Pirate Freedom

Wolfe's new novel displays a great deal of accurate research as well as his usual fine writing but it also features a sheer joy in the subject matter that I don't think you often find in many of today's novels. Wolfe not only provides a fine overview of piracy, its lore, and some realistic fighting tips, but he also seems to find this story a lot of fun to tell. Wolfe should do more of this sort of historical writing. Maybe a western or hardboiled crime novel (he's already done a pretty good mystery novel--'Pandora, by Holly Hollander' & you may want to check out his equally fine medieval novel 'The Devil In The Forest'). Rafael Sabatini would be tickled to read this vigorous tale of the brethren of the coast. Well worth your time.

Another great read from Gene Wolfe. His best device, the unreliable narrator, is put to good use here. One cannot always be sure exactly what has happened, and some things are left to the reader's imagination, but the story is well-told and gripping. We find a less-than confident hero facing challenges he has absolutely no preparation for and overcoming by dint of his intellect and basic humanity. The other characters are well-drawn, though not overly described. Wolfe is a master of letting his dialogue do the talking, rather than describing things in prose. Another reason for all would-be writers to weep with jealousy!

What we've seen in the the past and popular films does not completely jibe with piratannical history. Gene Wolfe knows how to do his research and it definitely shows in "Pirate Freedom." The tale begins with Fr. Chris answering a parishioner's confession that he had killed someone. He goes on to promise to tell him the story in writing. Fr. Chris' story begins when he's a young man in a monastery in pre-Communist Cuba. He opts not to take Holy Orders and walks out about three centuries earlier. From there, he signs onto a sailing ship--and begins a career that spans from common seaman to pirate captain. The journal slips from Tortuga and other exotic locales to the Youth Center where Fr. Chris works in current times. In both aspects, the narrator deals with tough issues from whether to keep a cargo of slaves won from piracy or set them free or what should be done to help prevent child abuse in the current-day Catholic Church. Chris' narrative in "Pirate Freedom" is very close to the actual life of a pirate. True, it's full of adventure, but it also contains some political exigencies from the bottom to the top of a piratanical enterprise. I don't need to comment about the writing quality. Gene Wolfe is a master of narration with more than one good line per page. Mr. Wolfe also has a chessmaster's understanding of character and personal strategy. You often taste marrow in some of Chris' assessments particularly those relating to women. My only issue is that I do not understand how Chris managed to time travel in the first place.

Gene Wolfe never ceases to surprise with with his choices of where to go next in his fiction. The far future or the ancient classical past? Wizards and knights in armor? So, when in this era of "Pirates of the Caribbean" perhaps the surprise of a pirate book by Gene Wolfe should not be a suprise. But of course, Gene Wolfe being Gene Wolfe, this is a book about a time-traveling (or at least time-slipping) pirate who is also a Catholic priest. There is perhaps no pirate story/movie cliche left untouched by Wolfe in this book, but also no cliche from which he does not strip away the fiction to show the kernal of truth within. I found the whole book a fascinating reading experience, more superficially approachable than the various "Sun" series novels, but nonetheless haunting and thought-provoking.

This novel has the wit and depth you'd expect from Wolfe, but don't worry: it's an adventure story above all. The old lexicon of pirate stories is re-minted (you see the origins of words like "logbook" and "knots"), and the time-displaced narrator's experience feels authentic. Frankly I had no interest in historical pirates before this novel and I'm now casting around for the next good read, fictional or not, on buccaneers or the Spanish main. If you liked Severian's adventures in the Book of the New Sun, Silk's in the Long Sun series, or Able's in The Wizard Knight, this book is definitely for you. Like those earlier novels, Pirate Freedom is a bildungsroman featuring a clear-eyed, resourceful young hero managing to thrive in strange circumstances.