Stories have power — those that have been told to us, those that we tell to each other and, most important, those we tell ourselves. That is the mantra of November’s İAdelante! Book of the Month Club pick, Set Me Free by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, which was submitted by former AAUW Membership Intern Taylor Blackwell in in honor of Native American Heritage Month.
Elliot Barrow is the founder and headmaster of Ponderosa Academy, a school on a Native American reservation, and he is well-known for keeping the details of his life to himself. When he is critically injured in an accident, his loved ones are left trying to piece his methods and motivations together to understand his life choices and help ease his conscience.
Those closest to Elliot — his daughter, the assistant principle of the academy, and his ex-wife — take turns narrating their stories, weaving in and out of the events in their lives and meandering to where Elliot’s life has taken its unexpected and brutal turn. A lot of the structure of the novel is purposefully muddled, keeping the reader and the narrators oblivious to the whole story until everyone is brought physically together by the accident. Once they can combine their tales, they begin to unleash the real power behind these stories, the power to grant forgiveness — of each other and of themselves.
An element I really liked was one character’s ability to step away from the main story and condense the action into faux-traditional Native American tales. I appreciated the depth these short diversions provided into the characters but especially into the mystery that is Elliot. Set Me Free is not as ostensibly thought provoking as our last two selections, but it does raise questions about the way we treat others and ourselves.
What did you think?
AAUW Dialog 
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