school dropout, and a mother at 17, in my early years, I supported myself as a stock girl in the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a long-distance operator for the former Alberta Government Telephones, and as a secretary (Bechtel Corp sponsored me into the States). I also was a cocktail waitress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, briefly broke into the male-dominated world of the docks as a longshoreman (I was the first woman to work on the SF docks and almost got my legs broken), founded and managed a homeless shelter in Marin County, CA, co-created The Story Shoppe, a weekly radio program for children that aired on KTIM in Marin County, and eventually earned two Master’s degrees (one in creative writing and one in the humanities). I have published reviews, interviews, short fiction, poetry, travel pieces, essays, and memoir in over 155 American and Canadian venues. My poetry collection All This was published in 2011. My novel Fling! was launched in 2015. Curva Peligrosa was released in 2017. And Freefall: A Divine Comedy will be published 1/1/19. I also blog at lilyionamackenzie.com.
Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
Freefall: A Divine Comedy by Lily Iona MacKenzie explores the complicated relationships between a group of four women. When Tillie, Daddy, Sybil, and Moll were mere teenagers, they were inseparable and collectively known as the four Muskrateers. Together they moved from the sleepy town of Calgary, Canada to the “big smoke” of Toronto. In the early 1960s, they all delved deeply into the hedonistic lifestyle of the time: free love, drugs, alcohol, and rock and roll. Although in the ensuing years there was some contact between individual members of the group, they had never been together again as a group since those heady days in Toronto. As they approach their sixtieth birthdays, they decide it is time to get together, to have a reunion and to rekindle the old spirit of the Muskrateers. Each of the women has gone their own way in the forty years since Toronto and the reunion is a discovery of each other all over again. When Tillie, an installation artist, suggests they all travel to Venice in September for the Biennale, an artistic extravaganza, and perhaps Tillie’s last opportunity to make her “breakthrough” in the world of art, the women reluctantly agree to accompany her. Will they “re-find” the love and camaraderie they once had for each other in Venice, and perhaps more importantly, will they discover their true selves and make the “golden years” of their lives still to come more memorable and ultimately successful?
Freefall is a truly superb piece of literature. Author Lily Iona MacKenzie has delightfully drawn these four women as characters reminiscent of stories of male mid-life crises. Seldom though have we had the opportunity to delve into the feminine psyche in such a detailed way as this author approaches it. All four of her characters are archetypal in many ways and have diverged totally from the fun-loving, free young women we initially meet in Toronto in the ’60s. Tillie, as the quintessential free-spirit, rides through this journey of self-discovery on the wings of her past, her present, and her future. At times she has conformed to “normality” but she has tried to remain true to her art form and her persona as the poor and struggling artist. What I particularly enjoyed about this story was the evocative language and writing style of the author. She manages to so totally embrace the reader and absorb them into these four different and quirky characters that one is often left shaking one's head and saying, “Hell, yeah, I can identify with that feeling.” MacKenzie achieves what all authors seek to achieve; she invites her readers to identify with one particular character and ask themselves, is that me? The reader is constantly challenged to consider their own position in life and compare the choices made by the characters to their own choices in life and to ask the question 'should or could I have done things differently or better?' Although listed as women’s literature, this book should not be pigeonholed in one category. It is a fantastic read for all ages and all sexes. I can highly recommend it.
