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Then Like The Blind Man: Orbie's Story (2012)

by Freddie Owens(Favorite Author)

3.67 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1475084498 (ISBN13: 9781475084498)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

CreateSpace

review 1: 'Then Like the Blind Man: Orbie's Story' is about a nine year old boy who is left for a summer at his grandparents in rural Kentucky. Orbie's mother, sister, and abusive stepfather leave him there while they go to Florida to find a new home for the family. Orbie was born and raised in Detroit so his sudden transplant to rural Kentucky causes a huge culture shock. In Owens novel Orbie learns to see the world through a different set of eyes; he grows to love his alien grandparents and befriends Willis. In general the book focuses around the natural life of Orbie, but does hint at the supernatural. Owens did a fantastic job weaving the supernatural throughout the book, by the end the reader can not be 100% certain if Orbie wielded a bit of 'extra' power or if the power r... moreesulted from the overactive mind of a lonely and scared nine year old. Regardless, the book is entertaining and well-written.
review 2: Then Like the Blind Man is one of those novels that unfold just when they need to, let the reader in a little, but not too much, a novel that grips your mind and holds it. There is no doubt that Freddie Owens is a master at his craft.As a native Southern and a survivor of childhood abuse there were themes that disturbed me, but nevertheless are real life. Orbie finds himself uprooted from his home in Detroit and taken to live with his grandparent's in rural Kentucky. Not only has Orbie world turned upside down he has to learn to navigate the rural South where societal rules are never spoken or taught, but transgressions never forgotten. He finds himself drawn to Willis, a stunningly talented, physically disabled black boy whom Orbie would have segregated himself from in Detroit, but has come to realize that skin color does not denote personal value.In his young life Orbie is faced with the reality of segregation and discrimination. He has lived with domestic violence and sexual abuse. Indeed, this boy has faced a lifetime's worth of the best and worst of the human experience: murder, death, spirituality, forgiveness and love. He must also negotiate his new home where nothing and no one is as they seem. However, despite these heavy emotional themes the the novel never looses the sense of wonder that comes from seeing the world through Orbie's childish eyes. As Orie grows and the novel progresses we see the boy grow into a young man. In this growth, physically, emotionally and spiritually Orbie undergoes tremendous personal growth.Then like the Blind Man is a peephole back through time to the 1950's South. By grounding his novel so firmly in an era of illusions, public personas and private demons Owens is able to play with the dichotomies of good and evil; of things apparent and those hidden and by doing so clearly illustrates through the character's of Orbie's sharecropping grandparents, who choose to defy convention, and impart to Orbie the only love he has ever known. No, nothing in rural Kentucky is taken for granted and for Orbie it has some of the best of what life has to offer.Just as Orbie is finding peace and a place for himself in his new home his mother and stepfather return to throw his life into chaos again. There is no doubt that Freddie Owens studied Hamlet as Then Like the Blind Man seems to have recreate a rural-American version of Shakespeare's classic, different circumstance and different choices, but the same inevitable effect on the ending. Without a doubt it is a powerful piece of literature that seems to have so many themes, points and counterpoints, symbolism, mysticism and shows the souls ability to overcome the worst that the depravity of the human race can devise. less

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